To ‘Frenagel’ a New York state of mind

Andrea Adleman

This is my daily mindset. I’m always thinking about New York. Every time I hear a train whistle in the silence of night, I imagine running away to my happy place. It doesn’t take much for me to scheme a trip.

Earlier this month, I visited Long Island for the first time, preceded by a stop in Brooklyn. There were baked goods. In fact, the whole trip was inspired by baked goods. What a surprise.

I went to Four & Twenty Blackbirds to glean the wisdom of Rose Levy Beranbaum, on tour for her new Rose’s Baking Basics book. It was a thrill to be (1.) in Beranbaum’s presence (2.) in a stellar pie shop. She and the soulful shop owners radiated joy, warmth, and a commanding depth of experience.

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My own photographic evidence that I was there.

Better imagery here.

From there, I went on a research expedition to the central Long Island town of Huntington. Succumbing to curiosity, I had to see the original everything bagel doughnut. As the story goes, Fiorello Dolce Patisserie was first to develop such a creature, which it termed the Frenagel, a portmanteau of French + bagel. Launched in 2015, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the Cronut, which Dominque Ansel Bakery introduced in 2013.

The Frenagel is a round croissant topped with everything bagel spices and filled with scallion cream cheese.

As illustrated in my obsessive collection of everything bagel pastries, the Frenagel is the only croissant I’ve observed that’s shaped like a doughnut or bagel.

It was satisfying to see the Frenagel in person a year after first citing it in my story about the origins of the everything bagel doughnut.

When in a new city, I’m duty bound to research cupcakes. My Huntington field investigation went this way:

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I wasn’t expecting to like this lemon coconut cupcake from Wild Flours gluten-free bakery. It improved my perception of how gluten-free baked goods could taste.

 

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Again, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this gluten-free peanut butter cup cupcake from Kiss my Cake.

 

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The first time I’ve seen a black and white cupcake. OK, I’ll buy it. (Dec. 2019 addition: history of this bakery).

As fate would have it, I was in Manhattan on National Vanilla Cupcake Day. The borough is the birthplace of the one vanilla cupcake that triggered the modern cupcake moment here in the 21st century. The cupcake even has a name, the Carrie, which Magnolia Bakery named after the Sex and The City character who ate one and so altered the course of modern pop-culture history. This, my friends, is no ordinary vanilla cupcake with pink buttercream. It’s a living legend.

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Another field report duly filed. ✓ Cupcakes consumed on Long Island. ✓ Onward …

Spring 2019 update:

The Frenagel competed on the new Food Network show “Bake You Rich” and it won.