The Best Scones, Cookies and Cupcakes in Cambridge
…..but the proof is in the Pie
What makes a ho-hum muffin a truly transcending experience? Just ask the scores of local college students, businessmen and families who flock to Petsi Pies for some of the best morning pastry around. The better-than-homemade quality of owner Renee McLeod’s products has turned the spacious wood-paneled café on Putnam Avenue into a veritable communal kitchen for the residents of Cambridge. Pull up a chair, spread out your newspaper, and linger in an atmosphere that is blissfully unhurried and pays homage to the best of baking: wholesome ingredients, novel combinations, and baked-just-this-morning freshness.
Not surprisingly, it is the extensive selection of choice pies that put Petsi’s on the map: the pies are as delicious as they are varied, ranging from sweet (classic apple; key lime pie) to savory (spinach ricotta, roasted vegetable and goat cheese) to the down-home southern-influences of McLeod’s roots (brown sugar-spiced sweet potato).
But it is the outstanding array of scones, muffins, cupcakes and cookies that might be the most habit-forming edibles at Petsi Pies. It would be all too tempting to stop by each and every morning to delight in a different variety of the tendered-crumb scones: for a mere $1.85, take your pick of chocolate orange, blueberry ginger, pear ginger, pumpkin cranberry walnut, or cheddar dill. The flavor I find most irresistible is the ethereal lemon: light, beautifully buttery, glazed in a sweet drizzle that underscores the citrusy tang. A bountiful platter of corn muffins dazzle with jewel-like dollops of berry preserves glistening at the helm of the muffin’s crown. The kid in you is sure to gravitate towards the banana-chocolate chunk muffins (likewise the adult, they go just as well with a latte or cappuccino as with that proverbial glass of cold milk).
Don’t leave Petsi’s without trying the signature coconut cupcake, positively regal with snowy swirls of cream cheese-coconut icing. The cookies are beyond sublime – whether you opt for the giant molasses & ginger (perfect texture – crisp and chewy exterior, soft interior) or are seduced by the sheer artisan quality of the tender chocolate shortbread with sinfully decadent mocha java ganache filling.
My hands-down, jaw-dropping favorite, though, is the gingerbread, with the hauntingly deep, dark essence of ginger and lemon. This is quite honestly, the best gingerbread I have ever tasted. The quality is so outstanding precisely because this and all of Petsi’s treats are prepared just as you would in your own kitchen – lovingly, and in small batches to ensure refinement in flavor and texture.. Top of the line, homemade quality baked goods commercially available? Don’t miss them!
Petsi Pies
31 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-499-0801
