Swedish Bakery [International Correspondent] [RIP]

Bakery: Swedish Bakery
Address: 5346-5348 N Clark St., Chicago IL
Website: http://www.swedishbakery.com/
Style: Swedish, North American 
Price: $-$$

[He's back! I've had these photos on here since the summer and he's been stalling for awhile now, so here it is: two new posts on their way] 

Swedish Bakery is a (no surprise) Swedish bakery in the Andersonville neighbourhood, which is supposed to be the Swedish neighbourhood, but this is the only thing there besides the Swedish-American museum. The bakery has lots of stuff like danishes and cakes, and everything that's traditional is marked with a Swedish flag, like almond and nut tarts. In my opinion, there's too much "junk" in the way of the Swedish goods like cupcakes, brownies, etc. and it would be better if they just stuck to the traditional baked goods. Everything is well priced and apparently the most famous thing there is their doughnuts, which we didn't see or try, because there was a sign on the door letting people know that the doughnut baker was on vacation.

So, I basically picked a bunch of the small, Swedish pastries (all are $1.65/each): the chocolate balls were pieces of wafer on the bottom with marshmallow, coated in chocolate. The pink slices was a sort of marzipan cake that reminded me of Dutch almond tarts (the ones we had from Burlington -- Mimi's note: they're here) with layers of white cake and then marzipan. On top there was more marzipan and it was coated round with chocolate.The green rolls were also topped with marzipan and chocolate, but I don't remember what was inside them. Finally, the last item was a sort of Swedish nut brittle with more chocolate around the edges.

Everything was really good, even if the descriptions don't make it sound like anything exciting; I think Swedish Bakery is the best bakery I've been on my trips to the US. I'd definitely go back.

Rating: ***1/2

Mona Fine Foods

Bakery: Mona Fine Foods 
Address: 1675 The Chase, Mississauga ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Middle Eastern
Price: $$$-$$$$

Mona is a small supermarket specializing in Middle Eastern goods from various countries on Eglinton near Mississauga Rd. And right in the middle of this small supermarket is the sweets centre, a semi-circle of glass cases (the other half is cheese, cold cuts and meat pies) with nuts, halva, baklava and cookies.

I'm not sure if they bake anything themselves or simply have a collection of goodies from various bakeries (the packaged cookies ranged from Michigan to Ottawa), but many things (like the homemade apple cake below) have a more, well, homemade look and feel to them and there must be some reason for the two ladies working in the middle. ;) Nonetheless, Mona doesn't have as impressive a selection as, say, Baklawa King, and, despite baklava being generally pricey, I can't say Mona takes home the value medal. On the contrary. The cookies, at $5.99/lb are fairly reasonable, but the baklava and phyllo creations are *expensive* at nearly $29/kg (and $13/lb), compared to $25/kg ($11/lb) at other places. Baklava being quite heavy, it's easy to overpay for pastries that are simply not as good as the 'King above or Paramount.

There is one other possibility: I went there on Sunday afternoon and got a whole bunch of trays of cookies and treats (no baklava though) that they wanted to get rid of, so the price is ~30-50% cheaper. As the majority is crunchy or soaked in honey anyways, there's no difference between the fresh and less fresh varieties. Just a suggestion. :)

First up, however, is not behind the glass cases and usually in metal tins and saran wrapped, and can be found lying throughout the store (when they have them): Mona's "homemade apple cake" ($2.99/loaf), a delicious loaf cake made from moist spiced dough (along the lines of gingerbread or honey cake) cram-packed with chunks of apples and topped with slivers of almonds. So yummy! I can't say Middle Eastern baking is my favourite (the honey- and nut fanatic of the household will probably hit me for that), so this is probably one of the highlights for me at Mona. And a steal! :P

I also got two trays of cookies ($0.99/per tray; 4 large cookies and 8 small ones), which were of the standard cookie-press variety. (Yes, I know there's some name for these... they're not shortbread or sugar. Vanilla cookies? This is why I don't bake. ;)) But with hints of vanilla (and possibly something else? Orange water?), rolled with either chopped almonds or pistachios (the red ones look like it's coconut, but it's almonds) and filled with some sort of jam (not sure what). The jam had gotten hard in a few, so it was more chewy than soft, especially on the larger cookies, but as basic, hard 'sandwich' cookies, they weren't too bad.

