Since opening about one year ago in the lobby of a Tribeca office building, Arcade Bakery has won over many fans for its laminated baguettes, chocolate-walnut babka, and puffy-rimmed pizzas. Owner and bread-maker Roger Gural doesn’t change up his tightly edited menu too often — there’s really no need — but a new pastry has recently emerged inside the glass case: a spectacular creation that Gural calls the s’mores Danish.
The dessert — or breakfast (Grub’s not judging) — costs $5, and it combines the best of both French and American baking sensibilities. Gural came up with the idea while cooking at home with his family. “I was making brownies with my 8-year old son, Ellis, and at the last second, we decided to make them s’mores brownies and added marshmallows and graham crackers,” he explains. “I got the idea that it might work in a Danish. It was kind of a joke,” but he says the first test batches were a hit, so he went to work fine-tuning the recipe.
The first sticking point: Figuring out the shape and the method to properly cook the marshmallows. “If they’re overbaked, they just liquefy, so we have been fine-tuning for a few weeks,” he says. “I like that there is something ridiculous about the idea — so that you can’t take it too seriously — but at the same time, we had to use some finesse and technique to make it work.”
