Lately, people have been asking me, “Asher, what are you going to do for Valentine’s Day?”
Well, I think it’s important to start the day with something special. Flowers are pretty, and chocolate is sweet, but nothing says, “I love you” in the morning like a warm freshly-baked Morning Bun.
Did you know that happy food puts you in a good mood and gives you positive energy for the rest of the day? For me, I’m at my happiest when I’m pulling apart the warm, gooey and buttery roll in the centre of a Morning Bun from Café Bouffon.
Café Bouffon’s Morning Bun is iconic. It’s one of Stratford’s hidden treasures. They only make twelve of them each day! (Thirty-six per day in the summer.) And they sell out fast. If you haven’t tried this delicious treat, you have to immediately.
How do they make it so good? I had to find out. So, recently I visited Valeria Segura, pastry chef extraordinaire at Café Bouffon, to learn the secret of this artful pastry.
Valeria and I put on our aprons, wash our hands and together, we start rolling a sheet of croissant dough to 31 inches long and 12 inches wide.
That takes us about half an hour. Valeria has already laminated the dough with butter in advance, and let it rest overnight. (That means she folded layers of dough and butter.) After rolling the dough, we pour on melted-butter, and add Demerara sugar.
This kind of sugar is like brown sugar, but has more crystals and tastes more like caramel. Then we roll the sheet into one long log. It almost looks hypnotizing. Next, we use a tape measure, and cut three-inch sections to put in the muffin tin and bake in the oven for 16 minutes.
Valeria has a really nice smile and is very happy. It takes a total of six hours for her to make the magical Morning Bun. She tells me that it also takes “effort and love.” I agree. I think you have to have love and be happy when you’re baking, because baking makes people happy, and without happiness you could bake the greatest pastry in the world (aka the Morning Bun,) and somehow it just wouldn’t be as good.
Out of the oven and into my tummy! The outer shell of the pastry has flaky layers sprinkled with ground cardamom, but on the inside it’s so buttery, caramelly, soft and nice that I want to hug it. The aroma is so dreamy, it feels like something out of a fairy tale, and I need my moment to take it in. I pair mine with a glass of milk. My dad pairs his with an espresso. Now that’s a perfect way to start the day, especially with someone you love on Valentine’s Day.
Everyone must try Café Bouffon’s Morning Bun at least once in their life, or once every day.
