Aurora Bakery

"Hey, do you want some baked goods from Aurora Bakery?", my sister asked, when I was visiting New Hampshire this past summer.

I had never heard of Aurora Bakery, but, who am I to turn down baked goods of any kind?  In looking up their menu, so I could make requests, I learned the story of Aurora Bakery, and was even more inspired to support them.

Aurora Bakery is a non-profit, started in June 2017, in the tiny town of Newport, NH.  They are part of the Road to Independence organization, for those with differing abilities, and teach individuals in the program how to bake, or how to have customer service skills at the bakery.  

I haven't visited the bakery myself, but, I did gleefully pull up their menu and ask for a few things.  Everything was good, but not extraordinary.

Cheesecake

Cheesecakes are available in a slew of flavors: caramel swirl, chocolate fudge, lemon blueberry, pumpkin spice (seasonal), regular, and, as I ordered, white chocolate raspberry. 

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.   $22 8" $26 9".

Apologies for the photo, my sister and mother received the delivery, and, um, this is what I received.  Given that my sister *did* order it, I'll forgive this transgression.  Particularly once I tasted it, I was impressed that she only claimed that much!

I asked for any of the cheesecakes, but, stated my top choice of white chocolate raspberry, which was granted.

The cheesecake came topped with plenty of whipped cream and a red drizzle.  I did expect to see fresh raspberries, and maybe a white chocolate decoration, and I thought for a moment that maybe this was just the plain cheesecake.  I'm used to, um, higher end finishes it seems?

That said, I didn't care if it was just a plain cheesecake, and I certainly didn't care what it looked like, once I tasted it.  It was *good* cheesecake.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.

The raspberry component was fairly minimal - inside as well.  Some slight swirl, but, not much fruitiness.  But again, I didn't care too much.  Because the cheesecake was wonderful as it was.

Classic New York cheesecake.  Very rich, very creamy.  No tang from sour cream, no ricotta, just, cream cheese.  Lovely texture.  So very rich.  As, well, it should be.

I did not taste white chocolate, it was sweet in a "normal" way, so I'm not quite sure where the white chocolate was.  But again, I didn't really care.

So I didn't really taste much raspberry, and not really white chocolate, but that was fine.  It made it more of a blank canvas, and I was able to enjoy a slice with fresh strawberries added (you know, to "lighten" it up), and another with caramel drizzled over it.

The crust really impressed me.  I loathe basic graham cracker crusts ("throwaway crusts" in my mind), and was pleased to see it was not that style.  It was a buttery, sweet, truly wonderful crust.  The sweet bites complimented the cheesecake well.  Every time I had a slice, I was taken back by the crust!

Overall, really, just a delightful cheesecake, and I gleefully accepted my bounty. 

***+.

Pies

Pies are available in smaller 5" size, ($5 fruit, $5.50 cream, $5.75 quiche, $7.25 savory) or full 9" size ($15, $17.50, $18, $22, respectively).

The fruit lineup covers all the classics, the cream pie range includes pumpkin and pecan in addition to standard banana/chocolate/coconut cream, and savory lineup has items for both sweet and savory folks.

They also have some bake-at-home pies available, frozen unbaked, which we tried, both sweet and savory.

Bake-at-Home Blueberry. 9". $15.

The blueberry pie has a basic filling, no particularly interesting spices, just, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, cornstarch, and well, blueberries of course.  Standard all butter crust.

Bake-at-Home Blueberry: Frozen.

The pie looked nice though, lovely lattice top and fluted edges.  Very, uh, homemade looking, if you were a very decent baker.

We opted for the frozen version, with simple instructions to bake for 45-60 minutes.  These pies are sold frozen, so I know the instructions are intended from frozen state, but it took considerably longer, perhaps closer to 1.5 hours.  So minus one point for poor instructions.

Bake-At-Home Blueberry Pie: Baked!

The blueberry pie was ... fine.

I was supposed to wait until it cooled fully of course, but I couldn't resist trying a piping hot slice, a la mode (yes, I should have waited, some filling did run out this way). 

Starting with the fruit, small sized, local berries, it was a bit too sweet for me (which was a common theme for me for fruit pies/crisps/cobblers this year).  They cooked up nicely though, not too mushy, the filling not too thin nor thick, no unmixed cornstarch or anything, so nothing bad about it, but, just kinda boring and a touch too sweet for how I like it.  And a touch too much lemon for my preference as well.  But pretty classic, good enough, blueberry filling.

