Baklawa King

Bakery: Baklawa King
Address: 1590 Dundas St E, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.baklawaking.com
Style: Middle Eastern
Price: $$$

Baklawa King is probably the only Middle-Eastern bakery I'm aware of in Mississauga and would be more than happy to know if there are more, so if you know of any... ^^

Anyways, Baklawa King, where, as the brother put it once I asked him to give his opinion, "baklava is king", is a Lebanese-owned (I believe; my brother told me and I'm not sure where he got this from) pastry shop with... baklava (duh!) and a couple dozen of other bite-size, philo-dough pastries all smothered in honey, flavoured with rose- and orange-water and stuffed with nuts.

Everything is sold by weight ($25/kg) and it can get quite expensive, especially given the teeny-tiny, one-bite size of the pastries (although it terms of ingredients and most likely time to make everything, you certainly get what you pay for). For 8 items (that is, the whole plate plus one more honey twist-ee), we paid over $6, to give you a rough estimate. Despite wanting to try a little bit of everything, the self-proclaimed baklava addict above got mad that my mom (wasn't there myself, so I have to trust her discretion this time ^^) didn't just buy everything baklava. Instead, we got a few squares... no, wait, maybe it's better to just to describe them in order: (clockwise from top left) a honey twistee (pretty much a rolled piece of dough drenched in honey), baklava, nut square, another twist, date square, apple?? square (or some sort of fruit, can't remember now) and a pistachio square.

Both brothers agreed (they split it) that the baklava was not only the best from the selections, but the best they've ever eaten: moist and nutty. Second place was the nut square which was just packed with different types of nuts. My favourite (I got the date square, honey twist and a bit of the apple? square) was the honey twist, which really was super moist and plain yummy! The date square wasn't really anything special and reminded me of mammoul (pardon the spelling XD) cookies. The apple (or whatever it was...) was a little too fragrant and perfumed (orange-water) for me.

In the end, come for the baklava and you will be amazed. .. And the goods really do end up living up to the name! ;D

Rating: ***

R Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: R Bakery
Address: 3476 Glen Erin Dr., Mississauga ON (2 other locations in Toronto)
Website: http://www.rbakery.ca/
Style: Portuguese, European
Price: $

[Note that this location in Mississauga is closed; there may still be two locations in Toronto]

It's really not everyday that there's a new bakery opening in Mississauga. Actually, it's as rare a sight as possible, but lo and behold, there was one in the past month. Yup, even I was surprised, so ha ha I guess all the purple balloons were appropriate. ;)

R Bakery is a brand-new bakery and relatively new bakery in Toronto as well. I guess that, seeing as Portuguese bakeries make up a huge majority of bakeries, I was hoping for something different, and yet the second we walked in I knew it was Portuguese, although my mom did make a good point that nothing, save for those omnipresent custard tarts (;D) was actually typically Portuguese. Even the breads like organic spelt and dark rye don't give you the impression it's Portuguese, and oddly enough it was the first thing that came to mind. Odd.

Anyways, for me, R seems to try not to be in-your-face Portuguese and opts instead for a more continental feel with fruit muffins, pies, fruit and cheese strudels, and rich, torte-like cake slices. All, as seems to be the case with P. bakeries, excellently priced. [Edit: a few visits after, I'm starting to doubt how much (if any) of the items in-store are actually baked by these guys. Someone I know picked up a pie from them for $6, turned the box over and discovered it was a preservative- and chemical-loaded pie baked at a pie "factory" in Nova Scotia. Worst thing is that the same pies can be bought in several supermarkets for almost half the price. After that, I can't help but say I've been a little... wary of revisiting :/] 

Got three things for my uh, maiden journey. ;) A Nutella turnover advertised on the TV screen, a cinnamon bun and a "custard bun". All $1.25/each. As said above, nothing was very Portuguese and honestly, I almost wish it were, as I wasn't very impressed and neither were my fellow samplers. The Nutella turnover, more in the shape of a croissant, but made of dense dough and stuffed not very generously with the nutty stuff was the best thing here; not the greatest ever, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Not so the cinnamon bun, which tasted dry, lacked cinnamon flavour and had this 'supermarket' feel to it.

