During our 2008 "staycation", Jenn and I wandered the ByWard Market and stopped for freshly baked croissants from the French Baker on Murray Street (119). Here is a croissant from Owner Jérôme Mantel's legendary bakery that summer:

French Baker Croissant (circa 2008)

Cross-Section

Here is the "a-style" sandwich sign, belonging to the French Baker's adjoining restaurant from our visit

Benny's Bistro Sandwich Sign
and the bakery's business card.

Business Card

After we finished our ByWard Market culinary tour, lead by C'est Bon Cooking's Paola St-George (@cestboncooking), Jenn and I again stopped into the French Baker on Murray Street. Here is a croissant from the bakery this summer:

French Baker Croissant (circa 2010)

Cross-Section

Unrolled

Here is a shot of the bakery from our visit

French Baker's Murray Street Storefront

Why do I post photos that demonstrate markedly different textured croissants from the same bakery? We participated in a Croissant Battle this past April. The croissants we compared were ones we purchased that day.

The French Baker has been around since 1995. Its website boasts the bakery has grown its operation to "20 employees, including nine professional bakers, food and pastry chefs." While Mantel has no doubt established exacting standards, both its Murray Street and Bank Street locations cannot produce the same croissants everyday. There are simply too many variables in play, including staff turnover. This is why food bloggers are encouraged to visit eateries more than once before rendering any determinations on them.

The fact is the French Baker makes good croissants according to the following criteria:

...a good butter croissant is freshly baked. It unravels easily and can be teased apart. Inside, you should be able to see layers, spiraling outwards. It is brushed with egg wash half way through baking, so it takes on a golden colour as it crisps up. When handled, the crust should shatter into pieces. It should taste buttery, but should not leave your fingers an oily mess.

Source: "Ottawa Croissant Battle: A Round Up", foodiePrints.com

Whether you are a visitor to Ottawa or a long time resident, the French Baker is a source for good croissants. We have never bought croissants there we didn't like.

Particulars:
Le Boulanger Francais The French Baker
119 Murray Street
(613) 789-7941
Hours: Mon-Fri 7am – 6:30pm Sat, Sun 7am – 5:30pm

A little overcast greeted The Flour Shoppe on its grand opening. Its walls, newly painted with lilac purples and cream whites. Its floors newly tiled. Its stainless steel chairs, gleaming. And, its tables, freshly cleaned of cupcake crumbs. A line-up out the door would form when the sun broke through the clouds.

The Flour Shoppe StoreFront

Now Open
Nestled in the heart of the Glebe, it is auspicious. Owner/Baker Melissa Somers held her grand opening in association with United Way Ottawa. A portion of the day's sales were donated to the local charity. She offered a "sweetheart" draw for a dozen cupcakes/month for an entire year. To enter, you either had to purchase cupcakes or make a donation.

Sweetheart Draw

for United Way Ottawa

This would be our first visit to a "cupcakery", Ottawa's first. The Flour Shoppe is a milestone in our city's growing obsession with the little cakes, topped with icing.

If you are not familiar with cupcakes, visit The Flour Shoppe. You will immediately discover why cupcakes are so loved. Watch the pedestrians who walk by the storefront. They stop, take a second look, sometimes a third, and smile. Watch the customers who walk in. Their smiles widen when they look at the cupcakes on display. Watch the glee with which children tear into cupcakes. It is the same glee adults display when they tuck into theirs. Only, theirs is subdued, somewhat tempered with age. Some adults are visibly embarrassed with how much they enjoy their cupcakes. Many, lost in happy memories.

Cupcake Display

Trays of Cupcakes

For The Flour Shoppe's grand opening, there were cupcakes, both Somers' regular array of cupcakes and miniatures for sampling. Alas, the mini ones, while iced like their bigger siblings, were only made with vanilla or chocolate batter. Somers' regular cupcakes are flavoured both, cake and icing. Speaking of which, depending on the cupcake, the icing is either Swiss meringue or American-style butter cream. Both employ pasteurized eggs.

Tray of Mini Cupcake Samplers

Mini Cupcakes

More after the jump...

Ron Eade, the food editor of for the Ottawa Citizen (a local newspaper), just posted the results of this weekend's croissant battle on Omnivore's Ottawa, with additional information on Bridgehead's croissant entry. Bridgehead's test kitchen is still working on the croissant recipe.

As promised from our previous post, here is the top 5:

1. Le Moulin de Provence($1.85/each)
2. French Baker($1.80/each)
3. Ottawa Bagel Shop($1.25/each)
4. Wild Oat($1.75/each)
5. • Harvest Loaf($1.50/each)
   • Bridgehead($1.95/each)

Bridgehead and Harvest Loaf's croissants tied for fifth.

