Bread in the cities

[kriminalrat]

Who has the tastiest natural bread in the Cities. I like St. Agnes but want to branch out. It seems the farmers market downtown has quite a few vendors.

[forgottendreamr]

What do you mean by "natural"? We always find Rustica to be very satisfying.

[kriminalrat]

Not mass produced...processed bread. Rustica is a great suggestion.

[foreverhungry]

There's not a ton of really excellent bread in the Twin Cities. Rustica is very good. Pardon My French in Eagan has very good French style breads - that's actually some of the best bread I've had in Minnesota. I've heard very good things about the bread at Sun Street Bakery on Nicollet - I've had their other baked goods, which have been very good, but haven't tried their bread yet. The baguette at Patisserie 46 (I believe it was the Campaign baguette? the one with a bit of whole wheat flour?), is also very good. Haven't tried any of their other breads.

The rest of the bread I've had in the area is just OK. There's not a high demand for bread other than mass produced sandwich loaf bread in the Twin Cities, which keeps the number of high quality bakeries low, and the low turnover means that getting something very fresh can be difficult.

-----
Pardon My French
1565 Cliff Rd Ste 1A, Saint Paul, MN 55122

[becks1]

New bakery in Forest Lake
http://mnbreadco.com/index.html
all natural ingredients
no lard ,shortening,eggs or milk,low card,low sodium
many pasta selections

[danionavenue]

crossroads is pretty good for bread.

[Quince]

Rustica, Patisserie 46, Patrick's, Bread Coffee Cake before they shut down (hopefully they will be back) and the Wedge bakery all are better than St. Agnes. My very favorite loaf of bread is from Prairie Hollow Farm, available at the Mill City Farmer's Market. They make a whole wheat oatmeal bread from wheat they grow and grind into flour. It's not cheap but it's very tasty. I would like to try Sun Street Breads, but I need to plan a special Kingfield brunch for that since I don't live nearby.

-----
Mill City Farmer's Market
750 2nd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55402

Sun Street Breads
4600 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55419

[sandylc]

Rustica.

[linzertorte]

Rustica +1

[MrSlippery]

We happened to be near Sun Street last weekend and stopped by and purchased a baguette and a loaf of sourdough. Since we were in the area, we swung by Patisserie 46 and besides getting pastries, also got a baguette and a loaf of sourdough. At this point, we thought why not stop by Rustica, our go to bakery, and pick up a baguette and some sourdough. They didn't have any sourdough at Rustica, so we got a baguette and a levain.

Back home we tried all of the various loaves just sliced and untoasted. Of the baguettes, Sun Street had a very good texture and flavor and was baked to just the right point, crunchy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside. Rustica's baguette also had a good texture and flavor, but seemed a little too dry. Patisserie 46's baguette had a very good flavor. I think it was more a sourdough than the others, but the texture and baking was also more like a sourdough, not as crisp and light, more chewy and dense.

Of the sourdoughs and the levain, all different but not in a bad way. It just depended on what you were looking for in a loaf of bread that day.

The next few days, having days old bread, the Rustica baguette became less crunchy and you could taste the great flavor of the dough.

So what does that all mean... I guess we are just lucky to have a number of great bakeries in the Twin Cities. Sun Steet's baguette was the best that day but Rustica's had a great taste in the days to come, (I mean, how much bread can you eat in a week..). You can get great coffee at Rustica and delicious pastries at Patisserie 46. Also, the croissant from 46 was one of the best we have had in the Cities.

I just wish that one of them was closer to where we lived...

[sandylc]

Wow, great reviews! I've only been to Sun Street once, but I look forward to trying it again. I've found the pastries at Patisserie 46 to be uneven in quality. For example, we got an eclair there a month or two ago that was filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with a thin piece of chocolate. Well, the pastry cream and topper were brown, anyway. There was NO chocolate flavor at all! Very strange! Other pastries have been middling to very good there. The flavors just don't have the intense qualities that I remember having in France. Methinks they should work on the flavors as much as the appearance at 46!