Pastry chefs often learn culinary traditions from their forbearers, as yeast rises so slowly that it takes generations to craft one croissant. Leave baking to the experts with today's Groupon: for $7, you get $15 worth of breads, baked sweets, and cafe fare from Berolina Bakery in Glendale.

Berolina crafts artistically shaped, freshly baked breads every day in addition to a sumptuous lineup of pastries, croissants, and small plates. The bakery boasts a rotating list of loaves, each of which flaunts elegant scoring and shaping. Prepare satisfying sandwiches with the sourdough ($3.50) or black forest breads ($3.75), available Tuesday through Saturday. For sweeter eats, dig into a croissant or danish, such as a buttery almond paste croissant or one filled with dark belgian chocolate ($2). For a fuller meal, nosh on small, cafe-style dishes such as homemade soup ($4.25), paninis ($6.25), and fresh quiche ($5.95).

Cakes and decadent pastries, such as the Swedish-style princess cake ($29.95), extinguish flames of dessert-desire better than sprinkler systems, which only extinguish actual flames. Husband-and-wife team Anders and Youna Karlsson took over Berolina Bakery in 1990, filling it with the creamy European traditions of their childhoods. The bakery encloses no preservatives in its wares, quieting valid concerns about health and accidentally eating pastry-fossils.

Reviews

More than 20 Yelpers give Berolina Bakery a 3.5-star average:

• Their olive bread is a MUST! – Annie B., Yelp, 8/31/2010
• The pastries, danishes and all other baked goods here are heaven! My favorite is the custard danish! I also love the Swiss Farmer bread, Sun-dried Tomato Bread and the olive bread. – Noel I., Yelp, 1/10/2010