Welcome to “Pastry Check,” a new semi-regular column on my blog highlighting the best new pastries in St. Louis (and elsewhere…you never know where life might take you).

For the inaugural column, I’m featuring the Strawberry Lemon Danish from Skáld Bakery. Skáld is a new operation in town that is selling its Scandinavian-style wares at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. I’m so glad they exist because they have one pastry that is one of my personal favorites, but is difficult to find in St. Louis: Cardamom buns. I don’t know why I love them so much, but it’s probably because they’re the perfect blend of comfort, sweet, and nostalgia. I’m pretty sure the first one I ever had was from Lost Larson in Chicago, and that one hooked me for life.

I made some a few years ago, and they’re surprisingly easy to make. Yeah, you have to deal with dough rising, but it’s less complicated than say, puff pastry or basically anything that involves laminating (rolling butter into dough many, many times). I remember enjoying some of the cardamom buns I made with a cup of coffee during the winter.

Now that I’ve discovered Skáld, I don’t need to make them anymore. I just need to wake up at 7:30 AM on Saturday morning, drive to Tower Grove Farmers’ Market in the park, and wait in a long line that is totally worth it, because at the end I get a cardamom bun. Today, I also got a strawberry lemon danish, because why wouldn’t I. Strawberries are one of my favorite things, and strawberry lemon is an all-star combo.

I was going to take the danish home and eat it, but as I was walking with two overstuffed shopping bags and a 16 oz cup of hot coffee, I decided to make a pit stop on a park bench. It was a beautiful morning in St. Louis. We’ve had a lot of rain recently, but that finally passed, and the air was crisp and the sky was clear. I chose a more secluded bench, because even though I have no qualms about eating in public, I had a feeling enjoying this danish would be a sacred experience.

I took a bite and I almost burst out crying. It was one of the best pastries I’ve had in a long, long time. The pastry crust was flaky and baked to the perfect consistency, and dusted with crushed freeze-dried strawberries and sugar. The strawberries on top were ripe and fresh. They and the meringue covered a lemon curd that was so good, I almost couldn’t believe it. It struck the perfect balance between sweet and tart.

As I was eating, more people started to pass by on their way to the market. A woman walked by with her dog and the dog lunged toward me. “Sorry!” she said. “She’s very food motivated.” “No problem,” I said. “Me too.” It reminded me of one of my favorite dogs, Sandy, the one I dog sit, because she ran away once and the only way I got her to come back was shaking a box of treats after calling her name where she was holed up on the neighbor’s porch.

ANYWAY. All this is to say, clearly Skáld pastries draw attention, and for good reason: They’re fresh, they’re local, and they bring something new to the table. When I was buying my danish today, one of the owners said, “You’ve come every Saturday, haven’t you?” “I’m a loyal fan,” I said. “Thank you so much,” he responded. “I was going to say something last week.”

I will keep coming back every weekend as long as they’re there. I’m sure another one (or two) of their pastries will make an appearance in a future edition of Pastry Check.

Here’s a song that describes how I feel about this strawberry lemon danish.