Baker’s Pride

I've got the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know, so when I first walked into the Artopolis bakery in Astoria, a largely Greek neighborhood in Queens, New York, it was love at first sight. There were ten different kinds of baklava alone, some studded with walnuts, pistachios, or coconut, others drizzled with white and dark chocolate. Arrayed in glass cases next to the baklava were all sorts of sweets I hadn't seen before: honey-drenched fried-dough rounds called toulumbes; folded pastry fritters called diples; soft, ring-shaped biscuits called koulouria that were flavored with orange, sesame, cinnamon, or ouzo; and on and on. Over many visits, I've learned a bit about these treats and developed some favorites, such as kritsini, savory twisted breadsticks, traditionally made in Crete, that are flavored with red wine, and moist melomakarona, orange-flavored, honey-dipped cookies that are often served at Greek weddings. And I can never leave without a bag of kourabiedes, the country's national cookie: crumbly crescent-shaped shortbreads spiked with brandy and covered with confectioners' sugar.