Ask any Edmontonian for a bakery recommendation and 9 times out of 10, they'll steer you to Duchess Bakeshop. While they're not wrong, a little competition here and there is always healthy.
Over the past year or so, a number of bakeries and pâtisseries have popped up around the city, including La Boule, Macarons & Goodies, and FanFan Pâtisserie (that's next on my list to try!). Also giving Duchess a run for their money is Chocorrant, a café-pâtisserie located just a few blocks down the road.
Chocorrant is the brainchild of pastry chef Kai Wong who has worked at numerous restaurants around town before opening up her own shop.
The bakery sits on 124th street, easily catching the eye with its bright green door, blue window trim, and a sunny yellow awning. When you walk in, a pastry counter welcomes you with the aroma of fresh baking. If you're eating in, there's a good amount of tables around the perimeter of the shop, including a few on their small make-shift patio.
Aside from cakes and pastries, Chocorrant also serves a light lunch menu, available from 11:30 onwards. Simple items such as soups, quiches, and croissant sandwiches which utilize their fresh-baked croissants. A small tea and coffee menu is also available to accompany your goods.
If you dine-in, a person working the counter will deliver your pastries to you on a plate. Everything else, including cutlery, water, and/or sugar and cream for your coffee/tea, is self-serve at a small station in the back.
Like mentioned earlier, Chocorrant fresh bakes their croissants (even throughout the day!). It's become their specialty somewhat due to the impressive variety of flavours that they have on hand. Besides the original butter croissant, savoury options include mushroom & herb, apple & brie, and bacon jam & cheddar. Sweet tooths have plenty more options, including the traditional chocolate and almond, and more out-of-the-box flavours such as matcha, strawberry milk, banana & nutella, and cookies & cream.
I think it's extremely savvy of bakeries and other businesses to find and fill a certain niche. If you specialize in a product, people will come to associate it with you. Almost like what La Boule has done with their eclairs and Zwick's with their pretzels.
In addition to croissants, Chocorrant has five different types of cakes. Clearly they're not on the same production scale as Duchess, but I think five is a good number to choose from.
If it's your first time, I highly suggest getting the Chocorrant cake sampler ($13.00), a sample plate featuring mini versions of all five cakes. Great for those who can't commit to just one, and also a cost-effective way to find your favourite so you can order a full-size version on future trips.
In no particular order, the sampler includes:
The lemon cheesecake (full size $6.25), featuring lemon sponge, mascarpone, macaron shell, lemon curd, a fresh raspberry, and honey tuile. I heard the lemon cheesecake is their most popular item, and I can see why. The cheesecake is in no way dense like a regular cheesecake. It's light and fluffy like a mousse, with a nice tang from the lemon.
The caramel apple (full size $6.25) is a gluten free option with vanilla bean mousse, apple compote, macaron, almond biscuit, almond coconut streusel, and a drizzle of salted caramel. Since the sample cake is so small, it was hard to distinguish all of the individual components but what stuck out for me was the salted caramel. It had the perfect amount of salty finish to an otherwise sweet cake.
The espresso (full size $6.25) has layers of vanilla streusel, mascarpone mousse, and a cocoa tuile. Very reminiscent of tiramisu with the flavours of cocoa and espresso. My favourite part of the cake was the tuile, which was like a crackly caramel cookie. The cake could've used more of it to give some contrast in texture.
The chocolate crunch (full size $6.25) with chocolate biscuit, feuilletine, white chocolate mousse, and chocolate crémeux. Despite its name, I didn't find much crunch in the cake. I'm also not the right judge for this one as I'm not a big chocolate fan but LT declared this as her favourite of the bunch. Big surprise there.
The earl grey opera cake (full size $6.25) is one of their relatively new items, replacing a passionfruit almond tart that they once offered. There wasn't a description on this one, but it was a sponge cake with layers of caramel and earl grey buttercream. The earl grey flavour was very prominent but LT thought it was a tad too perfume-y. Depends on your taste because I liked it.
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The last item we tried was the matcha croissant ($3.25) which had a dusting of matcha powder and a swirl of matcha flavour throughout.
I also thought it's worth mentioning that we went to the bakery primarily to pick up ST's order of custom cupcakes. The person working the front mentioned that the fondant toppers were too heavy to stand up and so had to be laid down over top instead. He offered her a discount on the cupcake order, as well as a couple of croissants on the house since ST also bought a dozen of them for her party. Although it wasn't really necessary since the cupcakes looked fine, I thought it showed that they care and stand behind their product.
Chocorrant fits right in with the rest of the shops on 124th street and is a welcome addition to the pastry scene in Edmonton. Although I didn't find the cakes to be real game-changers, I would definitely come back to try more of their croissants!
Chocorrant Pâtisserie & Café
10328 124 St NW
Edmonton, AB
(780) 908-2253
- CT
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