Here are Jenn's notes from the tasting for the top 5 croissants.

1. Le Moulin de Provence: golden crisp crust that flakes easily, buttery taste but not overly greasy, has a slight sweetness
2. French Baker: golden crisp crust, heavily layered interior yet slightly dense, buttery taste, greasy
3. Ottawa Bagel Shop: golden crisp crust, not heavily layered interior, buttery taste, light overall
4. Wild Oat: golden crust does not flake well, dense layers and slightly doughy interior, rich and buttery
5. • Harvest Loaf: light coloured crust does not flake well, soft interior that is not heavily layered, light overall
   • Bridgehead: dark golden crisp crust that flakes easily, dense layers, somewhat flavourless with an almost sour aftertaste, greasy

Regarding the greasiness Ron mentions in his blog post, several of the croissants left significant grease stains on the paper plates. For many, the grease soaked through. What was surprising is that some of the plates were accidentally doubled up. The croissants that left the most significant grease stains were Bridgehead's, Wild Oat's, and French Baker's.

What was most shocking was that supermarket-style croissants have a bizarre resilience. When pressed down, they spring back up. Their interiors are spongy, more bread than croissant.

Finally, we purchased an extra contingency croissant from each bakery for the roundup. Of the extras we brought home, Bridgehead's contingency croissant stayed crisp throughout the day. We had a friend over later that afternoon. She thought it freshly baked.

What happens when you gather 3 food bloggers, one the food editor of a local newspaper (Ottawa Citizen), into a coffee house with croissants from 8 local bakeries?

Croissants Round Up
You get a croissant round up akin to the one Apartment613 blog put together February 2009.

Originally, we intended to get together to just compare Bridgehead's newly released in-house-made croissants with their former croissants, ones sourced from the French Baker. French Baker's are easily the croissants other bakeries measure theirs against. The compare evolved, growing to include croissants from 6 more bakeries, including a supermarket's, Loblaws.

According to the Herbst and Herbst Food Lover's Companion 4th Edition, the croissant was originally made from a rich bread dough. Invented by Austrian bakers, it wasn't until the beginning of the 20th century a creative French baker decided to make croisasnts with a dough similar to puff pastry. The dough was still yeast-based, but incorporated butter into it, forming alternating strata of butter and dough. There are several variations on the classic butter croissant, the almond croissant (stuffed with almond paste and topped with powdered sugar and slivered almonds) and the chocolate croissant (stuffed with several pipings of dark chocolate paste).

For us, a good butter croissant is freshly baked. It unravels easily and can be teased apart. Inside, you should be able to see layers, spiraling outwards. It is brushed with egg wash half way through baking, so it takes on a golden colour as it crisps up. When handled, the crust should shatter into pieces. It should taste buttery, but should not leave your fingers an oily mess.

The contenders, butter croissants purchased from the French Baker, Harvest Loaf, Ottawa Bagel Shop, Le Moulin de Provence (the ByWard market bakery famous for its "Obama Cookies"), Boko Bakery, Wild Oat and Loblaws. Bridgehead graciously donated their croissants for the tasting, including samplings of their butter, ham and gruyere, chocolate (called chocolatine) and experimental almond (called almondine) croissants. To date, the almondine has not been released to public, so we are grateful to Bridgehead for letting us try it.

What we did was weigh the butter croissants and recorded an average weight (g) for each. Then, Jenn (@foodieprints) of foodiePrints, Ron Eade (@roneade) of Omnivore Eats, and Jodi Lariviere (@simplyfresh) of Simply Fresh did a blind taste test, ranking the croissants on a scale of 10 based on colour, texture, and flavour.

Jodi, Ron, Jenn, and an Innocent Bystander

Numbered Blind Taste Test
I sat out as I chose to be the coffee, tea, and camera boy. I also kept track of the rankings.

Le Moulin de Provence's

French Baker's

Wild Oat's

Bridgehead's

Boko Bakery's

Loblaws'

Plate	Bakery	Cost/Croissant ($ before taxes)	Average Weight/Croissant (g)
1	French Baker	$1.80	96.0
2	Harvest Loaf	$1.50	68.5
3	Ottawa Bagel Shop	$1.35	50.0
4	Le Moulin de Provence	$1.85	72.0
5	Bridgehead	$1.95	69.0
6	Boko Bakery	$1.05	105.0
7	Wild Oat	$1.75	110.0
8	Loblaws	$0.67	56.5

It was tough going to say the least.

