Best of NH 2018 Desserts, Ice Cream Stands, Coffee & Bakeries

Cookies, pastries, pies, oh my! Satisfy your sweet tooth with these Best of NH winners.

June 12, 2018

New Hampshire Magazine Staff,

Donut Love in North Hampton is our readers’ choice for best doughnuts. Photo by Liz Davenport

Artistic Cakes: At Autumn Nomad Cakes & Café in Jackson, owner and cake artist Jaime Melfi creates wildly inventive — and gorgeous — custom wedding cakes. Her range is impressive, from rustic to glamorous, with each style perfectly reflecting the couple and event. No need for a custom cake? The charming café has a daily selection of cakes available by the slice or whole special occasion cakes in the grab-and-go case. They also serve freshly baked pastries, muffins, scones, croissants, cookies and much more in addition to breakfast and lunch.

Ice Cream Treats: Mr. Fezziwig represented everything good in Dickens novel “A Christmas Carol.” Nostalgia for the happy parts of the past are highlighted at Fezziwig’s Food & Fountain in Portsmouth, especially with the ice cream fountain. Find classic ice cream sodas made with seltzer water, egg creams and a host of fanciful sundaes featuring birthday cake, espresso, brownies, pop rocks or crispy rice treats. Consider vanilla ice cream and caramel sandwiched between a brioche bun and grilled on a panini press for something both hot and cold.

Light Coffee Roast: Coffee beans can be roasted until they’re black, but Claudia Barrett of Flight Coffee Co. wants to extract every nuance from the bean with a lighter touch. She and her team in Bedford work to develop the wide spectrum of flavors that can be coaxed from beans with just the right time and temperature. Think watermelon, hibiscus and jackfruit — and that’s just from the Ethiopian Gidney Limu Kossa. The Bedford roasting lab offers a small tasting bar, while Flight Coffee Company in Dover is a full-service coffee shop, complete with a pour-over bar, tempting pastries and a used book store. Also find their roasts at Restoration Café and The Bookery in Manchester.

Macarons: These meringue-based confections look deceptively simple, but in fact require some serious baking know-how. At La Maison Navarre in Portsmouth, a lovely display case housing a rainbow of macarons beckons. The rose, lavender and earl grey flavors are all interesting, delicious standouts.

Macaroons: Not to be confused with macarons (which we just mentioned above), macaroons are sweet mounds made with coconut. The version at jajaBelle’s Pastry & Coffee Shop is huge and tender, with a delightful mouthful of fresh-tasting toasted coconut. This Nashua Main Street café also has a nice selection of Greek pastries along with brownies, pop tarts and scones.

Rum Cake: There’s a reason that rum cake is a popular holiday gift item. They are addictively delicious, so making them a seasonal specialty prevents you from eating them every day. Well, your resolve may fail once you discover Black Cat Rum Cake Company in Nashua. Their recipe, which dates back to southern Mississippi from the 19th century, presents a moist, rich complexity that will keep your tongue guessing as it tries to identify the source of the pleasure you are experiencing as you down one slice after another.

Shortbread: Shortbread cookies, a Scottish tradition, can be more than just buttery goodness. At New England Biscuit Company, owner/baker Laura Brown is putting seasonal twists on her delicious bites with a biscuit-of-the-month flavors series, including Earl Grey, pine needle, and coming for fall, pumpkin spice and cranberry almond. Order online or find at Stock + Spice in Portsmouth.