Perfect Pastries: Who Bakes the Best?

Welcome to “Chowdown Showdown,” a weekly feature where we take one type of food and ask readers to nominate their favorite places in Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn and Palos. This week’s food in focus was pastries. We tallied the votes on each respective Patch site and Facebook page.

This week we indulged our sweet tooth and sampled a variety of pastries from each town's best bakery. 

Palos Patch - The red velvet cupcakes were a favorite before I even had a bite. The red cake and fluffy frosting made this popular treat a feast for the eyes and the mouth. The cake was moist and the frosting plentiful. 4 Stars 

Evergreen Park Patch -  We had a couple of suggestions, including the cannolis from but Wolf's red velvet cupcake, a relatively new addition, got the most votes. This is definitely one of my newer favorite treats! Wolf's red velvet cupcake was moist with a sweet cream cheese frosting and topped off by red velvet cake crumbles. 4.5 Stars

Oak Lawn Patch - Wolf's red velvet cupcakes certainly satisfied my sweet tooth and were a nice appetizer for the sugar fest that was to follow. 4 Stars

Palos Patch - We heard the filled croissants at this Palos Heights institution were especially delightful and the almond variety did not disappoint. The soft and flaky croissant was as buttery and light as one could hope. There was plenty of almond filling with a slightly maple flavor that had the perfect level of sweetness. 4.5 Stars  

Evergreen Park Patch - Baumann's almond filled croissant was absolutely delicious. The croissant had a flaky, yet soft texture and had a tasty almond maple filling. Not too much filling balanced out the flavorful croissant perfectly. 4.5 Stars

Oak Lawn Patch - The Baumann's almond croissant was very moist. I enjoyed biting into the vein of maple sugar. The creme de creme, however, was the cream horn. I enjoyed the other selections from Baumann's as well, including the cream horn. 4.5 Stars

Palos Patch - I love a pastry with apples. The delicate flavor of the flaky crust perfectly complimented the sweet and seasoned apple filling. The slightly thicker cut apples let you know you were eating fresh fruit. 4.5 Stars

Evergreen Park Patch - This pastry won me over with the sweet apples. Dusted with cinnamon, the fresh apples were inside of a soft, flaky crust that blended perfectly with the frosting on top. 5 Stars

Oak Lawn Patch - We got a lot of great recommendations from Oak Lawn readers, including the Velvet Cake Bakery and Huck Finn Donuts, but Tuzik's was an overwhelming favorite. Maggie, wife of Mr. Tuzik, provided Patch with a box of baked goods. The apple wheel had the perfect combination of flavors including cinnamon, frosting and flakiness. I also enjoyed Tuzik's cream horn and strawberry coffee cake, until I realized that eating a lot of pastry wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.

And the winner is  . . . Tuzik's of Oak Lawn. This was a tough decision. After coming down from a sustained sugar high we decided to pass this week's crown to a pastry that was fresh, fruity and fantastically decadent. 

Read past 'Chowdown Showdown' Readers' Choice winners: