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: ***