Four Bakeries and 3,215 Google-Miles of Road Between

If you've ever driven anywhere near the rotary on Cape Cod, in Orleans, at the point where Route 6 veers northish toward Provincetown, then you've been within spitting distance from the Cottage Street Bakery.  I don't know how many times in my life I drove past this humble cottage bakery before learning about it in a cookbook 3,000 miles away in my California home.  This bakery leaves a deceptive first impression.  From the Orleans-Chatham Road, where you get your first view, it's tucked behind scrappy landscaping, across a gravel parking lot, and behind the much more eye-popping Ice Cream Cafe. Unless you knew you were going there, you probably wouldn't.


Lo!  It took a few circle-backs before I finally found it, the first time I knew I was going there.  Here's what happened.


I own a cookbook called The Cape Cod Table, by Lora Brody.  In that cookbook, there is a recipe for Dirt Bombs.  And even though I am not such a muffin fan, these babies are to DIE for.  You make them, people beg for more.  Beg.  As it happens, the Dirt Bombs in this cookbook were inspired by the Cottage Street Bakery.  The picture in the book is tantalizing, with oversized knobby muffins, crumbly, moist on the inside, dredged in butter, and rolled in cinamon sugar.  Hm, I thought.  Well, I'll make a batch and see what happens.  In one muffin, I knew I had to make the pilgrimmage.

Dirt Bombs

Several batches and months later,  I did.


That summer, as I have for many summers past, I spent a few weeks on Cape Cod.  On a late afternoon ride home from the Cape Cod National Seashore, I hijacked my mother and son, and hunted down the real deal, the home, the ground zero of the perfect Dirt Bomb.  The bakery was open, I bought and ate my dirt bomb, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head.


But if you're like most people, you don't live anywhere near Orleans, MA or the Cottage Street Bakery, so you need to do a couple of things.  One, you need to have the recipe to make your own Dirt Bombs.  Here it is, adapted from Lora Brody's recipe:


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For the muffins:
3 cups all purpose flour (I substitute 1/2 cup with almond meal)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (I substitute buttermilk)


For the topping:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 400F with the rack in the center position.  Coat a 12-cup muffin with butter or spray.


Make the muffins:  Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cardamom in a large bowl.  Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the eggs.  Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk in two additions, mixing gently by hand.  Avoid tough muffins by not over mixing or beating.  The batter will be thick and sticky.


Drop the batter into the muffin tins, and bake for about 20 minutes, just until the tops are tinged brown and a toothpick inserted comes out dry.  As soon as they are cool, turn them onto a rack.


Coat the muffins:  Melt the butter in a shallow bowl.  In a separate shallow bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.  Dip the muffins and twirl them around until they are completely coated in butter.  Promptly roll them in the sugar mixture to coat completely.  Best served warm or at room temperature with a tall glass of milk.


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Two, you need to have a backup bakery, a local go-to bakery of your own.  For anyone living near or visiting San Francisco, I have three!


The first is the uniquely organic Rustic Bakery in Kentfield, CA.  It's the best local breakfast around.  Let me tell you the pastries are to die for.  Everything I eat there is the best I've ever had in that food.  The cinnamon rolls-oh!-round, spirally, light, fluffy.  Like I said I'm not big on muffins, but holy cow the Banana Nut is amazing!  The mottled, dumpling-shaped blackberry scones with giant, juicy fruit.  Who knew oatmeal could taste so good?  And they serve coffee in real mugs, not those paper-paper ones.


The second, located precisely 3,214.8 google-miles from Dirt Bomb Central, is the Bovine Bakery in Pt. Reyes Station, CA.  This bakery, like the Cottage Street Bakery, is the perfect checkpoint between a wild seashore immersion and a sleepy afternoon ride home.  If you visit Pt. Reyes National Seashore, which I highly recommend, then you most likely have a good ride home.  A picker-upper at the Bovine Bakery is essential.

Pt. Reyes National Seashore

The third, in Inverness, CA, is Busy Bee Bakery.  If you're more of a berry-pie person, and you can't make it the extra 10 minutes to the Bovine, then this is your spot.  Stop.  Eat berry pie.


Beg for more.


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If you've got a favorite bakery anywhere in the world that makes a best-in-class pastry, I'd love to hear about it.