Finding Sydney's best baked goods

So, it's been a long, long time since I posted anything.

While I once kept this as a travel blog, and while I continue to travel, it all became a bit much to manage on top of everything else going on.

But, now, I'm back with a new mission. To find the best baked goods in Sydney.

I typically am the type of person who buys bread at the grocery. During the pandemic I even made my own breads, with varying levels of success. As a big fan of bread, I thought it might be time to support some local businesses and eat some delicious things in the process. So, the other night I did a few Google searches to see what other people thought were the best bakeries in Sydney.

Combing through a few different lists for duplicates and filtering by distance I am willing to travel (I am not going to the Blue Mountains for bread), I've compiled a list of bakeries to try. To keep it on a level field, I have decided to try a croissant and a loaf of sourdough from each, but may also toss in a baguette, if they look good.

If this adventure goes well, maybe I will do this again with lamingtons, doughnuts, and bagels.

To be 100% clear, I am not qualified to be ranking anything bread related, except I generally like bread and have taste buds and can formulate a somewhat coherent opinion. Perhaps traditional croissants are meant to be dense, or sourdough is supposed to be charred. I just am not a fan. All opinions are based upon what I taste and what I like or don't like, so don't take them as gospel.

Anyways, here goes nothing:

The first bakery I am testing is Sonoma. While a bit of a chain (there are nine locations, including one in Canberra), they showed up on every list. And with one just a 20-minute walk from my place, it seemed as reasonable as any to start with.

First impressions of the bakery (I went to the one in Glebe, along Glebe Point Road) were:

• a bit small with a pretty limited selection
• no distinctive bakery smell
• all the baked goods looked very brown

To be clear, the people were very friendly, the place was clean, etc. And I know bread is brown, but typically you get a variety of colours at a bakery. Everything just seemed monochromatic here (on the over-baked side of things) and nothing jumped out screaming 'buy me'.

I ordered a Sonoma Mission sourdough and a croissant. Here are my thoughts on each.

Croissant

$4.50

Look and feel

A very large croissant and feels pretty heavy. Pretty dark and crisp on the outside.

First bite

Crispy on the outside and dense inside. Not super flaky, aside from the pieces which fall off the outside when you tear it. Not buttery; in fact, not much flavour at all.

Overall thoughts

Does the job, but I'm guessing the croissants I try in the future will be better. For those who know me, you know I believe everything comes in single serving portions. To give you a sense of my ambivalence on this one, I put half of it away for later. Not because I was full, but it just didn't really do it for me.

Sonoma croissant rating: 2.5/5

Mission Sourdough

$8.00

Look and feel

Big, dense, and quite dark on the outside (to the point I would call it burnt, especially at one end which is almost blackened).

First bite

Burnt. Tastes like char. Once you get past that, the inside is a great texture, but the overwhelming taste of blackened crust lingers and you can't taste much else.

Overall thoughts

I gave up on the heel and moved to another piece to try to be fair. One positive thing is I love the spongy texture inside, but overall, the overcooked crust really takes away from the experience. If the dough it sour, it's subtle, and overpowered by the burnt crust flavour. Pretty disappointing overall.

Sonoma sourdough rating: 1.5/5

So there you have it, my first thoughts on Sydney bakeries. Maybe I just got a burned loaf from Sonoma, but from this experience I would not recommend it.

Sonoma overall rating: 2/5

Let's see where my adventures take me next week!