The Petridis girls and some of this week’s orders. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
The Crack is BACK! Gina and Anna Petridis’s online apple pie bakery phenomenon has returned bigger than ever and better than ever, if that could even be possible! The Petridis girls cannot stop smiling about it, and their massive fan base is delighted.
Walking into the industrial kitchen where Mama G (Gina) and Anna are busy prepping dozens and dozens of apple pies and pumpkin pies, I am enveloped by the homey, heady aroma that a real estate agent could only dream about having in an open house. Wafts of cinnamon and nutmeg, salted maple caramel and fresh-out-of-the-oven buttery pastry make me instantly ravenous.
As a longtime Crack devotee, I want to know how they consistently create desserts we can’t get enough of.
“We just make what we like, and we figure it’s a really safe bet that everyone will like what we like!” Anna says, slathering sweet spiced pumpkin filling into pie shells already prepped with a base coat of maple caramel sauce.
An amazing taste sensation. Photo: Kazuri Photography
Gina explains the timing of Crack’s reopening.
“After we trained the staff at Cartel Taqueria and it was up and running, I didn’t need to be there,” she says.
“I was becoming melancholy, so getting Crack back up and running has given me a pep in my step.”
She wields a massive bag of chai whipped cream, expertly piping it onto the already cooked and cooled pumpkin. Pumpkin pies and the mile-high signature apple pies line the shelves.
“When people heard we were reopening, they said, ‘There has to be pumpkin pie!’ So the pumpkin pie will stay on the menu forever.”
With a kitchen to work out of, extra staff and the addition of industrial machinery to help take some of the load off the production line craziness, there is still so much going on.
The apple pie cookie is a big and chunky vanilla cookie with apple pie filling baked into its hollow. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
Growing up with pumpkin pie, it holds a great deal of nostalgia for me, conjuring up memories of spending time around the table at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am excited to taste the Crack pumpkin pie.
The pastry’s base is firm and crisp. Its maple caramel layer on the bottom and delicate chai cream on top enhances the luscious spiced pumpkin mouthfuls. When you bite in, you get all pumpkin-y goodness along with the texture and taste of a pie crust that is buttery, flaky and perfectly salted. They have nailed it in every way!
The apple pie needs to become a Canberra institution.
You won’t find anything like it anywhere. Tender, cinnamony ribbons of apple stacked impossibly high. The spiced syrup created when cooking the apples gets strained and then cooked down into a rich sauce, some of which is incorporated back in to further intensify the apple mixture. Some is spooned onto the base of each apple pie. The crust again is flaky and buttery with an added burst of sweetness from the sprinkling of sugar baked in.
A kilo of apples in every pie. Photo Supplied.
Since I last got my mouth around some Crack goodness, cookies now populate the menu. I know they will taste incredible; Gina and Anna don’t do anything by halves.
The chocolate cookie is dark and fudgy, laden with milk choc chips and a dulce de leche centre. Gold-dusted, a balance of salt and sweetness, it is chewy and absolutely delicious. Gina tells me to put it in the microwave for just 10 seconds when I get home, and that’s what I do, rendering it warm and gooey again.
The apple pie cookie is a chunky vanilla cookie with apple pie filling baked into its hollow. Oversized and deliciously chewy, well salted with a middle filled with delicious apple pie filling, sprinkled with cinnamon streusel and glazed with dulce de leche, it is mouthfuls of happiness.
And as if we didn’t already know that they have the Midas touch, each glorious cookie glitter has a liberal dusting of edible gold.
The newest sparkly cookie will be a pumpkin pie creation. Keep your eyes peeled for its debut.
And there are plans for slab cakes in classic flavours to soon populate the menu. I can hardly wait to know more!
To make your order, visit Crack Bakery. Orders are open for 24 hrs from 6 pm every Sunday, closing on Monday at 6 pm for collection the following Saturday from the bakery at 20 Amberley Ave, near Canberra Airport, at 10 am.
Follow Crack Bakery on Instagram.
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