Sweets and Portuguese treats on the menu at Clovis bakery

A little bakery in Clovis run by a daughter of Portugal and her bread-baking boyfriend is churning out all kinds of goodies.

Sweet Delicates makes everything from cream cheese raspberry tarts to Portuguese sweet breads.

The bakery opened in December at 50 W. Bullard Ave., at Minnewawa Avenue, in the shopping center with the Dollar General Market.

Deandra Miller’s baking career started when she moved to Fresno to be closer to family. She couldn’t find a job and started baking cakes at home for customers.

It was a natural path. Miller spent more than a decade in Portugal living with her grandmother. She spent her teenage years working at a golf and beach resort and a cafe.

Unlike many Fresnans with roots in the Azores, Miller lived in Lisbon.

She’s a self-taught baker and once she taught boyfriend Brandon Tinsley how to bake bread, he took over those duties. (This is a family that’s comfortable in the kitchen. Her son David, 12, is already into cooking and wants to be on the Fox show MasterChef. No word yet on whether their daughter Kayla, 4, inherited the natural culinary talent.)

Sweet Delicates has a coffee shop feel, with coffee, espresso, tea and free Wi-Fi. Customers are invited to hang out and relax at the comfy places to sit.

The couple gets there at 4:30 a.m. to bake everything fresh. Many of the pastries, Miller has learned how to make through trial and error and Google searches

Sweet Delicates is stocked with all kinds of pastries, including creme brulee tarts, cinnamon rolls, twisted pastries loaded with Nutella and tarts made daily with blueberries, strawberries or almonds.

For now, the Portuguese sweet breads are only available on weekends, though Miller says they’ll soon be available more often.

Even the coffee has a sweet twist here, with drinks like a turtle mocha on the menu – coffee topped with fudge, caramel and whipped cream.

There are savory options too, including the “coxinha,” a potato and chicken combination similar to a croquette.

The linguica bread is popular, with loaves of bread wrapped around the sausage before it goes in the oven.

“So when it bakes you get all the juices in the bread,” Miller says. “It’s good.”

Miller still does cakes for special orders and catered a wedding with a variety of sweets.

Shelves are also stocked with Portuguese products and Sweet Delicates will soon carry more, including linguica and cheese by the pound.

The bakery is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Sunday.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Sweets and Portuguese treats on the menu at Clovis bakery."