Oh goodness, I am writing about another bakery. It just so happens, I love bakeries, and when I find a new one that make tasty baked goods, it is hard to be quite about them. How could I hide a bakery that makes baked goods with a twist (especially a good bakery). Plus, this will just be a quick blurb. Nothing too long, just letting you guys all know about a great bakery. Maybe you have heard about it, maybe you haven't. Either way, I recommend you keep reading!
To set the story a little bit. I recently (on January 2nd) drove over to Phinney by Woodland Park Zoo and stopped by Fresh Flours Bakery.
Fresh Flours is owned by two business partners, Keiji and Etsuko. Both of them love Japanese pastries and came to Seattle in 2000 to look for a place to open their business of Japanese inspired pastries. In July 2005, they were able to open up Fresh Flours. A bakery that serves Japanese baked goods, coffee, and your standard french pastry.
The location I visited was close to Greenlake. It was quaint and relaxing. Even though it was quite busy. That is what happens when it is one of the few places open on the Monday after New Year's Day 2017. Besides Phinney, Fresh Flours has several locations, including a location in SLU (for you Amazonians who are looking for a breakfast treat).
Locations include:
6015 Phinney Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98103
206-297-3300
1624 S. McClellan Street
Seattle, WA 98144
206-258-3121
9410 Delridge Way SW
Seattle, WA 98106
253-470-6753
432 8th Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
From appearances, it is like any other bakery. Some pastries offered on one side, and a register and coffee on another. Not much to it! They have a very cozy atmosphere, some comfy chairs in some of the corners, along with some more crammed seating along the side(sadly, that is where I had to sit). The place was quite busy. Clearly, this is a neighborhood favorite get together spot.
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| Green Tea and Black Sesame Cookie; Lemon Ginger Muffin |
Most of their pastries looked standard. Fresh Flours offered macarons, croissants, danishes and so forth. There wasn't too many things on that list that I would drive far for.
Yet, they did several pastries that I just adored! For multiple reasons. These pastries weren't just good from a flavor standpoint. They were well executed and unique(ish).
The picture above has three tasty treats that I consumed during my visit to Fresh Flours Bakery. It has a lemon ginger muffin, a green tea and black sesame cookie. These pastries sold me when I saw their descriptions. Maybe I am too easy...but those flavors sounded right. Lemon and ginger, green tea, and black sesame served with an Americano. Please and thank you. In the end, I was not disappointed.
All of these were a great balance of sweet and bitter and offered a slight twist to the flavor you might expect. They didn't rely on your typical chocolate or vanilla to win over the hearts of the people who don't like change. Even their lemon (which I consider a standard flavor), added the dimension of ginger. All of these pastries piqued my interest.
The green tea cookie in particular cost $.80 and was by far my favorite. I actually came across a recipe that seems to make a similar cookie so I wanted to share the link. It looks super easy to do! Clearly, I will need to spend a weekend baking these bad boys up.
What I really enjoyed about these cookies was that fact that they weren't too sweet. If you are like me, you have had way too many green tea "things" that combat the green tea bitterness by oversweetneing their product...
Personally, I would, and do enjoy the slight bitter flavors you get from green tea. That is how I know I am drinking tea. Otherwise, it might as well be flat soda.
Similarly, the black sesame cookie was more like a biscuit, not too sweet but very flavorful. You knew you were eating a black sesame flavored cookie. They weren't trying to hide it behind other flavors.
The lemon ginger muffin was a little on the sweet side, only ever so slightly. However, this was balanced by the spice that sang from the ginger. Fresh Flours didn't try to hide the ginger flavor or its natural spice. If you don't like ginger, or spicy, this is not the pastry for you. Some of you out there are looking at this post weird right about now. What are you talking about "Spicy", since when is spicy good in dessert.
First, not cayenne spicy, more like heavy cinnamon spicy. In this case, it balanced the sweet and acidic flavors that came from the lemon. It also brought out some fun notes in my coffee. Overall, the lemon ginger muffin was very tasty. If you need a recipe, check out this link from ofbatteranddough.com. They do a great job at creating recipes.
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| Blueberry Danish |
I also ordered a danish. Just to see how their standard pastries tasted like. It was good, but personally...nothing special. This was your typical danish, filled with pastry cream and blueberries. Good, but not as special as Fresh Flours Japanese inspired flavors. If you plan on going to Fresh Flours, I would recommend you order their pastries that are not your run-of-the-mill pastry shop sweets. That is what makes this place special.
Yes, they make croissants, and danishes, which taste great. However, their purpose for starting the bakery was to create Japanese inspired baked goods! Guess what? They do that really well. Otherwise, it would be like going to France and eating at the Hotel.
Really, you are just ordering the safe options that the hotel has for tourists. Is that what you want? Food and flavors you can get at the next bakery over?
Why? Why did you travel so far(at least in my case), to get these pastries, if you were just going to get your standard croissant(unless you are trying to find the best croissant). Try something new. Try some new flavors, and flavor combinations.
What is great is that they have several cookies that are pretty cheap $.80 isn't too much money. At the very least, you can get a safe pastry and try one of their non-standard flavors. Maybe it will be fun??
Truthfully, the only reason I happened to venture to Fresh Flours Bakery was because they were one of the few places opened that day. I was curious if their baked goods were...well...good? I was not disappointed! There have been a few bakeries I have visited and not written about...because, they just were sad. They touted unique flavors, or some culture twist. Sadly, once I got there and had a few bites of what those places had to offer, I realized I shouldn't have spent my money.
I hope you find this bakery amazing as well! It really was a special treat for me.
Tags; Wait another Bakery?; Sweets; Good Baked Goods; Where are bakeries in Seattle?; Japanese Sweets; Green Tea; Black Sesame; Cookies; recipes
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