10 Best Sweet Treats in Los Angeles

A. Scattergood

Macarons at EuroPane

As you may have noticed, this year's Best Of issue dropped on your doorstep, metaphorically if not actually, last week. There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of listings, of spas and hikes and cocktails and grottos (yes, grottos), so many that you might get lost -- so many that we thought we'd pull out a few highlights. Drop some breadcrumbs, so to speak. In this case, some of the best pastries and desserts, and the places to find them, in town. Turn the page.

Class 302

10. Best Shaved Snow: Class 302
Angelenos have the opportunity to sample many global variations of shaved ice — but shaved ice is just so 2010. Nowadays it's all about shaved snow. Taking the concept of shaved ice a step further in its logical evolution, condensed milk — sometimes with a flavor added — is frozen into blocks of ice and then shaved, resulting in a bowlful of silky smooth ribbons. One of the first restaurants in the area to serve shaved snow, Class 302 in Rowland Heights seems perpetually crowded. Waits of a half-hour or longer are the norm, regardless of season or temperature. Yet you won't see many give up their place in line and leave, and with good reason. While many places have jumped on the shaved-snow bandwagon, it's hard to top the small, Taiwanese, schoolhouse-themed restaurant, which features a decor of school desks and chairs and a blackboard menu. You can pick three choices from a variety of toppings or go with set combos, like strawberry or mango-mochi — which is truly worth the wait. 1015 S. Nogales St., #125, Rowland Heights. (626) 965-5809, class302.com. —Jim Thurman

Sweet Butter Kitchen

9. Best San Fernando Valley Pastry Shop: Sweet Butter
On a chic strip of shops near a leafy Sherman Oaks neighborhood filled with film-industry types, Sweet Butter is designed to feel as if you've stumbled into a sidewalk pastry shop in Paris. Fleur de sel caramel brownies, butter-rich croissants, bread pudding with brioche (in coconut-lemon and chocolate versions), cinnamon muffins filled with homemade peach or strawberry jam, plum-lemon bars and savory bacon-cheddar scones are churned out by three in-house pastry chefs. Founder Leslie Danelian, a former food stylist and longtime caterer, keeps the charm factor high but the prices low: Mouth-watering chocolate chip cookies are $2, muffins and scones $2.75. The pastry items rotate, so each day Sweet Butter's glass case is filled with surprises. The French county–style restaurant offers full breakfast and lunch menus, with items such as grilled turkey, fig jam and bleu cheese sandwiches. 13824 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 788-2832, sweetbutterkitchen.com. —Jill Stewart

Milo & Olive

8. Best Bakery: Milo & Olive
It's some feat for a pastry chef to actually out-bake herself, as Zoe Nathan has possibly done at Milo & Olive. More so as she did it not by upping the chocolate ganache ante — as one might expect from the seasoned pastry chef — but by fully embracing the bread baker's domain. Sure, Nathan turned out a handful of great breads at Huckleberry, but the real reason we trekked to her first Westside outpost on Saturday mornings was for anything that could double as both breakfast and dessert. At Milo & Olive, Nathan's pretty little fruit crostatas are still perched on the counter, but we elbow our way through the impatient, pizza-seeking crowds on a singular mission: Nathan's multigrain baguettes, whole-wheat potato bread and that rustic country boule begging for a drizzle of olive oil. Does that mean Nathan now is considered a baker first, pastry chef second? That depends on which side of the laminated dough issue — is a croissant pastry or bread? — you land on. 2723 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 453-6776, miloandolive.com. —Jenn Garbee