My Market Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: My Market Bakery
Address: 184 Baldwin St, Toronto ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian, European
Price: $ 

[What happened!? This busy, tasty bakery just closed down following an inexplicable, lengthy renovation; stepping in post-renovation, I will admit that I was not impressed or too pleased; all my favourite goodies were gone and nothing there to replace them. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Please? :(]

I can't believe it took me so many trips to Kensington Market to actually step into this place and buy something. A long while back, I remember popping in to find a huge line and not much left (= late in the afternoon yet again), so I just left, not too impressed with what I could see from the doorway (i.e. two cases of cookies). I realize now I judged too quickly, way too quickly, and am actually really glad that I came back to this place, since I now have a good bakery to visit (when one can't afford that still-delayed trip to Wanda's Pie in the Sky ;P) when in the area!

In terms of goods, My Market is what I like to call an example of a "Canadian" bakery, featuring a hodgepodge of baked goods, breads and cakes, both of the typical North American kind (brownies, cookies, banana bread, nanaimo bars, etc.) and a smattering of Portuguese (nada tarts caught the eye), baklava, and some unique creations in the form of what I can only describe as 'granola bar cakes': a series of squares with various fruit, nut and honey combinations. At any rate, they're worth checking out, even if not everything (mostly breads, however) is baked by them. Not sure why when the home-baked stuff is already pretty darn good. O.o

Anyways, I came out with three squares (among quite an impressive variety) available behind the counter; at $1.50 per slice, these are very well priced and look much more exciting than their few articles of baked goods (unless they were all gone by the time I showed up). First on the list was a "bee sting" square, which didn't seem to photograph that well, but it was pretty much dough soaked in honey and a thick mass of slivered almonds on top mixed with some sort of marzipan, perhaps? At any rate, the sampler, a self-named nut and honey fan was thoroughly impressed. The verdict: really good.

Second on the list was the cranberry hazelnut square, one of those aforementioned 'granola cakes' with a shortbread dough on the bottom and a thick layer of cranberries, nuts in a hazelnutty dough on top. The texture was nice and chewy and was quite good. 

My personal pick was the apple cinnamon square (there is also a rhubarb version) with two thick pieces of delicious shortbread dough pretty much stuffed with a homemade apple filling of fresh apples, a sort of thick sauce (I originally put 'gloop' but lol, that doesn't sound so good, does it?) cinnamon and a nice layer of some sort of jam on the bottom (strawberry or rhubarb, most likely?)  This was really tasty! The dough was hard without being crumbly; that with the filling.. mmm!

So: a great, more than affordable place to check out while in the neighbourhood; with a little bit of everything, it's not too hard to find something for you~~ (forgive the very cheesy conclusion :D)!

Rating: ***