A scone is not a biscuit, period.
Nibbles and Bites Issue #28: Guess what is in my Librae Bakery box!
Laminated Squiggle with Orange-Blossom Pastry Cream and Candied Rosemary
The scent of butter wafting from Librae Bakery is unmatched. I found myself selecting pastry after pastry from their display case as a reward for getting blood work done at my doctor’s appointment this week. The smell of the city air drastically changes as you get closer to the entrance and you’re quickly enveloped in the scent of sesame, buttery croissants, rose, and pistachio. It’s divine!
If you don’t already follow Librae Bakery on Instagram, you should. They understand the power of great photography, with perfect lighting, interesting angles, thoughtful food styling it’s a must follow for sure. They also shoot these up close and personal slow motion videos of all their seasonal treats, which truly make my heart skip a beat.
Truthfully, their food photography is so good that I had to unfollow them for a short period of time because I’d try and plan wildly inconvenient visits to Librae when I saw something particularly irresistible on their feed.
Okay, I know you’re all dying for my unboxing. So here you go, from top left to bottom right, here’s what’s in my pastry box! Top left is their seasonal bread pudding with cranberry compote and candied ginger showered in powdered sugar. This one was filled with candied cranberries and huge slabs of chewy ginger. So decadent and rich since they make their bread pudding with buttery croissant scraps, brilliant!
Next is their seasonal roasted pear almond toffee scone with a maple glaze. It was definitely tasty, but could have used more toffee and pear flavor. It also was quite dense and not as light, airy, and flaky as some of their other pastries. I also find scones cut and shaped like biscuits to be very confusing, and I prefer them to be cut into triangular wedges or small circles. Is that just me?
Back to my pastry box, the top right is a ginger molasses cookie, which was so chewy and delightful. I’m convinced they’re using rehydrating mashed dates, or making date caramel and folding it into the cookie batter. The chew from this cookie was coming from more than the molasses alone. I need to spend an afternoon in my kitchen figuring out how they did it and want to confirm my rehydrated date hypothesis.
Bottom left in my box is Librae’s za’atar labneh bun, which I carefully wrapped tightly in plastic and only lasted three days stashed in my freezer. I served it toasted with eggs fried in zucchini butter, dolloped with a bit of goat cheese and smothered in a bright green anchovy sauce to finish. As you can see from the sick cross section above, their croissant buns are expert-level, flaky as could be, and shatter upon contact with your teeth while being chewy and tender in the very center.
Last but certainly not least, I tried their dill and feta scone, which unlike the toffee and roasted pear scone is remarkably light, perfectly flaky, and not dense at all. It was soft, but sturdy enough to hold a fried egg or a soft scramble when split in two.
I firmly believe that this was a scone masquerading as a biscuit and was slightly confused as to why they called it a scone. The layers were so distinct, it was very savory, and there wasn’t a tender crumble that you typically see in a scone. However, maybe they use egg in their dough, which is the technical difference between a traditional scone and biscuit. Whatever you want to call it, the technique and flavor here is outstanding.
I hope you enjoyed my rambling and love letter to my absolute favorite bakery in New York City. I highly recommend that you make the journey to Librae if you’re craving a delicious pastry. I promise you’ll notice that buttery smell all the way down the street and it will pull you right through the front door. If you go, let me know what you get!
Until next time,
Kristen