All they knead is love at J’adore the French Bakery in Altamonte Springs

Teddy and Sophia Dumoulin arrived in Florida just three months ago, having sold their home and bakery in France with the intent of establishing a bakery just like the one they had back home. And while the Altamonte Springs/Longwood border in no way resembles the quaint village of Saint-Geniès-des-Mourgues, the breads and pastries being crafted out of J’adore’s kitchen in the Sand Lake Center are just as good as you’d get in that quaint little village in the south of France. “Even bet-teur,” says Teddy in his accented English. “I don’t know why, but the croissants I make here are superior.”

I just hope he feels the same way when those humid summer days roll around.

Now, I have no shame in saying that I’m a proper putain de croissants, walking the mean streets of every city I travel to in search of tricks of the laminated-dough variety. It took me a while to find this one, however. The marquee above the bakery is blank, but Abdul — the friendly proprietor at Mediterranean Food Market at the other end of this plaza — took pity on me after witnessing my hapless meanderings.

“It’s over there,” he said, pointing to other end of the plaza. And when I walked into J’adore, it appeared that Abdul had directed many others this way. The place was packed, and it was past noon on a Sunday. I took my place in line and was able to snag a croissant ($3.70), pain au chocolat ($3.70), quiche au fromage ($10) and a Paris-Brie sandwich ($12.50) and took them all home for closer examination. A cross-sectional analysis of both croissant and pain au chocolate revealed the sort of layered bubbling indicative of a master baker. Dumoulin’s freezer is stocked with sheets of Isigny Sainte Mère French butter, while the back of the kitchen is stacked with large bags of Bagatelle T45 pastry and bread flour, also from France. The latter is used to make J’adore’s French baguettes, which are then sliced and stuffed to make superb handhelds. Whether it’s the “Le Pâté” ($11.50), with its slabs of country forcemeat ($11.50) punched up with cornichons and black pepper, or the aforementioned Paris-Brie with French butter, French ham and, oui, French brie, there are no wrong choices here.

That flour is also used to make their “traditional” baguette. For this version, the dough is refrigerated overnight, and the cold retardation yields a beautifully caramelized loaf with a soft crumb and slightly nutty flavor. Enjoy it for breakfast (they’re open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) with French butter and Bonne Maman raspberry or strawberry jam and your choice of coffee or orange juice for $10. Add a croissant or pain au chocolat for $2 more. If you get one of these tubular beauties to go, it’ll be handed to you the way they do in France — with a small piece of deli paper wrapped around the middle of the loaf for gripping.

A more substantial breakfast option is quiche — both the vegetable, with its mix of peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and nutmeg blended with Monterey Jack cheese ($11), and the savory, with five different cheeses ($11), are accentuated by a perfect shortcrust pastry. It’s no wonder Dumoulin bakes with such effortless precision — he’s been doing it since he was 11 years old. Even quit school at the age of 14 to pursue his passion for baking. When he sleeps, I don’t know: “I’m here every day at 3 a.m. and often stay until 11 p.m.,” says the now 40-year-old artisan.

But if there’s one pastry he’s particularly proud of and would recommend to everyone, it’s the “Altamonte Cross” ($3.50) — a small brioche in the shape of a cross draped in custard that’s cooked, cooled, brushed with melted butter and dipped in caster sugar. Well, of course it’s every bit as good as it sounds, but so is the apple turnover with a house-made filling ($5) and the crispy bacon sacristain ($4.20), a twisty specialty from the south of France.

But for me, it’s all about the croissants, humanity’s finest pastry (don’t @ me). J’adore this French bakery, and all you croissant sluts out there will too.

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