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Penny's Pastry has a small stand (just a table) at the Winter Farmer's Market in Evanston. If you search you'll find an article on them in Time Out Chicago. It's the product of one rather young guy.
They sell four types of croissants, plain, chocolate, almond and chocolate almond. So far, I've had the almond and chocolate almond. They are as good as I've had in Chicago. The almond croissant is right there with Floriole.
They have a whole wheat buttermilk biscuit. It's not a light and flaky traditional biscuit, but I enjoyed it.
This weekend they had individual banana breads with walnuts. As good a banana bread as I've had. Somehow, they got the outside a bit crunchy. They also had tiny chocolate financiers, which had some crunch on the outside, as well, and were excellent.

I highly recommend this stand. This is young baker to watch.

Jonah

Hi Jonah,

Agreed. The young baker at Penny Pastry is amazing. He cut his chops at Kendall and then went through the French Pastry School. His name is Axel Erkenswick and you can find out about him at www.pennypastry.com or on his facebook page.

Penny Pastry is at the Evanston Ecology Center every Saturday from 9am to 1pm through out the winter and early spring. He bakes with only the finest quality ingredients and has worked as a baker at Balena in Lincoln Park and also at the Peninsula Hotel. He makes the finest croissants, almond and chocolate croissants as well as financier in Chicago. He also makes amazing French almond cream tarts with fresh fruit which he purchased during the Summer season, then freezes.

I spoke briefly with him last week and he told me that Penny Pastry is looking for a space to start a production kitchen.

TAF