Michelle Gayer has a nickname for the extraordinary macaroons that fly out of the Salty Tart, her fantastic new bakery at the Midtown Global Market. She calls them "Crackaroons," and it's not an exaggeration to say their highly addictive qualities qualify them for inclusion on the federal government's list of Schedule 1 narcotics. Those little golden haystacks are seriously fabulous. Each bite, one intense coconut blast after another, is better than the last, their chewy outsides collapsing into an ultra-moist, snowy white interior.
These triumphs of simplicity are the summit of Gayer's rustic aesthetic, one that is forged in the oven's searing rather than through the tip of an icing-filled pastry bag. Gayer understands and appreciates the beauty of understatement, and that philosophy rules everything that comes out of her ovens.
Gayer's decade-long stint as pastry chef at Chicago's Charlie Trotter's came to an end when she was lured to Minneapolis to run her own show at the Franklin Street Bakery. She left that gig in 2005, and turned to teaching. She tiptoed back into restaurants last year, taking the pastry helm at La Belle Vie. In May she fulfilled her dream of owning her own bakery when she launched the Salty Tart. But maybe Gayer could have named her enterprise the Brioche Queen.
"It's a joke around here, how many times a day we have to make brioche," Gayer later told me. No one does the eggy-buttery dough better, equally adept with its sweet and savory split personality. For the former, it could be a simple rolled dough filled with orange-scented pastry cream and topped with twinkly sugar worthy of a disco ball, or done up as the most tantalizing cinnamon pull-apart imaginable. For the latter it might be roasted heirloom tomatoes, or a mesmerizing swirl of chèvre, pears and honey or that can't-miss fusion of gently sweet caramelized onions and tart chèvre, finished with a bit of parsley and sea salt.
Gayer's proximity to the Produce Exchange, the MGM's swell greengrocer, means she has access to the kind of superb seasonal fruits that allow her to maintain a marvelous improvisational air. One day she's turning out dainty little free-form brown butter tarts filled with ripe nectarines, the next she's incorporating strawberries into a crème fraîche-laced pastry that's a slimmer cousin to pound cake.
Back to cookies. There's a lovely sugar cookie kissed with lavender and lime. Sometimes Gayer makes unusual combinations work, such as a sugar cookie crunched up with bits of millet and enriched with dabs of white chocolate. Gayer is particularly skilled at turning down the sweet volume. Witness an inspired whole wheat-peanut butter cookie that leaves you wanting to come back for more rather than wallowing in guilt.
The Salty Tart's cupcakes seem made for grown-ups. The cake is moist and tender and packed with flavor, minus any cloyingly super-sweet aftertaste. The buttercream icings are silky smooth, and when it comes to decorating, less was never more than this, from a single, extravagant white chocolate curlicue to crunchy bits of tiny puffed caramelized rice. Gayer occasionally features a vegan devil's-food cupcake that would fool even the most devoted egg and butter fanatics.
Gayer doesn't forget her rural Iowa upbringing, finding inspiration in her mother's recipes. It could be divine single-serving chocolate-zucchini Bundt cakes, the tops filled with a squirt of caramel, or a fudgy brownie so robustly chocolately that it makes you thirsty. Oh, and she's revived a few Franklin Street greatest hits, including a biscuit-like cornmeal cake pocked with fragrant rosemary. It's as distinctive a baked goodie as I've ever run across in the Twin Cities.
Gayer's baguettes, ciabattas and focaccias are the basis for exceptional grab-and-go lunches that boast all the right touches. Orange marmalade and a sprinkle of fleur de sel liven a turkey-brie combo, and a blazing horseradish and a fruity plum jam do splendid things for a ham-Gouda blend. The price is insane, just four bucks.
I'm looking forward to checking out Gayer's soups, which she's hoping to introduce in a few weeks. I pray the honchos at the MGM are treating her right, because she's exactly the type of top-of-their-game entrepreneur that the place needs. Trouble is, there are depressingly few Michelle Gayer types out there.
