While The Girl and I were on the east coast in march, my friend Heather from Massachusetts told us about her local bakeshop, White’s Bakery and Cafe. So after visiting the Boston home and garden show, we decided to all stop by and pick up some desserts.
Cannoli’s are big on the east coast and White’s didn’t disappoint.
In fact everything in their shop looked pretty amazing.
What I wouldn’t give for a piece of cheesecake right now… YUM.
Ricotta pie. I’m beginning to think it’s an east coast thing {and if so, why?} because I have never seen one in a bakery here on the west coast. It’s got to be a regional thing.
Fresh fruit tarts… a must for any respectable pastry shop.
Seriously. I should camp out in the backroom next time I’m in town for a week just so I can try everything at least once. I wonder if they’re looking for seasonal help? Hi, my name is Mavis. I’m not a weirdo, I promise. I’m a good worker and I’d like to work at your shop for one week. You can pay me in pastries and side dishes.
Do you think they’d go for it?
If I was a city slicker and didn’t cook… I’d probably stop by White’s everyday on my way home for work and pick up my dinner and lunch for the next day.
White’s bakery and cafe. If you’re ever in Brockton, Ma it’s totally worth the stop. Just let me know ahead of time and I’ll ring Heather and we’ll meet you there for tea and sugary goodness. 🙂
I LOVE PASTRIES!!!!
~Mavis
Whites bakery and Cafe
1041 Pearl St
Brockton, MA 02301
Erica says
Do you ever have reason to travel to or through eastern Washington? We have a couple places I would recommend in tri-cities, actually both in Richland. One is Spudnuts. It’s a donut shop that’s been around since the 50’s. They use potato flour in their doughnuts. The other is called Frost Me Sweet. They mainly concentrate on cupcakes but they also have a few other treats. And, if you sit down for a meal, their food is delicious too.
Teresa says
Hi Mavis,
I have to compliment you on those amazing pictures. I’m not sure if it’s the subject matter or what, all your photos look so nice. Is that a camera or a phone snapping away?
Mavis Butterfield says
These pictures were with a camera phone.
Gina says
Ricotta pie…an Italian staple.
My grandmother made it all the time.
Many Italian- Americans in Northeast and here in SE Florida!
erin in iowa says
All of your bakeries look so different than what you would get here in Iowa. Our bakeries are old school and not fancy, filled with cinnamon rolls, cookies, dutch letters and streusels.
Linda says
what is a dutch letter?
erin in iowa says
They’re flaky tender dough/cookie filled with almond paste in the shape of a letter. I see them in the Amana colonies and Pella(iowa). They always sell well here.
Katie says
I think Ricotta pie is a staple for Italian bakeries. Maybe it’s big here on the east coast because we still have remnants of ethnic neighborhoods? You’re right, I never saw it when I was growing up in the west. My old-school Italian in-laws also pick up an occasional wheat pie. It’s better than it sounds.
Gina says
Italian Ricotta cheese pie is popular for holidays like Easter
Nancy W says
Looks like a wonderful bakery to visit, next time we’re in Boston we’ll have to check in out. It you ever can’t me to Vermont, we have some wonderful bakeries nearby!
Andrea D says
Next time you are on the East Coast, if you find yourself in Bucks County, PA, check out Fritz Bakery in Langhorne, PA or Bensalem, PA. http://fritzsbakery.com/
Their sticky buns or cinnamon buns are melt in your mouth delicious, but the must try item is their Gooey Buttercake. (I may or may not be able to eat an entire (small) one by myself.) If you don’t know what Gooey Buttercake really is, don’t bother googling it- you have to see it to understand it. If it’s not gooey enough to eat with a spoon, it’s not the same and I have yet to find the real thing outside of the Philadelphia area.
Laura says
Gooey Butter Cake is a St. Louis thing and it is indeed amazing. I have yet to find a decent one outside of STL but I make my own and it is all good. Every decent bakery in the area has a GBC and even the grocery stores. I didn’t realize it was not universal until I moved away!
Andrea D says
Although I’ve never had a St. Louis butter cake, I’ve heard of it, and from everything I’ve heard it’s slightly different than the Philadelphia Buttercake, though equally as delicious. Would you be willing to share the recipe you use? I have yet to find one that matches what I can get at the bakery.
Sluggy says
FYI-Cannoli and Ricotta Pie are NOT an “East Coast” thing. It’s a New England and Upper Atlantic states thing and more specifically an Italian thing that you’ll find a lot in Boston, NYC, etc. I grew up on the “East Coast” in Virginia and these treats were not generally a part of Southern cuisine(unless your family was of ethnic Italian descent and your mother made them at home). These were not to sort of popular treats one could find in a bakery in traditional VA or Baltimore when I lived there.
Historically, many people from Ireland and Italy settled in New England so you get a lot of those cultures’ types of foods being popular there.(My Hubs is from Jersey(1/2 Italian) and my cousins(half Irish) grew up outside of Boston.) Whereas below the Mason-Dixon line on the east coast(not counting Northern VA and DC)the food culture is more English derived and “soul” food/Southern based on variations of dishes brought over during slavery times and adapted here, as well as a lot of fresh seafood indigenous to Southern shores(blue crab, shrimp, oysters and other bi-valves, fish-and stone crab down in FL). Our bakeries offered things like Hummingbird cake, Derby pie, Pecan pie, and if it was a fancy place maybe Cheesecake.
The east coast of this country is quite long and there are a number of regions that encompass it and some of them(New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southern, Pennsylvania Dutch in PA/DE)have very little to do culturally and food-wise with each other traditionally.
Kirsten says
Mavis,
If you are ever passing through Chico, Ca you need to visit The Upper Crust Bakery and Mims Bakery. You will not be disappointed!