The biggest disappointment was the "custard bun" which was several layers of flaky dough (not bad) folded over and stuffed, not with custard, but with store-bought instant vanilla pudding. :| The pudding, with that unmistakable artificial, pudding-cup (those JELLO ones, if anyone knows what I'm talking about) taste to, totally ruined this, since if it contained the same custard that Portuguese bakeries usually put into their buns (just click the "Portuguese" tag and you'll know what I mean) it would have had a totally different taste and would have been quite good. Not too pleased with that, and as a whole, this new addition ended up being far from my favourite. *sighs* Too bad... :(

Rating: **

Baker Hansen [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Baker Hansen
Address: Stortingsgata 20, Oslo (and several dozen in the environs)
Website: http://www.bakerhansen.no/
Style: Scandinavian, Norwegian
Price: $-$$

Seeing as I've got my next "World Tour" all set up for next month (3 countries!), I thought it's pretty pathetic that I haven't finished the one I did last year. Well, to be fair, I just finished reviewing all my Paris ones here, so it's really no surprise. Nonetheless, I started with Iceland a few months back and have yet to chronicle my journey in Norway!

Unfortunately, it didn't go as amazingly as planned, and this is disregarding the price, which is well... I'm honestly not sure how I returned without going bankrupt. ;DD In "The Scandinavian Cookbook", the author (who was Danish; I'm sorry I don't remember her name now) mentions in one recipe that there is, literally, a bakery on every corner in Scandinavian cities. Oslo may not be a total exception to this rule, where the bakeries aren't as common as in other cities and the city seems to be dominated by two or three bakery chains, namely Baker Hansen which seems to be everywhere (in Oslo and neighbouring cities). Disregarding the neighbourhood, if you expect to find a bakery somewhere, there's probably a 90% chance it'll be Baker Hansen, Oslo's (or was it Norway's) oldest bakery. For a Cake Tour-ee, the appearance of Baker Hansen everywhere got a little on my nerves, even though it *is* one of the most affordable places you can buy... food and it was probably my favourite place for baked goods too. ;) They've got plenty of rye and dark, whole-grain breads and a few cakes/fancier items, the latter of which aren't as affordable.

Nonetheless, the baked goods are simple, classic, and traditional Scandinavian, with quite a bit of Danish classics like Karlsbader (hopefully, I'm spelling this right) and other continental stuff like muffins which uh, didn't interest me so much.


Seeing as it's hard to find a bakery that isn't Baker Hansen, I ended up going twice and enjoyed it each time. The first time, I got a Karlsbader (something like 230kr -- above, in that awful photo taken in our windowless hostel room); these come in two flavours: vanilla or pistachio. Judging that mine was not green, I settled on the vanilla. The bun itself was pretty tiny and, to be honest, nothing very special: basically sweet dough filled with vanilla custard and topped with a bit of icing. Not the best, though good. Maybe that's why I settled on something different the next time. :P

On my second trip (and last bakery trip), I picked out the "Swedish" cinnamon bun (260kr, I believe? -- picture taken on a park bench in front of Oslo city hall ^^;;;) which was a pretty big bun rolled up with icing and just coated with a snowy layer of coarsely granulated sugar, and oddly enough, totally unlike any Swedish cinnamon bun I've either bought or baked. Strange. Anyways, Scandinavian cinnamon are one of my favourite baked goods and so I tried this a few times from other bakeries and Hansen reigned supreme. This was soo tasty!!

If you're in Oslo and want baked goods, Baker Hansen is pretty much inevitable. ;D But hey! at least it ended up being tasty!!

Rating: ***

Van Straten Bakery

Bakery: Van Straten Bakery
Address: RR1, Burford ON (available at the Dutch Shop)
Website: n/a
Style: Dutch
Price: $-$$

Here's the last bakery which I managed to try during my Dutch Shop "cake spree". ;) Van Straten, like The Country, I suspect as coming directly from someone's house given the no-frills packaging and general address and is probably available in other Dutch stores, possibly...

Anyways, these guys have the same typical goodies as the other, so it goes down to which bakery is preferred. My brother picked out for me this time around a six pack of "Almond Tart Deluxe" ($4.10), which differs from the plain, old almond tarts in that they've got raspberry jam along the bottom. To be honest, I didn't find these so great, and they certainly weren't as good as the in-store almond tarts which were... so yummy. The filling itself reminded me more of Danish tarts, so a bit softer, and so I really have nothing bad to say about that. The shells, however, were made of puff pastry and really airy... for something pretty heavy like almond paste filling, the puff pastry didn't match. I mean, they weren't bad (I don't think almond tarts will ever be awful ;D) but at the same time, I wasn't impressed and I've had much better.

