Georgetown, an island in Maine's Midcoast region, is a bit off the beaten path, but foodies have found their way there for years. That's because Georgetown is home to Chef Michael Gagne's Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, a highly acclaimed restaurant housed in an old church.
You might not expect a gourmet restaurant near the Maine coast to specialize in biscuits, but the biscuits that come out of Gagne's kitchen are anything but ordinary. I first tasted the Robinhood Free Meetinghouse's 72-Layer Cream Cheese Biscuits in 1999. After my first bite of these rich yet airy pastries, I regretted that I'd ordered an entree!
For many years, the restaurant was the only source for biscuit dough to go, but in 2003, Gagne, a native Mainer, established Gagne Foods and began to seek wider distribution for his famous biscuits. Imagine my glee when I discovered in 2006 that I could buy 72-Layer Cream Cheese biscuits in the frozen foods section at my local Whole Foods Market. I decided they'd make the perfect, simple-yet-delicious breakfast food on Thanksgiving morning.
But would these delicate cream cheese biscuits--literally made of 72 thin layers of laminated dough--really taste as good prepared in my own kitchen?
To my delight, the little orbs of dough, which didn't look like much in the package (although they came with a fairly hefty pricetag), puffed up and browned beautifully in my oven, and they were delicious topped with just a brush of butter and a dollop of strawberry jam. In fact, we've decided Michael Gagne's Robinhood Free Meetinghouse 72-Layer Cream Cheese Biscuits should be an annual Thanksgiving morning tradition, and we already have biscuits tucked away in the freezer for this year's Turkey Day.
I won't go so far as to say the biscuits tasted as good as they did in Maine, but then again, everything tastes better in Maine.