As a regular priced item ($5.99/lb; I paid $2.30 for three), these were fairly dense and quite heavy dough sticks (similar to Greek loukoumades or Indian gulab) drenched in honey and baked with chunks of licorice root (I assume that's what it is) and anise seeds so that it tastes like you're biting into an ouzo cake! For someone who loves anise, this can get pretty heavenly, judging by the ecstatic and surprised "whoa" and "don't get this thing from anywhere else" from the brothers. For someone who doesn't like anise (you're uh, looking at her .__.), this can be a little surprising and overpowering. Though this confession only garnered more cheers from the brothers since they got more...

Lastly, another highlight: these.. don't know what they're called. Fried dough swirls ($0.99/tray of three pieces) soaked in honey. Mmm, so good! I don't know how they can be so saturated that they're nearly juicy, but still have a great crunch to them. It's amazing. One brother picked up some Indian sweets today -- a future post, naturally -- and bought the same thing from them but with sugar syrup instead of honey, but Mona's definitely reigned supreme. A big hit.

So, in the end, I guess Mona really is quite good after all, even if it's undetermined how much they make themselves. Cookie-wise (and both the dough drizzles and anise sticks qualify), you can get quite a bit for a reasonable price, but I'm still not sure if the baklava is worth the price difference, especially since I suspect these are from elsewhere.

Rating: *** 

Blue Danube Sausage House

Bakery: Blue Danube Sausage House
Address: 3090 Lenworth Drive, Mississauga ON 
Website: http://www.bdsh.ca
Style: Hungarian
Price: $$ 

I heartily thank Sylvrgirl for suggesting this place to me! :) Not to appear overly eager, I actually go to Toronto via Kipling station on Saturdays and deciding to go to the later movie time yesterday, there was time to visit this place and *gasps* right when I was thinking I really needed to go somewhere new! I love how that happens (though I do have plenty of suggestions to follow through with, I haven't forgotten)... ^-^

Anyways, don't let the Blue Danube deceive you: this tiny (made all the tinier by the hordes of people rushing into this place so that there's nowhere to stand) Hungarian deli in the Kipling-Islington meat market neighbourhood isn't just a seller of sausages, cold cuts and meat. They seem to be the Hungarian bakery I've been waiting for! In one corner of this small shop, these guys have a case of all home-baked goodies, ranging from the quintessential Dobos cake to squares of simpler slab cakes (cheesecakes, fruit cakes, chocolate and cream), what looked like individual strudels, and (half- or full-length) poppy seed rolls! Quite honestly, I have no idea why I didn't take one, but I was trying to stay on budget and thought it would be better to get a few different things. Next time, however, there is a poppy seed roll with my name on it. ;D

Nonetheless, I picked three items this time around: as there is a self-professed Dobos expert in the house (i.e. one brother), I thought it inevitable to take this one (all items $2.50/each), a fairly generous tower of chocolate cream and moist cake with a thick caramel layer on top. The verdict? Really good. Being asked if it was better than the Russian or Romanian take: one of the best there is.

Next up was the sour cherry cake which was more of the home-made variety (and this the opposite of a bad thing), complete with fork marks in the dough. I must say it wasn't as sour as I expected. It had a great tartness and sweetness as well, with a filling stuffed with whole cherries and a yummy, spongy dough that has this nice crunch when you break into it. Mmmmm...

And on top of that was the equally delicious apple cake with what seemed like two layers of apples, one more of a puree with a layer of shredded apples coated in cinnamon on top of that. That perfect spongy dough, possibly slightly spiced, was back again, this time with a bit of vanilla sugar on top. So yummy~~

Final remarks:  I can't wait to return. It was so good... and I need to try that poppy seed roll now! However, even pending the poppy seed, this place is definitely worth running to (as pathetic as it makes me seem ^^;;;)!

[NEW!  Ahhh! Braving the crowds yet again, I returned for that poppy seed roll ($5.75/half or $11/whole) and one only needs to take one look to know that it was worth it. If you can make it past the taped up saran wrap, that is. ;P Deliciously copious amounts of poppy seed dotted with yellow raisins practically oozing out from between the layers of soft, though dense dough and then sprinkled on top with more un-ground poppy seeds. It looked homemade and it was GOOD! Mm, just looking at the picture makes me drool. *-*

Rating: ***1/2 

Seasons Boulangerie [RIP]

Bakery: Seasons Boulangerie 
Address: 104 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga ON 
Website: n/a
Style: North American, English, French
Price: $$-$$$ 

