Hahdough Bakery in San Francisco

As we all know, I love a bakery! And if you didn’t already know that, where the f*** you been the last nine years! The minute one opens in SF I try to get right on it. Until I remember, this is SF and anything new that opens with tons of fanfare gets the line/mob treatment, so good luck getting any of the good stuff without a wait or getting there right when they open. Not being one to want to follow the crowd, or wait in line (something else you should all know about me!), I will wait a sufficient amount of time before I venture to any new establishment, especially now. I mean sure, we are all masked up but sometimes peoples ideas of what constitutes six feet in a line can vary wildly. Plus, waiting also gives a new place time to adjust to possible adoring crowds and fixing any snags or other things which may not be working with such an influx of new customers. Basically working out the kinks as it were.

It’s kind of how it happened with Hahdough, the new German inspired bakery with a touch of Asian infusion which opened to much hype and popularity. Just looking at the pictures of the cakes and pastries made me want to run over there and get one of everything, yet I held myself in check before making the jaunt. And to be totally honest, I ended up going by the place on a lark. I was on one of my masked up walk abouts in the city just to get out of the apartment and kind of realized I was near NOPA/Lower Haight neighborhoods and knew in the back of my mind it was around there somewhere. Oh yeah, phone, Google, map, directions.

Ok, I’ve got more honesty to drop here as the seeming throngs weren’t the only reason I had been dragging my feet in checking it out. The other was based on some of the reviews I had read about the place. The chef and owner Ha Do was born in Vietnam and grew up in Germany and after moving to the states began to crave the baked goods of her childhood. She became a staple on the farmer’s market circuit and developed a following where she had also infused some Asian influences in the sweets mixing fruits, mousse, cream, sponge cakes and as the chef herself said, “they are less sweet and lighter than American desserts.” Yeah, at that point I was having flashbacks to some of the Asian bakeries I have been to over the years where everything looks pretty—tastes like air. And as we all know, I like my desserts to have heft! And if you didn’t already know that, where the f*** you been the last nine years!

After walking all morning I was undaunted and and in the hood and now was as a good a time as ever to pop over. Since things are shut for indoors they are serving everything out their front door and have a selection you can see in the windows to peruse and make a choice from. And choices they have a plenty! Which right off, checks a box on my bakery must list. Yes, they also look pretty. I want try everything but I’m short on cash and with things ranging from $3.50 on up, I try to do a wide enough assortment to make it interesting.

Donuts (Berliners) seemed to be an easy yes, plus one review I had read said they were solidly filled to brim to allow filling with every bite. That’s my kind of donut! I was hoping for a cherry one but this days selection was strawberry and some old school Bavarian cream. I could not resist to the urge to cut one of these open and see all that luscious filling.

Hmmmm, not exactly the gushers I was looking for and it doesn’t really go deep back to front either. Definitely not going to get filling with every bite of these. What’s there is still nice and the cream and jam fillings are made in-house giving them a fresh taste. The dough was light and airy without being greasy for something deep fried. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them but my disappoint in the amount of filling did kind of bring my enjoyment down a notch. There are donuts aplenty in SF and house made fillings are a big plus but a dollop inside is not necessarily going to make these stand out above others around town.

Since the donuts didn’t have my cherry or filling fix, I zeroed in on the cherry turnover in hopes both could be satiated.

And voila! Just like that, my faith in desserts was brought back from the brink. This pastry was chock full of sweet tart tangy cherries evenly spread throughout the flaky, buttery shell. The sugar glaze across the top offsets the tart cherries giving it a real sugar rush to the senses. While it was quite good at room temp, adding a little warmth to it from the toaster oven really brought out all the yummy crisp goodness. Bonus points too as this would be good for dessert, breakfast treat or whatever you want to eat it for. If there is a cherry lover in you, just eat it.

Right, German bakery. Can’t get out of one of those without tucking into an old school classic the black forest cake. Alternating layers of chocolate sponge cake, whipped cream and cherries. This one fits the traditional one to a tee including the addition of liqueur to give an extra kick. Looks pretty doesn’t it? Where do I begin? I’ll tell you up front, as lovely as it looks, I was not particularly overwhelmed by it.

The chef will be the first to admit she likes thing lighter and airier and I will gladly say she has accomplished it with both the cake and cream layers. So light in fact they are like air. Which for me equates to no heft (see above!) and little in the way of taste or flavor. Plus, also not really moist. Yes, the cake part reminded me of all those Asian desserts. If that is what you are going for then great. Nailed it! For my own personal taste, eh, not so much. What does pop here is the cherry layer which is thick and loaded with some alcohol (cherry brandy!) you can actually taste in a recipe. Something sometimes kind of rare.

This one has an added addition on the bottom of a crisp cookie (or biscuit) like layer. Since the wet cherries and liqueur sit right on top of the bottom cake layer, I’m guessing it helps keep the slice sturdy and standing up instead of all the liquid making things too soggy. Definitely helps in getting a good pic. That aside, it was a little hard, like refrigerated cookie hard. As a whole, I was bummed as I do love me some cake! And if you didn’t know that already, where the f*** you been the last nine years?

Where one cake lets you down, there is always another slice to try and take its place. Such was the prinzregententorte. It’s a chocolate made for kids version of a herrentorte which itself is a gentleman’s cake layered with brandy cream. See, one for adults, one for kids (young princes). Since I’d already gotten my boozy slice I opted for the chocolate instead. Alternating layers of sponge cake and chocolate buttercream covered in a fondant like chocolate glaze outer shell.

It really only took one forkful to know it was a winner. The sponge was both moist and airy and the layers of chocolate cream matched it with rich chocolate smoothness. The almost dark outer glaze just added more richness and heft I do so enjoy in my desserts (still see above). Bite after bite gave me small remembrances of some of those super old school kids sweets like Suzy Q’s and Ho-Ho’s with their own sponge and cream fillings. That isn’t a ding in any sense for me, it is a fond taste remembrance which made this all the better because these are all natural ingredients creating the deliciousness. Truly my fave of the bunch.

What can I say, two real winners and two eh okays, which is still enough for me to want to go back to Hahdough and see what else I can get my glutton on with. Most of my qualms really do come down own personal taste thingys except maybe the amount of filling in the Berliners since if one is buying a filled donut you kind of want to taste the filling in every bite. I can’t imagine I’m the only one? Either way, while I might not get them again they’ve got enough other things to really temp ones sweet tooth no matter what you like. I would most definitely hit them up again. As you know, I like a great bakery serving up desserts with heft, and if you didn’t know that already, where the f*** you been the last nine years!