The crust was best part, a good, all butter crust.  Tasted a touch like shortbread if that makes any sense.  It baked up really, really well - the lattice and edges perfectly golden (I did put pie shield on when baking for first part), and the bottom was crisp and not soggy at all.  I was really quite impressed with how it baked up.  I really enjoyed the lattice pieces on top to pluck off and dip in whipped cream, the crisp fluted edge, and the generous crispy bottom crust.  

I liked the warm crust with ice cream quite a bit, I think would be good with whip too.

Overall a very solid, classic blueberry pie, that I enjoyed, but wasn't in love with.  

***+.

Bake-at-Home Veggie Pot Pie. 5". $7.25.

For a savory choice, we got mini pies, veggie pot pies.  They also make a chicken version, but I'm not really a chicken eater, so, veggie it was.

Like the blueberry pie, sold frozen, unbaked.

The veggie pot pies were ... simple sounding.  Basic pastry (flour, salt, butter, egg) and very simple filling, just carrots, celery, peas, corn, and onions, with veggie broth and milk, s&p, and rosemary.  No heavy cream, no interesting veggies, and not much spicing.  I was a bit let down from reading the ingredients.

I found it amusing that the two pies I got, on the same day, were entirely different styles - one had a crimped, more professional looking crust, and one had a raised (but not sculpted) rather sloppy looking crust.  I wondered if they would taste different?

Bake-At-Home Veggie Pot Pie (Frozen).

I started with the nicer looking pie. Here you can see it had imprint on the top too, but I'm not quite sure what the pattern was.  It was gone by the time it baked.

Instructions were to cook for 30-45 minutes at 375*, which seemed like ... fairly imprecise instructions.  15 min out of 30 is a significant part of the cook time!

The baking instructions certainly didn't work.  At 40 minutes, it was still nearly frozen, and the pastry entirely raw.

I turned the oven up to 400* and went to go find wine and make a side salad, and do other chores ... I waited ... and waited ...

At the 1 hour mark, I could finally smell pot pie, and it was starting to brown and bubble nicely.  But those baking instructions were certainly not correct, at least for a fully frozen pie, which is how it is sold.

Veggie Pot Pie: Baked!

I pulled it out when the edges were starting to brown more than I liked, and the center was hot enough.  If I had left the temp at 375* I probably could have waited longer, had a warmer filling, and less brown crust, but, I was impatient.

The pastry crust was actually the least impressive part of the pot pie, which is surprising, since it came from a bakery.  Double crust style, fully crusted on both top and bottom, which, for a mini pie, meant quite a lot of crust.  

I'm a crust lover, so this ratio didn't concern me, but, this crust did let me down.  It was just ... boring.  Not very flaky.  Not very buttery.  And lots of it.  Somehow, just very bland pastry.  The blueberry pie crust was much, much better.

Veggie Pot Pie: Inside.

But pot pie is also about the filling.

The veggie pie has potato/celery/carrot/pea/corn/onion, or so the label said.

The potato cubes were the most dominant element, nice size cubes, well cooked, not too mushy.  There was also lots of peas, little bit of corn kernels, and few tiny chunks of carrot.  I'm not really sure about onion or celery though, didn't find them.  The veggie mix was fine, but, kinda just boring, generic, veggies.

I wished it had big chunks of mushrooms or squash or something more.  More like my favorite veggie pot pie from Pietisserie, loaded with big hunks of veggies, which, when I got it, included 4 types of colorful potatoes, winter squashes, greens, other root veggies, mushrooms, real chunks of celery ... so many goodies.  It changes based on what is in season.  And don't get me started on that flaky, buttery, incredible crust.  Seriously, that pot pie.  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I can't recommend more highly.

And finally, the gravy.  Given that the ingredients just said milk and veggie broth, I wasn't expecting much, but it was far creamier and thicker than I had anticipated.  Somehow they did that nicely without heavy cream.  It well seasoned with rosemary, but not much other spicing.  The rosemary really was nice though.  Gravy was the best part of this pie.

Overall, it was a fine savory pie.  Far better than any store bought one, no question.  But really not remarkable, and its a shame the crust was so ... boring.  And I wished for more significant veggies inside, not just so potato and peas focused.

I wouldn't get it again, but it was fine, and hit the spot, paired with a simple side salad and a glass of Chardonnay on a cold winter night.  

***.