They Took Pastry School in Barcelona. Twice. You Can Wait Three Days.

This is a town where people honk if the light has been green for half a second. So I want to introduce you to a bakery whose entire business model is asking you to wait.

It's called Al Horno, which is Spanish for "baked," and it's run out of Sarasota by Wanda and George Vega. (Yes, Vega. No relation. I asked around. Nobody in my family can make a flan like this, so the answer was obvious.)

The backstory is a lot

Per their About page, Wanda fell for baking as a kid in Puerto Rico, then spent 25 years running a business in a completely different field after the couple moved to Florida. She taught herself pastry from books, videos and classes. Then, in spring 2018, she and George took an artisan pastry course at a baking school in Barcelona.

And then they went back in spring 2019 and took another one. Same school. Most of us come home from Spain with a tan and a ceramic plate we'll never use. These two came home with laminated dough skills.

Now, the waiting

Everything is made from scratch, no mixes, no preservatives, and the products page asks for at least 3 to 4 days' notice, longer around the holidays. Wednesday-you orders the flan. Saturday-you eats it. Saturday-you is very grateful.

What Saturday-you can have:

• Flan, 8 inches, serves 10 to 12: pumpkin, coconut, coffee, cream cheese or sweet corn and cinnamon for $32, pistachio for $34. Sweet corn flan is the one I keep thinking about at red lights.
• Pan de Mallorca, the soft Puerto Rican spiral sweet bread with powdered sugar on top, $48 a dozen.
• Pumpkin bread with toasted pecans: $19 for a 7-inch tube, or $11.50 a loaf with a two-loaf minimum.
• Banana bread, $10.50, also two minimum. Two banana breads is the correct number of banana breads. I didn't make the rule, but I respect it.
• Mantecaditos de guayaba, guava thumbprint cookies, about 100 for $37. I'm treating that as one serving and nobody can stop me.

There's also Tarta de Santiago made with Marcona almonds, guava pastelillos, quesitos and éclairs, which is a sentence that should come with a nap.

How to get some

Ordering is by phone, email or WhatsApp through their contact page, and they post their work on Instagram. Ask about sizes, because most things come in a few, plus party trays.

Order on Wednesday. Think about it all week. That's half the fun!

— Marina