[Back to local bakeries.. well, one at any rate!] I was going to begin this post with another rant on people improperly using French names for the sake of, I assume, looking fancier (One must, however, realize that the words have no fancy intentions in French... it's just how you call things), but I wasn't in the mood for it... and I'm sure no one reading this is as well. Accordingly, I can't say I was expecting much when visiting Seasons, especially since I soon discovered that they're not in reality a bakery.. at least I didn't see any bread when I was there (boulangerie = where one buys bread ;P). I would call them more a cafe or, even more appropriately judging by the number of people ordering tea, a tea shop. It seems to be more a casual sit-down sort of place as opposed to a take-home bakery; at least, that was my impression of it. And as it should be, in addition to tea and coffee, they happen to bake all of their goodies -- tarts, danishes, scones, quiches and sandwiches -- themselves; I found some items, especially the stuff in the 'pastry' case, quite expensive. Nevertheless, despite my initial skepticism at having their name not deliver, they did manage to pleasantly surprise me.

I settled for two items this time around: first up was the 'chocolate hazelnut crunch' ($2.50), a soft, buttery danish with what seemed like a homemade, chunky Nutella-like filling that literally oozed out of the sides. It was then topped with pieces of chocolate and nuts. This got rave reviews from all samplers in the household. Actually, I must say it surprised me a bit, since it didn't look as amazing as people said it was. Both brothers were curious to know where this chocolate-y, soft ('because danishes are usually stale' as one pointed out) treat came from.

With this kind of reception, I got a little more excited for my own purchase: an apple and cranberry tart ($3.50) which was, in reality, more of a mini deep-dish pie than a tart, but I wasn't necessarily complaining about that. A super tall, oversized pie shell clearly homemade with an excellent flakiness that's just so buttery. Inside, again, there's none of that pre-fab pie filling that I was afraid of (since I've encountered it in even higher end bakeries), but a simple, homemade mass cram-packed with apples and cranberries. There's a bit of tartness from the cranberries, sweetness from the apples and the delicious crumble on top. I don't know if it was simply from the dough, or the apples were smothered in butter as well, but there was something so rich about the filling. About 75% in, I started to get this guilty, "I don't think this is as light as it looks" feeling. Luckily for the tart, there was the youngest brother who more than eagerly wolfed down the rest (this is really a lot bigger than a one-person portion), seeing as he had been eyeing it the entire time I had been eating it. While there, I kind of took this out of default; it was the most appetizing thing at a reasonable price, but in the end, I was very pleased that I did take it.

It may not look like anything for the ethnic-crazed baked good fan that I am, but in the end, it's the taste that wins and Seasons does indeed know what they're doing. ^^

Rating: ***

SB Helli's Backshop [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: SB Helli's Backshop
Address: Tegernseer Landstraße 49, Munich
Website: n/a
Style: German
Price: $

Whoa... why on earth is this still in my pictures folder? Waiting and waiting to be posted... what's wrong with me? Actually, I was a little unsure of whether to post this at all, seeing as it's super old (I don't want to know how long it's been since I was in Munich! ;_;) and the photography sucks worse than usual... but give me a break, it was pre-Cake Tour days!

Nonetheless, Helli's Backshop belongs to the SB chain of discount bakeries in the Munich area. I recall there was another at Karlsplatz-Stachus and doubtless elsewhere as well, just that I didn't notice it. These bakeries will probably be the cheapest you'll find, with baked goods at under one euro and a fairly decent selection of German favourites (this, of course, means poppy seed buns for me ^-^) as well as, for whatever reason, a few international ones like croissants and doughnuts (though I will personally never understand why someone would want to buy a "doughnut" when they can get a soft, yummy Berliner/Krapfen instead *shakes head in wonder*) The place, however, stresses value over everything else, so I found that the quality of the goods wasn't the greatest, though they were always freshly baked and more often than not already sold out whenever I returned in the afternoon. At the same time, I could never ever complain (even if I did prefer the Müller across the street) about what I managed to snag at Helli's for very cheap.

I popped in on three separate occasions and well, here's what I left with (more snippets from my travelogue): the selection seems to rotate a little, since I only encountered the beloved poppy seed bun almost once on my trips there, and that being the last time. I guess my perseverance paid off. :P Sadly/Oddly enough, this is one of the few poppy seed buns on my trip to Munich. It was very good, though the one I had at the airport was better... and bigger. A little skimpy with the poppy seed on the outside ring, but soft, iced nicely and.. tasty.