Some were surprisingly hollow inside

Others, layered but more spongy

Others, more bready, resilient to being pressed down

One left a hefty oil stain in a paper plate

Another, followed suit

Aftermath, the remains of the tasting...

Then, bakeries were revealed and scores tabulated.

First Half of Reveal

Second Half of Reveal

Results? Well you're going to have to wait for Ron Eade's blog post, which should be coming soon. Suffice it to say, supermarket and supermarket-like croissants did not fare well. I will post the top 5 ranking and Jenn's review notes afterward.

Particulars:
Le Moulin De Provence
55 Byward Market Square
(613)241-9152

Le Boulanger Francais The French Baker
119 Murray Street
(613)789-7941
or
801 Bank Street
(613) 236-7579

Bagelshop & Deli
1321 Wellington Street
(613) 722-8753

Wild Oats Bakery Cafe And Catering
817 Bank Street
(613) 232-6232

Bridgehead Coffee Houses
109 Bank Street (at Albert)
(613)230.8548

Harvest Loaf
1323 Wellington Street
(613) 722-7797

Boko Bakery
280 Elgin Street
(613) 230-2656

More after the jump...

Earlier this March, we posted a writup on Ottawa Tonite on the subject of Montreal-style bagels from two Ottawa bagelries. While, we have visited the Continental Bagel Company in the Byward Market (55 Byward Market Square), this post involved bagels from the Ottawa Bagel Shop (1321 Wellington Street) and one of the Kettleman's (2177 Carling Avenue)

Clash of Ottawa's Montreal-Style Bagel Titans

The last time I asked Ottawa tweeps where they source their favourite bagels, there was some contention between former Montreal residents. While they agreed Ottawa-baked bagels don't compare to authentic Montreal-baked bagels, they fiercely defended their favourites of the two venerable Montreal Bagelries: St-Viateur and Fairmount. I half expected the Ottawa Tonite site to be inundated with debate.

As luck would have it, I asked an office colleague named Claire, a Montrealer, what bagelry she prefers. Without hesitation, she said Fairmount and neither St-Viateur nor anything Ottawa produces compares. The next day, she dropped by my cubicle and gave me her last Fairmount bagel, freshly defrosted and less than a week old. I had to try it!

With gratitude, I brought it home and followed her careful instructions to toast it before eating.

An Authentic Fairmount Poppy Seed Bagel

Split to Show Texture

Gently Toasted in a Toaster

Cut Up for Sampling
Hot from the toaster, we sampled our first authentic Montreal-style bagel; me, with a little full fat cream cheese; she, with a little jam. Toasting the bagel made the honey-soaked crust crisp again and re-toasted the poppy seeds, giving every bite a slight sweetness and nuttiness. It was great.

I have a feeling I will catch some flack for this, but I think the Fairmount bagel we sampled showcased the best of the textural aspects that separate Ottawa Bagel Shop's bagels from Kettleman's. Fairmount's was chewy (with substance), but yielding to each bite.

Now, I really want to try St-Viateur's bagels, given 1) the Ottawa Bagel Shop is affiliated with them and 2) Fairmount was originally founded by the son of a former owner of St-Viateur.

Speaking of other city's bagels, the same day Jenn and I tasted our first authentic bagel, we had on-hand sesame and poppy seed bagel boards from Toronto's The Bagel House (1722 Avenue Road or 1548 Bayview Avenue)

Box of Bagel Boards

Sesame and Poppy Seed Bagel Boards

Closeup of the Sesame Bagel Board
They were provided by Vicky (@momwhoruns), blogger for the Urban Mom's blog, foodie, and friend.

The bagel boards epitomize crunchiness. One side is loaded with seeds. The other is seasoned generously with salt. They seem the product of rolling bagel dough out thin and baking it crisp. I found them addictive.

Many thanks to Vicki for the boards and the recommendation to try the lemon roasted pistachios from the Shiraz Grocery Store (607 Somerset Street West) in Ottawa's Chinatown.

Aside:
At Shiraz, we found intensely sweet and complex flavoured "premium dates" (the box below was gifted to us by Paola (@cestboncooking)) and a new taste in pistachios.

Dates and Lemon Roasted Pistachios

Just the Pistachios
The pistachios didn't last long in my hands. I am very fond of shell roasted nuts. According to the cashier at Shiraz, the nuts are roasted in-house.

Particulars:
Fairmount Bagel Bakery Inc
74 avenue Fairmount Ouest, Montreal
(514)272-0667

The Bagel House
1722 Avenue Road, North York
(416)781-0032
or
1548 Bayview Avenue, Toronto
(416)481-8184

Shiraz Grocery Store
607 Somerset Street West, Ottawa
(613)563-1207