Don't Miss La Boulangerie's Bread Pudding in Forest Hills

[Photographs: Max Falkowitz]

When I was growing up in Forest Hills, there was only one place to go for fresh buttery croissants or a very respectable carrot cake—Bonelle Pastry Shop, right off of Austin Street, the neghborhood's main retail strip. The bakery is still there and the carrot cake is still moist.

But a couple blocks away there's another bakery, larger, more French-focused, with good baguettes and seeded breads to go along with all the pastry. It is, along with Cannelle Patisserie, one of my favorite French bakeries in the borough.

I've enjoyed most of the sweets I've eaten there, but none more than the Bread Pudding ($4), a dense cake double the height of your average specimen, with notes of tangy bread cutting through a just-sweet-enough custard. Ask for it warmed up if you have time to hang around, or toast it when you get home, and the smell (and taste) of butter will fill the room. When I first had this pudding about a year ago there was an accompanying vanilla creme anglaise to pour on top; this recent sample was flavored with caramel for a more salty twist.

You should also stick around for the Apple Tarte Tatin ($4.75), a small wedge topped with towering hunks of deeply caramelized fruit soaked with butter. It's what we should be talking about when we talk about candied apples.