Trader Joe's

Bakery: Trader Joe's 
Address: 1565 Niagara Falls Blvd, Buffalo NY (& across US)
Website: http://www.traderjoes.com/
Style: North American
Price: $$ 

I've been putting off this review for a while now (supermarkets never quench the urge to tour like real bakeries do!), but being in a bakery dry spell, I thought I'd go ahead with this one after all. Trader Joe's is well, a large supermarket chain known for its unique items with locations throughout the US and apparently, it's coming up here to Canada in the future. In some ways, it's big enough to not even need an introduction, and so I won't trouble myself with it. ;) Like other products in-store, the bakery section is made up of either products from other larger-scale bakeries or items that are exclusively made for Trader Joe's and then branded as such. Prepackaged, not fresh and baked off-site, it's really not the most ideal conditions for bakery connoisseurs, and even that's putting it gently, but there are some notable items worth trying.

One highlight is the chocolate babka, which is made expressly for the supermarket chain and hails from Brooklyn (if memory serves me correctly..); lacking the preservatives and questionable additives of what you'd assume anything pre-packaged contains, this babka has instead rather intriguing ingredients like chocolate liquor and... tofu? Well, even I was a little skeptical, but it actually worked, creating a moist, multi-layered loaf cake with a rich, downright overwhelming amount of chocolate between each thin of layer of dough as well chocolate chips sprinkled on the top. Indeed, the downside was its sweetness and "chocolatey-ness"; even chocolate lovers agreed this time.

Trader Joe's, as mentioned above, also features products from other bakeries which are then shipped nationwide; one of those "finds" were Danish kringles from O&H Danish Bakery in Wisconsin, because any day is an exciting day when kringles are involved. ;) And since I'm not in the mood to work today, lol, here is an excerpt from my post on the bakery itself: Packaged in wax paper sleeves, the one major minus going into it is the freshness; you know these must have been sitting on the shelves for at the very least several days (the list of preservatives and additives isn't very appetizing either :/). This resulted in a dough that wasn't as flaky as it should have been; instead, it lacked the texture it looked like it was supposed to have. A few samplers (myself included) thought it was a little too sweet, but all of us seemed to wonder why the purchaser chose the pumpkin kringle over the more traditional varieties. The kringle on the whole was alright, but I can't say I liked the flavour choice, even if I do like my pumpkin baked goods; it would have been nice to sample the almond one, which is the classic variety.

Overall, Joe's is better than your average supermarket; it still doesn't beat getting your baked goods fresh, but the selection allows you nonetheless to get something a little 'different'.

Rating: ***