Flourbud Bakery opens in East Moriches

Over the three years she sold her pastries, cookies and cakes at the Port Jefferson farmers market, Cristina Tovar developed a sense of what her customers wanted, and she baked accordingly. But in the three months since she opened Flourbud Bakery in East Moriches, “there’s been zero pattern.”

“People are still finding us,” she said. “And the people who have found us are still sampling the selection, deciding what are their favorites.” She recently started making doughnuts on Sundays and, once word got out, she arrived one morning to find a line with more people on it than she had doughnuts.

Croissants (chocolate, plain, almond, cheese, $4.50-$6) are already emerging as big sellers, as are Danish pastries topped with local fruits and even Mexican-style street corn ($6). There are dainty meringue-topped tarts ($7) filled with chocolate ganache and lemon curd, big cookies (oatmeal-raisin, chocolate-chip, $3), and biscuits and scones ($5). Tovar’s own ciabattas ($8) and focaccia are complemented by sourdough loaves from What’s in Clark’s Kitchen ($12).

A graduate of the Suffolk County Community College culinary program in Riverhead, Tovar baked in two top East End kitchens, Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton and Carissa’s bakery in East Hampton before setting up her own business in 2020. She is constantly pushing herself to meet challenges. “One of my college professors once told me, ‘the day you stop learning is the day you should find something else to do,’” she recalled.

In East Moriches she is learning the brick-and-mortar retail trade, but also continuing to grow as a baker. “I don’t like to be constantly taking the temperature of all my doughs,” she said. “I go by the feel. One thing that has really improved my croissants is that I know the butter and the dough have to have the same pliability — if the butter is too cold, it will crack.”

If it does crack, though, all is not lost. “I just use that dough for my cinnamon rolls.”

She is moving tentatively into savories, having perfected a whipped feta dip and a green olive tapenade. On weekends she makes sandwiches and salads and hopes that in a few months she’ll be able to add evening chefs-table dinners to the lineup.

Tovar turned a strip-mall storefront into a charming shop decorated in muted pastels.  She credits Ikea, her father and artist friends who contributed their paintings and ceramics. “I was going for intentional but cheap,” she deadpanned.

Flourbud Bakery, 130 Montauk Hwy., East Moriches, 631-621-6563, flourbudbakery.com. Open Wednesday-Saturday 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday 830 a.m.-1 p.m.