Pastries at Panaderia Mexicana on Wyckoff. — Photos by Scarlett Lindeman
When Panaderia Mexicana is on your street, every tromp down Wyckoff Avenue is an exercise in restraint. Plumes of sugar-scented air hang onto the block as dense as the cigarette smoke at a Market Hotel show on a Friday night. The smell of caramelizing sugars, blooming yeast, and toasty flour is undeniable, coaxing passersby through the door to indulge in a pastry spree.
Six years ago Armando Vargas and his family took over the bakery, rooted in Mexican pastries with cute names: the sugary shell-like conchas; cinnamon-dusted novias; glistening elephant ear orejas; and besos, fruit-filled pastries with so much powered sugar they look like packed snowballs. The store turns out bakery standards like croissants, scones, and danishes and also supplies savory foodstuffs like cactus paddles, jars of huitlacoche corn smut, and stringy Oaxacan cheese. Outside, spinning in two wooden barrels are containers of slushy melon and lime frozen ices, sweet remedies for the sticky heat.
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The dense pound cake lined with guava is the favorite of sixteen-year-old Viridiana Vargas who works the register. Most of the pastries are traditional Mexican treats served in her hometown of Puebla, which her family tries to visit often. Grinning, she tells me Puebla changes with each return, “I like it better. I can stay out later there. Here, you have to be more careful.”
The bakery does most of its business in special occasion cakes for quinceñeras, baptisms, and weddings but there is always a steady stream of walk-ins. In the back of the shop there are four rolling racks, stacked with baking trays loaded with dozens of bulging sweet buns, crackly with cinnamon sugar and burnished tops. The racks are covered in plastic curtains, which you pull open and then peer into the dark for the last flaky pastry stuffed with rice pudding. Standard practice has patrons holding red cafeteria trays and tongs, pulling out still-warm baking sheets from the racks and choosing their bounty, which is wrapped up at the counter.
One of the best picks is a cantaloupe-sized doughnut, freshly fried, sandwiching a fist of vanilla crème and draped in chocolate. Cut into quarters it makes a rich ending to a picnic or dinner party, without turning on your oven.
Panaderia Mexicana
272 Wyckoff Avenue | 718-497-7979
Pastries: .80-1.25
Professional Alternative August 13th, 2009 at 11:07 am
This is the most horrifying place I have seen reviewed on this site so far. Disgusting facade, fat man buying something at the filthy counter of a store with filthy floors, everything is gray and dirty and worn out. Pastries look good though. Hm.
Captain Sensible August 13th, 2009 at 11:47 am
The above comment makes me chuckle. You are adverse to obese people, the color gray, and well-worn bodegas? Hilarious! The treats are pristine.
Professional Alternative August 13th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’m just sayin the place looks skeezy, and I agree the pastries look good.
Joseph August 13th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
This place has similar offerings to the one on Knickerbocker at the corner of Starr. I have tried a few items and they seem to be really dry, and not particularly sweet or rich. They are fresh, cheap and oversized. Most of it is really sweetened bread which might be OK with a cup of coffee but not particularly satisfying on its own. I am willing to try this place but my sense is this is fairly typical of Mexican pastry.
Barrett Brown August 13th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Mexicans just don’t do pastries very well in general. I’d recommend going down Broadway to the Marcy stop and heading into the Hasidic zone; they’ve got some two dozen bakeries within five blocks of each other, and though you’re not going to find any particularly exotic Jewish items, everything they offer ranges from solid to awesome.
bklynbred August 15th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Actually… Mexicans do pastries extremely well. Especially in Mexico. I have yet to encounter the same delicious pastries here though.
mopar August 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Is this a typical Mexican bakery or better than average? I like Mexican baked goods, but have come to expect that most of it is mass produced out of a package, just like cheap American bakeries. I do greatly appreciate their use of lard, however. I am all for lard.
Scarlett August 17th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Mopar, Panaderia Mexicana employs two bakers, 7 days a week to churn out fresh pastry. Though some pieces, like Joseph and Barrett mention, are only suited for dipping into hot coffee many are exceptional by any standards.
And, you can buy packaged lard for home use.
linda August 17th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
get the big white puffs with jam in the center – outstanding. sorry the the lame description but you’ll know what i’m talking about when you’re in there. worth it.
mopar August 17th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I mean, are they cooking from scratch or do they used packaged mixes? I used to work in a bakery.
brenda August 17th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
These pastries are the best I tasted from around there