The next treat was a Krapfen (it's Munich, so it's a Krapfen for me; and yes, you're stuck looking at my not so photogenic finger... :)) -- this was actually my first (and only!?!? omg can this be?) time having a German doughnut. I got so used to the stale Polish ones they sell here that I forget how good a doughnut with fresh icing and a rather watery plum jam (instead of the plum better which, to be quite honest, I'm not too fond of), so I remember this one with great fondness. Mmmm...

Finally, I got what English would usually translate as a wildberry or mixed berry bun. A bit soggy, especially in terms of the few pieces of crumble topping, but it wasn't bad, though I do think this was my least favourite from Helli's. Still, pretty tasty.

And that's what I can say about Helli's (and the SB chain in general) overall: it's a tasty, fresh-baked treat for those who may not have the funds to step into the more fancy (and thus pricey) Konditori. There are always options~ :)

Rating: ***

Le St Honore [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Le St Honore
Address: 158 Rue de la Roquette, Paris
Website: n/a
Style: French
Price: $

Delving once more into the stops I didn't yet do, I came up with a rather ancient one. Actually, it took me a bit of navigation with Google maps and street view and general intuition in one, since I never really thought of including this one at all with my Cake Tour; I hope it's the right place, but nothing seems to match *and* it looks familiar. But, I'm getting (very) desperate and I'm missing not having a whole cache of World Tours to do, so here goes:

On my very first day in Paris, I arrived quite late and didn't want to waste money on metro tickets, so I decided to just explore the neighbourhood (10e) around the apartment I had rented for the two weeks of my stay. It being rather late once I had unpacked, I pretty much popped into the first bakery I saw and, it being Paris, it didn't end up being such a long walk after all. ;) In reality, this place wasn't much in comparison to the real attractions in terms of Parisian patisseries (accordingly, you'll also pay a lot less, which is a plus :P); it's a rather small spot on the corner serving a little bread, a little savouries and some pastries as well as chocolates, tarts, macarons, and well, I don't quite remember much besides this.

I only know that I settled on the Gâteau Basque, simply because I had never heard of it before and am a little pleased I did, since I have yet to encounter this cake typical of the Basque region in France. And because, at 1,95 euro (this price will most likely not be accurate two years later), it was an absolute steal given it being a cake and the ginormous, very un-French (;DD) size of this thing.

As I was eating it, I actually couldn't figure out what it was, but it's pretty much a rather simple cake made of eggs and powdered almonds with either cherries (that, I did not get) or pastry cream, thrown all together and baked together. Nonetheless, (and now from my travelogue) this monster of a cake had to be split into three separate helpings it was that big. It was good though and reminded me a lot of Portuguese cakes with custard on the bottom and just plain sweet dough, although it was a little too burnt on top. It was pretty basic, so I got somewhat tired of it at the very end. XD Still, considering that I hadn't got my Cake Tour underway yet, at least officially, it was still a nice way to start those wonderful, delectable days in Paris. *-*

Rating: **1/2

Isaac's Bakery

Bakery: Isaac's Bakery 
Address: 3390 Bathurst St, Toronto ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Jewish 
Price: $

Isaac's (nut and peanut free) Bakery seems to be an institution that's been here awhile (this coming from their sign, especially the fact that you don't find that many anymore with a 7-digit phone number ;)). Seeing as it was pretty much half a block from Grodzinski, I thought I could make a real trip of it and go here too. From the outside, I can't say it looks like much and I was even peeking in through the window to see if there was anything (the shelves were pretty much empty Sunday afternoon, so I don't really have an idea of what in terms of baked goods do they have to offer) to buy). However, I did spot a poppy seed bun in a day-old bag and well, went running. ;D

Actually, to be fair, I based this entire trip to Isaac's on one Google review stating they had the best chocolate danishes ever. And, of course, chocolate danishes usually mean poppy seed danishes aren't far behind. Yes, I don't stray far from my beloved poppy seed buns. ;) They fortunately had both ($2.25/each or $8.75 for, was it 6?) and, fortunately, we took the chocolate as well, because I don't think the brothers would have forgiven me otherwise. Not sharing with them the Google review, they ended up with the exact same verdict: where on earth did you get the chocolate buffalo from? It's the best thing I've ever tasted! (this brother actually went so far as to add that he'd trade his portion of Danish Pastry House heaven for another one) How about the other chocoholic brother? "Whoa!" (this said with that stunned, glazed look in his eyes) Seriously, this thing has chocolate in every form just bursting from it: rolled in a quality cacao mass with chocolate chunks and drizzled with even more dark chocolate on top. This was perfect, for chocolate and non-chocolate lovers alike! :P

