Empire Bakery

Bakery: Empire Bakery
Address: #31, 180 Steeles Avenue West, Toronto, ON
Website: http://www.empirebakery.ca/
Style: Russian, Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $-$$

I haven't actually been to Empire Bakery. It's not really in the area and I'm not quite sure if there is a retail location, seeing as they are a commercial bakery and distribute to various supermarkets and delis in the GTA. I got these at Starsky supermarket. As with everything from Starsky's bakery, it's not fresh and that really detracts me from anything they have to offer.

As you may expect (I'm predictable, I know it), I got two different poppy seed treats. I also once tried (no photo though) their strudels ($6.49) which come in a variety of flavours, mostly fruity. I think I got the cherry; it was okay, though, as I already know, not at its freshest. It's fairly generous on the fruit and, like the other goodies, has a dough that's pretty dense. It's definitely a different dough than many other sweet yeast-based goods.

Aside from that, I got a small poppy seed strudel ($1.75); they've got other flavours as well like, I believe, cherry and cheese, plain cheese and... nuts?  It features this same, dense dough with a drier, grainier poppy seed mass.... It's glazed with egg on top and dusted with dry poppy seeds. Pretty good, though not moist enough.

The showstopper was the giant poppy seed ring ($8.99) which was the best. The amount of poppy seed mass (in this one, you also get a generous amount of slivered almonds and walnuts on top and chunks of walnuts mixed in with the mass, which not only adds an interesting and tasty texture to the ring, but makes it stay nice and moist a lot longer than the smaller poppy seed bun above. Of course, it is essentially a commercial bakery and it has the taste of something that is plastic wrapped and sealed, ready to be shipped. Never really fresh, and somehow tasting inescapably... mass produced. You can't hide it.

Rating: **