Maybe next time, I'd try something else, but the Deluxe almond tart wasn't for me, especially in comparison with the others available.. in the same store!

Rating: **

The Country Bakery

Bakery: The Country Bakery
Address: Whitby, ON (available at The Dutch Shop, Burlington ON)
Website: n/a
Style: Dutch
Price: $$

The Country Bakery is one of two other bakeries available at the Dutch Shop and, I assume, in other Dutch stores/delis, as the bakery itself gives you the address of someone's house.. O_o At first, I thought I got the name or city wrong, but nope, The Country Bakery in Whitby it is. Nonetheless, given the uh, location, what you get are real home-baked goodies saran-wrapped in aluminum trays and containers; old-fashioned bake sales when people actually baked everything (and that's not just cookies and brownies) somehow came to mind, and I'm not sure why. ;P The small cakes and tarts are fairly simple, but cover pretty much all the basics in terms of Dutch baking and actually have a larger variety than the in-store bakery.

The first time, I picked out this almond cake ($4.95, I believe, for the slab -- accessories are my own ^-^;;;) with this moist almond mass in between two thin layers of dough and then coated with glaze and dotted with candied cherries. This was really good. Not sure if it can beat the almond tarts from the store (see post here), but it was tasty!!

So, I actually ended up returning... well, okay, the brothers went alone on a trip here and I told them to go back and get something else. They came back with a round tin of almond cake ($6.95 for a tin) (which I believe was the filled butter cake (butterkkoek??) I was reading about before going Dutch-bakery hunting ;D) Anyways, so the mom put it aside, claiming the due date was May 24th when it was actually the 10th, and the top started getting mouldy, so it needed to be cut off and bye-bye to the photo opportunity. :( Anyways, it was a thicker (in comparison to the first cake) cake made of more flaky, buttery (the crust on the outside proved this the most) dough filled with that same almond mass and topped (ahem, supposed to be topped) off with sliced almonds. Both were fairly good, though the first one was much better.

Overall, I think I liked these guys the best (I have another bakery coming up) from my uh, Dutch adventures (^^): they had plenty of yummy, home-baked goodies. Buying individual stuff like single cookies or tarts isn't exactly an option and some stuff was at varying levels of freshness (given, no doubt, the wholesome ingredients and drive from Whitby), but it was still a tasty, memorable Cake Tour to Burlington (and there's no need to go to Whitby, lol!). ;)))

Rating: ***

The Dutch Shop

Bakery: The Dutch Shop
Address: 3019 New Street, Burlington, ON
Website: http://www.burlingtondutchshop.com/
Style: Dutch (that's a no brainer! :P)
Price: $-$$

The Dutch Shop, as the name very clearly states, is pretty much your source for all things Dutch, at least in Burlington and the closest you'll get in the west GTA. Years ago, I once stumbled upon a Dutch store in Grimsby (was it Grimsby? Yes, I hope so), but this one is definitely bigger with a huge variety of goodies and great baked goods from three or four semi-local Dutch bakeries (including The Country Bakery, which will be reviewed in a separate post!!). On top of that, they've got their own in-house bakery, which looks so home-baked (this isn't a bad thing, by the way!) though, to be fair, there's not much in it besides two or three varieties of pies or fruit cakes (it was pies and one Dutch apple cake when I was there -- around $7-8), raisin breads and date and other crumble bars. I have to admit that it didn't look all that exciting and I was contemplating not getting anything at all, but seeing as this is probably one of my first trips to Burlington (ahem, especially with the Cake Tour in mind ._____.;;), I thought I'd take the almond tarts ($0.99/each) because well, I like almond tarts and I was curious how they'd live up to Scandinavian ones. ^^;;

How did it turn out? The brother ended up yelling at me... for not getting more, especially for the price! -_- These were a huge hit! The filling was much more flaky in comparison to the more marzipan-like texture of the Scandinavian ones I've had, so especially with the top browned, the centres were nice and chewy, the tart shell crisp and flaky and that tiny, off-centre dob of icing a little... brittle, but nonetheless, icing or no, these things were delicious and definitely made me appreciate Dutch baking (well, not that there are actually any bakeries around here... *sighs* if only there were) and maybe rethink another trip to Burlington. And even if there isn't much in the home-baked section, you've got oodles of other bakeries to fall back on (I'll have to get their addresses next time I'm there...) ;DDDD

Rating: ***