Ruth O.
Yelp
I moved here from vermont and expected Mariposa to be like West Meadow Farm Bakery in burlington, an incredible gluten free bakery with a huge variety. Well, Mariposa had a huge variety but my expectations were too high based on previous excellent gf pastries I've had.
WHAT I GOT & HOW WAS IT?
I got two hand pies: apple berry and cherry. I also got a cinnamon roll, a soft pretzel, a brown sugar cinnamon poptart dupe, challah, and pain au chocolate.
The bread they use here is not like pastry bread despite it being used for that purpose. It is heavy, bready, kind of crumbly, and easily identifiable as gluten free. When I'm getting gluten free Pastries at $6+ a pop, I'm spending a premium to purchase something I couldn't make myself. A fluffy croissant. A decadent hand pie. This was not that; not worth the money. Perhaps if it had been a few dollars cheaper? Let's talk individual items:
Challah: The challah was similar to real challah, but woefully underbaked and as a result, sort of dense and chewy at the bottom. Their problem is twofold: the tapioca starch or potato starch in their flour blend is too much, and also they clearly overmixed then underbaked it. $10 for a small loaf and it was so sad. Edible, yes, but not that enjoyable.
Cinnamon roll: The cinnamon roll was the best item, 8/10. It was certainly flavorful. Good amount of cinnamon and frosting, but again the bread is just not the type to use in a pastry.
Handpies: The handpies are just fine. They are not structurally sound. Handpies are also supposed to be made out of pie dough, but Mariposa opted to make it out of the same dense bready dough that everything else is made of. The cherry hand pie was weirdly chewy. They had enough filling though, which was good.
Pop tart: The pop tart had no filling, just a whisper of what was once brown sugar now melted into that same bready dough.
Pretzel: The soft pretzel was nicely salted but again the dough was an issue. I felt the texture was most like the gluten version-- not as light but definitely close to a real soft pretzel.
Chocolate croissant aka pain au chocolate: The pain au chocolate was generously filled just like the real ones but the bread was not even close to croissant bread. That was so sad because when I looked at its inside it certainly had the APPEARANCE of a croissant. Like the appearance was flaky with the fluffy look, but the texture was not flaky-- instead very dense.
Pastries were helped by warming in the oven/microwave on a low setting, but not much.
DO THEY KEEP?
Another big issue I had with Mariposa is that their baked goods don't keep well. I stored them in a cool dry place in airtight containers overnight and less than 24 hr later they were already stale.
WORTH IT?
It wasn't worth the money; in this area you can get better GF pastries from Life is Sweet. These items didn't taste BAD, they tasted just fine and the fruit pies had ample filling. It's fun to try and see. But they weren't good enough to justify spending that much again. I could've made every one of these pastries at home and made them taste more like the real thing, rather than this heavy mess of dough, and I'm not even that good of a baker. Schar sells better croissants at Safeway for $10. And wholly gluten free makes better pie crust for like $3.50. I mean they even sell that SAME crust for a markup there. I don't think I'd be so bummed by this experience if things had just been a bit cheaper. It was at least $6.50 for even the smallest items.
LAYOUT
The shop is very small and not laid out smartly at all. It would be cozy if there was just one customer I think, but Mariposa is evidently popular so there were about 8 people inside when we were. It's extremely difficult to get around and look at things when there's more than two people in there.
