The Weekend Wind-Down
“The Weekend Wind-Down” is a new TBI series highlighting ways to explore the Bay Area, support local businesses, and wind down from your stressful week. If you have an idea or tip, email us or DM us on Twitter or Instagram.
With Halloween just a day away, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is citing that trick-or-treating and many other “traditional Halloween activities,” can put people in high-risk situations for contracting Covid-19. Just add dressing up as a slutty Dr. Anthony Fauci and making your way out into the Castro as another thing canceled this year.
Since you can’t party, do the next best thing: Eat all the carbs. After everything you’ve gone through this year, you deserve to indulge in ghoulish treats from across the Bay Area while celebrating this spookiest of holidays in a responsible, socially distant fashion.
Here’s a list of Halloween-evoking baked goods you can find in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay to make celebrating the holiday a bit more satiating and in spirit.
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1. Dynamo Donuts’ spiderweb and La Calvera doughnuts
Known for their left-of-center fried doughnuts, the SF staple is churning out themed doughnuts (like a white chocolate spiderweb glazed one) to celebrate Halloween. Doughnut purveyors can also find the La Calavera special — available only today and this weekend — which is a mesquite-base dough that’s dipped in a midnight-black cinnamon chocolate glaze, then artistically sprinkled with marigold petals and a white sugar skull. It’s dramatic. It’s eerie. It’s everything you want in a ghastly any-time-of-day sweet treat.
2. Salt and Straw’s insect matcha ice cream
Ice creamery Salt and Straw has expanded into new markets over the past few years, but it’s never one to stray away from a seasonal highlight. This year’s Halloween-themed scoopable bliss features green matcha ice cream that crunches with chocolate-covered crickets and toffee-brittle mealworms. Pro tip: Call the location you plan on visiting to make sure they have the flavor in stock—Salt and Straw special scoops are known for selling out hella quick.
3. Third Culture Bakery’s black sesame mochi muffin
While not an outright Halloween treat, East Bay’s popular Third Culture Bakery currently has a black sesame mochi muffin on its menu that evokes ominous tropes. And, better yet: You can trick yourself into thinking you’re macerating on a quasi-healthy treat because black sesame promotes healthy skin and bones.
4. Pretty Please Bakeshop’s Halloween ding-dongs and cupcakes
This San Francisco bakery is like the Swiss army knife on the local baking scene; they do everything from 10-tiered wedding cakes to pumpkin spice twinkies. Just in time for a pandemic Halloween, the Inner Richmond store has brought back its Halloween ding-dongs (like Hostess’, but 10 times better and free of stabilizing chemicals) and cupcakes, which are available for preorder and pick up. Why not make the most of this socially distant Halloween with buttercream pumpkins, candy-filled cauldrons, and Oreo bats?
5. CA Bakehouse’s original green waffle
Formerly known as Century Bakery, CA Bakehouse is a San Jose wonderland for all things matcha and pandan — which make for unintentionally witchy treats. From emerald-green croissants to chameleon-colored tea cakes, all the baked goods at CA Bakehouse are as pleasing on the eyes as they are pleasant on the tongue — but its famous green waffle is the tried-and-true favorite. The waffle gets its distinct green hue from fresh pandan leaves, a tropical plant that is widely used in South Asian cuisine, which the bakers use to give the treat its natural sweetness and vanilla aroma. Opt for a light dusting of cinnamon and powdered sugar to take it to a whole other level.
