Sweets and the City: The Best Desserts in Baltimore
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ANYONE WHO THINKS BALTIMORE cuisine begins and ends with crab cakes doesn't have a sweet tooth — or has somehow managed to get through life without ever taking a bite of a Berger Cookie, Charm City's most legendary dessert and a perfectly legitimate reason for swinging by lexington market (400 W. Lexington St.), where they're sold by the pound.
"What's not to like about shortbread and chocolate frosting?" asks Deborah Robinson, a 53-year-old lawyer who devotes her free time to chronicling the spread of sugar in her hometown with the blog B More Sweet(Bmoresweet.blogspot.com).
Just about the only correct answer to that question is that it might spoil your appetite before you're able to fully explore Baltimore's rich dessert culture. Classics such as lemon sticks (half a lemon stabbed with a porous peppermint stick you can suck on, available at the oasis stand in the Inner Harbor food court for $1.41) and snowballs (akin to Italian ice, but better) have been joined in recent years by modern can't-miss treats.
And sometimes the two even intersect, like with a slice of Baltimore Bomb fromDangerously Delicious Pies (1036 Light St., 410-522-7437;Dangerouspies.com).
"It's basically Berger Cookies combined with a buttermilk chess pie," explains owner Rodney Henry, who started baking to help fund his rock band habit and realized his true calling was in fact hot licks — with a flaky crust. A sign outside his Federal Hill hangout welcomes visitors with the boast, "Damn Fine Pie." Inside is what Henry calls a "pie dive": Tatted-up employees sling sweet and savory slices at a bar decked out with art devoted to Elvis and rock show posters.
"To me, there is no pie other than Dangerously Delicious Pie," Robinson vows. "I would eat there three times a day, seven days a week." Except, of course, when she wants cake. Then she turns to a woman many folks refer to simply as "Winston's mom."
Food Network viewers know Duff Goldman as the "Ace of Cakes," but the gonzo chef and his jolly band of fondant virtuosos from Charm City Cakes have some competition in town in the form of this gray-haired granny. And unlike with Goldman, getting her baked goods doesn't demand ordering months in advance. It just requires going to a neighborhood most Washingtonians probably have never heard of — Hamilton.
That's where Paige Zeigler's son Winston Blick and his wife, Cristin Dadant, opened Clementine (5402 Harford Road, 410-444-1497; Bmoreclementine.com) a year and a half ago. They knew their plan to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner; craft their own charcuterie (pâtés, sausages, butters and rillettes) and comestibles (dressings, sauces, pickled veggies; jams and syrups) and cater was going to be a huge undertaking. "So, I told them I'd do whatever I could to help," Zeigler, 64, says. They gave her two jobs: baby-sitting their son and making desserts for the place.
She accepted both assignments, even though she had no restaurant experience. "Anyone who likes to bake has the idea to open a bakery in the back of their heads," she says. The experiment worked; within a few weeks, people were flocking to the dining room specifically for her wares, and her cakes ($50 each) were getting specially ordered whole.
Every day, Zeigler makes sure the restaurant is stocked with brownies, chocolate-chip cookies and key lime pie, along with three of her now-legendary cakes. On the current menu, diners face the tough decision of selecting among her old-fashioned coconut cake, a peanut butter-chocolate combo that's a gourmet take on Tastykake's Kandy Kakes, and golden cake with blueberries and "a bright, fresh lemon frosting." She grates lemons for hours, which you can sense in a single nibble. "Everything is fresh from scratch with the best butter you can buy. I make sure it's the way you would want to eat it," she says.
Or, as Robinson puts it, "They're what your mother would turn out if she knew what she was doing."
While you're in the neighborhood, you'd better swing around the corner to One Sweet Moment (2914 Hamilton Ave., Onesweetmoment.com, open May 1-Sept. 30), which bills itself as having "Baltimore's best snowballs." This is not a claim one can make lightly, as snowballs are serious business in these parts.
To be clear, a snowball is not merely shaved ice. It's a particularly fluffy kind of ice, served in a cup, drenched in syrup and, ideally, covered with a creamy marshmallow topping. And at One Sweet Moment, which Althea Dietzel, 53, opened in 1993, the simple treat is given the reverence it deserves. "We do business from across town. People will drive 30 minutes, bypassing 10 other snowball stands and then wait in line," she says.
Here's why: There are seven sizes ranging from $0.75 to $4.25. There are three options for the amount of marshmallow topping. You can ask for extra syrup or add ice cream. And when it comes to flavors, be prepared to be overwhelmed. The menu lists more than 100 options, including blueberry cheesecake, plum, wine cooler and dulce de leche. But the No. 1 seller, and the true Baltimore classic, is egg custard.
Feeling full? Bet you have room for just one small cupcake — especially if it comes from an auto rickshaw. It's impossible to say no to the adorably blond Catherine Hamilton of Perfect Cupcakes(Perfectcupcakes.com), who drives her tricked-out wheels to Pier 5 of the Inner Harbor every weekend at 11:30 a.m. and starts hawking her treats, including the signature pink velvet (it's white cake and vanilla frosting dyed to Elle Woods' liking). Whatever you choose from the $2-each selection, you'd better not wait too long to decide. She stays put only until she sells out, usually around 6. You can special-order her goods, even in D.C., but don't expect Hamilton to take the cute car for a spin out of town. "It only goes 30 miles an hour," she says.THREE TIPS
» 1. Don't let the signature pie and crossbones scare you. The grub and the folks at Dangerously Delicious Pies are as sweet as they come, and as owner Rodney Henry says, "Pie brings people together."
» 1. Don't let the signature pie and crossbones scare you. The grub and the folks at Dangerously Delicious Pies are as sweet as they come, and as owner Rodney Henry says, "Pie brings people together."
» 2. The snowball being thrust out of the window of One Sweet Moment is missing a key ingredient: marshmallow. But how else would you see that you can get two flavors in one cup?
» 3. No trip to the Inner Harbor is complete without a stop at Perfect Cupcakes for a pink velvet cupcake.
SUGAR RUSH
One obvious question comes to mind after swallowing a spoonful of bourbon vanilla from Pitango(1451 P St. NW,Pitangogelato.com), the new gelato purveyor in Logan Circle: "Where have you been all my life?" At least for the past two years, it's been inFells Point, which may be a sign that Baltimore has D.C. licked when it comes to sweet stuff.
One obvious question comes to mind after swallowing a spoonful of bourbon vanilla from Pitango(1451 P St. NW,Pitangogelato.com), the new gelato purveyor in Logan Circle: "Where have you been all my life?" At least for the past two years, it's been inFells Point, which may be a sign that Baltimore has D.C. licked when it comes to sweet stuff.Dangerously Delicious Pies is about to stake out a spot along H Street. Owner Rodney Henry promises to be open by Nov. 1, although he's still working on a Washingtoncounterpart to the Baltimore Bomb. "I'll get my R&D department on it," he jokes.
When he's in town, he can visit the Georgetown location of Patisserie Poupon(1645 Wisconsin Ave. NW), which is just 12 years old, compared to the 23-year-old Baltimore branch of the bakery. "I don't normally eat cake — at least in public. Their pastries are just so good, man," Henry says. And he may be happy to find out that the D.C. shop has a wider selection of goods, including savory options.
It's just the opposite with Vaccaro's, the Little Italy mainstay. While there are two D.C. locations (Union Station and 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW), the pastry counters pale in comparison to the lively café in Baltimore. But you can't go wrong taking the cannoli — ever.
Photos by Lawrence Luk for Express
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