Took off for a drive in the country along Highway 49 and ended up at the four-star Andrae's Bakery in Amador City, two miles north of Sutter Creek.

In the bakery itself, we watched Matt Andrae remove loaves of baked baguettes, batards and blue cheese- walnut boules from his amazing "cyclothermic" oven. He slid them off the hearths with a baker's peel (a long-handled wooden paddle) and stacked them on stainless-steel racks.

His wife, Kimberly, then wheeled the racks into the retail store across the hallway. Eager customers were either lined up inside or already enjoying meals at tables on the outdoor deck.

"I'm comfortable with making 250 to 350 loaves a day, but I've made up to 500 loaves," said Matt Andrae, methodically moving around the kitchen, where he arrives at 3 a.m. "Ninety percent of our business is retail, but we sell wholesale to a few local restaurants, caterers and wineries."

Andrae graduated from the 30-week baking and pastry-making program at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley, "where I threw away a lot of bad bread."

The Andraes grew up in the Amador City area, opened their business 10 years ago and have no plans to relocate to a more-populous venue – despite the demand for their baked goods.

"It's a quality-of-life issue," Andrae explained. "Our business model is 'mom-and-pop, small-and-quaint.' That's the kind of place people remember the most."

The Andraes also run the Tambien Mexican kitchen in nearby Jackson.

We looked around the small shop, fragrant with compelling aromas and jammed with good things to eat: artisanal cheeses, salamis, olives, local olive oils, honeys, jams, European butter, mustards, flavored sea salts, lemon curd, and sandwiches on crusty rolls – turkey, pastrami, salami, rosemary-scented ham.

Oh, and the from-scratch baked goods: red onion-spiked sourdough, hazelnut sourdough, olive ciabatta, Parmesan baguette, plump quiche, fruit-studded scones, crispy pizza bread, brownies, moist pumpkin cookies, cakes and tarts – on and on.

My lunch pal and I made a ham-'n'-Swiss croissant disappear, then segued into cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls? Oh, yeah. They were the best we've had – not too sweet, not too cinnamony and not gooey-sticky, but with great flavor and texture.

Andrae revealed the "secret": "I use croissant dough."

Andrae's Bakery is at 14141 Old Highway 49, Amador City; (209) 267-1352 or www.andraesbakery.com. Hours are 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday-Thursday.

Who's your crab-dad maker?

Corti Brothers store director Rick Mindermann is at it again, this time whipping up novelty "crab-dad" cakes assembled from Atlantic rock crab meat and wild-caught crawdad tail meat from China.

The Atlantic rock crab is a cousin of the Dungeness; the lump meat sells for $15.99 a pound, "well below half the price of Dungeness," Mindermann said. The crawdad meat is also $15.99 a pound.

Mindermann's recipe involves a dozen ingredients, including bittersweet Spanish pimenton, a foundation of Basque cooking.

As the recipe calls for 8 ounces of each seafood, the two are packaged separately in 8-ounce tubs if you want to assemble the cakes at home. (The recipe is at the seafood counter; you can fry or broil.) Or you can buy ready-to-cook cakes at the counter for $2.99 each. Coming soon to the deli counter will be a ready-to-eat crab-dad sandwich.

We observed Mindermann cook a batch of the crab-dad cakes in the Corti kitchen, briefly frying them in olive oil and draining them on paper towels. They were crisp and fragrant, with a fresh flavor so delicate and distinct that to apply a drizzle of sauce to them would upset the balance. Well, maybe a quick squeeze of lemon wouldn't hurt.

Corti Brothers is at 5810 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento; (916) 736-3800 or www.cortibros.biz.

Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni at (916) 321-1128.