As for my treat: this was also one amazing poppy seed bun. Actually, I'd give it a perfect, but it came too closely to the one from Grodzinski and that one, although different, was just... it blew my mind. This one, however, was delicious in its own rights and I can understand all too easily why there are so many people claiming that Isaac's is also home to the best challah bread: the dough wrapping all that delicious, oozing poppy seed mass was super fluffy, moist, and was a nice bright yellow from all the eggs. Mmmm... this is what egg dough is supposed to look and feel like! *-*

Isaac's is another one of these places that go to show you: if it looks like it's been in business for awhile, you *must* go in! Even crawling through all the slush and snow on the street corner was worth it! XD

Rating: ***1/2

Grodzinski

Bakery: Grodzinski 
Address: 3437 Bathurst St, Toronto ON 
Website: http://www.grodzinskibakery.com
Style: Jewish, Eastern European 
Price: $-$$ 

I think Bathurst is one of the few places in Toronto where you get that European feeling of there being a bakery on every corner. This makes not only repeated Cake Tour trips here exciting, but absolutely required. Hence the reason for the latest trip. ;) Having ventured most often north of the 401 in the direction of the Russian businesses, going south towards Lawrence hasn't been scouted in full yet and that was my goal this time. Well, to get a few more down, that's for sure. This time, I have two very good places to offer:

First up: Grodzinski. Driving past like I do, Grodzinski is not a place that necessarily stands out with their cursive sign and simple exterior. Maybe if you're going slow enough, you'll notice that little "Bakers since 1888" in the corner. If I had done so, I would have probably jumped out of the moving car. :D Naturally, it's not in Toronto, but I'm still one for history and Grodzinski has a fascinating one (if you get a bag, it'll be there). And the goodies are as good as the history... no, it probably exceeds it by a long shot. Or, at least by four huge stars! Grodzinski is good, really good! *-* In addition to breads and bagels, they have baskets full of delicious baked goods, rolled with fruit, sticky with honey, and boggling the mind as to which one should be picked. In addition to this, they also have cookies, some pastries and cakes (I must have been in poppy seed shock and not gotten a closer look) up near the cash.

Somewhere in the Cake Tour annals, there should be a quote along the lines of, "one only needs an amazing poppy seed bun to get a perfect score". It's happened before and it will happen again, I hope. At any rate, Grodzinski knows what they're doing. At first glance, it's pretty unbelievable that I almost didn't notice this lovely masterpiece; it was tucked behind the, for lack of a proper name, 'plum roll' ($2.50) which looked like poppy seed, but wasn't. It's sometimes hard to tell... still, let's start with that first. (best for last~) I decided to get this, not because it was beside the poppy seed bun, but because I've never seen anything like it: very thin dough rolled extra generously with homemade plum butter and sprinkled with rock sugar. Despite the warning ("it's not poppy seed!" :D) from the lady at the cash and me not being particularly fond of plum jam, this was so good. Actually, no one could believe how good this was, although I don't even know why. It just... was!

Secondly: I picked out what slightly resembled the What a Bagel! "kefli" ($2.10) As there was many similar buns rolled with fruit and featuring this sort of crumble on top, I'm not sure if it was or not. Nonetheless, this thing weighed a ton and was rolled with a mix of jam and plenty of dried red currants with a cookie-like crunchy layer with coconut (?) on top. Really good -- the dough itself was dense and chewy, like what you want your cookies to taste like, with that great crunch on top. Not too sweet and you have that slight tartness from the red currants -- yum!

Finally, the chef d’œuvre: probably the best poppy seed bun ($2.50) I've eaten. Speaking of What a Bagel!, this is what their poppy seed buns used to be like before they skimped out... and then some! Two ginormous spirals of poppy seed perfection with the extras pooling on the bottom in a sticky mass of poppy seed and honey and some of that rock sugar. You keep rolling and rolling and it just gets better... *shrieks* But can perfect get better? *o*

Following my trip to the Danish Pastry House, I was wondering if anything else could get me excited after having sampled a bit of "Cakecstasy". And then came Grodzinski. ;D

Rating: ****