Hard To Find Sicilian Pastries at Maria's Bakery in Saddle Brook

I am a Sicilian pastry fanatic.  And to fulfill my hunger for these delicious delicacies, I run to Maria’s Bakery on Market Street in Saddle Brook.  Maria’s is a great local Italian bakery with an emphasis on the specialties of owner Maria Scaduto’s Sicilian upbringing.

The cannoli are great, as are the pignoli cookies and ricotta cheesecakes, but for me the real stars of the bakery appear every weekend in the form of two hardcore Sicilian pastries.  They are cartocci and iris/inis, my two all-time favorite pastries.  Cartocci are cylindrical, deep-fried "doughnuts" filled with cannoli cream and chocolate chips.  Where my wife’s family is from in Ragusa (Southern Sicily) the word maccalei used predominantly.  They are more commonly known as cartocci in and around Palermo (Northern Sicily).  Iris/inis are deep-fried dough pockets that are filled with ricotta and chocolate chips & rolled in sweetened breadcrumbs.  These are two heavenly pastries.

The other Italian pastry standbys, including lobster tails and sfogliatelle, are also solid choices at Maria’s.  Sfogliatelle are native to the region of Campania.  Lobster tails are considered the Italian-American cousin of the sfogliatelle.  Their shapes are similar however there fillings are different.  Lobster tails are usually filled with either French or cannoli cream, whereas sfogliatelle are filled with ricotta.  I’m getting hungry just writing about these pastries.

So if you need some tasty Italian or Sicilian pastries for an upcoming dinner party or get together, then definitely check out the great selection at Maria’s Bakery.

Maria’s Bakery

386 Market Street

Saddle Brook, NJ 07663

Tel: (201) 843-7990