I’ve discovered a new bakery. Well, technically PJ discovered it for me. And you all know how I love a good bakery.
On Saturday I dropped off some Ben eggs for PJ (Ben to tim to me to PJ… roundabout) as well as an immersion blender from Bill. I love how we built a little community on the trail – that’s a blog for another day.
Anyway, PJ and I talked about the great Mexican food that I had in Tucson and she mentioned that there is a great Mexican panaderia close to her. As I was leaving, she gave me directions and I headed toward it; I found it easily – Don Panchos Bakery on Cesar Chavez. The customer area wasn’t too big but had huge displays on each side filled with an amazing array of goodies. Donuts, cookies, cakes, breads and lots and lots of pastries. Even flan.
I picked out a couple of conchas, which I adore and then when I turned around to the other case, I saw “besos”. It’s two cakes held together by sweet custard and I’ve only encountered them a couple of times during my travels. I quickly added a couple of those to my tub. Pricing was much lower than I expected. In fact, when she gave me the total, I asked her if she had gotten everything. It was all I could do to get out of there without enough pastries to open up my own shop!
It was also all I could do to not eat all the pastries on Saturday afternoon!
Which direction do you head if you want to find a bakery?
Trail Baboon 
South, half a block.
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I turn to the south and head into my kitchen.
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We have a largish company here called Baker Boy that makes all sorts of frozen dough products for commercial and home consumption. Until the recent opening of a bagel shop, and then a Mexican bakery, there were no bakeries here. Bismarck has a bakery called Bread Poets, but we rarely get there.
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South a block, then west a block. Bloedows (rhymes with play-doh), oldest bakery in Winona, there since 1924. https://www.bloedows.com/
Nothing fancy, no coffee or anything, just breads and treats, the best glazed donut I’ve encountered.
They post on their website the filled donut schedule…
Bavarian creme – M, Th, Sat
Lemon or whipped cream – Tu, F
Apple – Wed
Blueberry – Sat
I now have to special order my personal favorite, the coconut macaroons,
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Here’s where a lot of my time goes:
When I was in Boy Scouts, about 1960, there were two brothers, Willy and Otto Bloedow, who helped the scoutmaster sometimes. They were older, probably late teens but seemed older than that at the time.
The name seemed unusual enough to wonder if they were related to the Winona Bloedows.
So I went on Ancestry and searched out their birth records and those of their father to see if there might be a connection. There could be back in Germany but the Bloedows I knew had roots in Redwood County Minnesota and the Winona Bloedows go back in Winona to the 19th Century, so it looks like there’s no direct connection unless it’s as distant cousins.
This won’t be on the quiz.
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I have been to Bloedow’s, and their Bavarian cremes are heavenly.
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However, there is the Blue Heron Coffeehouse that has marvelous breads and baked things, locally sourced, fair trade coffee, great soups… I actually eat their baked goods far more often than Bloedow’s at this point.
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West, four blocks.
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Say more, please… : )
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The Bakers Wife… CG led me to this one last fall!
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Would that be on 38th Street and maybe near Nicollet?
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This should give you some idea of how my brain is working at the moment. BiR’s comment “Say more,” immediately flashed to this in my head:
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Barbara, no, Baker’s Wife is near Hiawatha Ave. My roommate likes their raised donuts and American teacakes.
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42nd Street at 28th Avenue.
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Thank you, Sister Crow. : )
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Fargo and Sioux Falls have Breadsmith, which we try to get to if we have the opportunity. They have good bagels.
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I love their big English muffins!!
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I’m so pleased, vs, that you had no trouble finding one of our little neighborhood gems, and that you weren’t disappointed. I rarely go to Don Panchos anymore. When I was still working at the school, I’d stop by regularly to bring in treats for my admin staff.
I agree, the baboons have evolved into a wonderful little network of kindred spirits. The immersion blender from Bill was a totally unexpected gift. He had picked it up at an estate sale somewhere and remembered that I wanted one. I haven’t tried it yet, Bill, but I’ll let you know how it works when I do.
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I hadn’t tried it either so if it doesn’t work I’m sorry. It looks like it’s never been used, though.
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There’s another family-run bakery close by, this one in West St. Paul. Castillo’s Bakery is located next to the post office in the Signal Hills shopping mall. In addition to traditional Mexican white bread, they also offer conchas and churros, massive slices of chocoflan and tres leches cake, plus the best home-made tamales. Next time you’re in this neighborhood, remind me, vs, and I’ll give you directions.
We also have The St. Paul Flatbread company nearby. As the name suggests their offerings are Middle-Eastern, and pretty limited, but well worth a visit if you’re in the vicinity. They offer, in addition to flatbread, such delicacies as jazz bread – that does and excellent stand in as a pizza crust – and za’atar bread. They also have two kinds of hummus, a great garlic sauce, tabbouleh, and squares of kibbe, all made in house. To satisfy your sweet tooth, slices of their house-made baklava should do the trick. They also have a nice assortment of olives, and miscellaneous staples needed for a Middle-Eastern spread. The last meal at the old oak dining room table – which now lives in BiR’s house in Winona – was shared with Linda, Barb, Mike and Hans and was all bought there.
Before husband unearthed his inner baker, I would buy bread at the farmers’ market as a special Saturday morning treat.
I haven’t been out of the house in two weeks, and I’m getting CABIN FEVER! At least that what I hope it is, otherwise I’m going crazy. I hope tomorrow’s MRI will point the way to relief from this knee pain.
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I hope so, PJ.
And I do remember that meal – St. Paul Flatbread sounds like a great place.
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I just remembered, your husband goes by Michael, not Mike. Sorry about that.
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I love it. It’s such a friendly little place. They are pricier and a lot smaller than Holy Land Deli, and have a much smaller assortment of goods, but they are much, much friendlier.
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OK, I guess I should’ve asked a cheesier bakery pun question. I thought for sure that maybe Bill would say YEAST! Or maybe Wes.
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You have to head yeast to get to Wes
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Oh nooooooo!
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Snort! I took a second for that to register.
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Oh, yeast is yeast and crust is crust
but neither the Jews will eat.
They take a stand, heed God’s command,
“It’s matzo thou shall eat.”
But there is yeast and lots of crust
at other times of year.
Challah’s there upon the table.
It’s kosher to be clear
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A bakery?? I know a few in Rochester that have closed…
Went to the “Farm Show” this morning in Rochester…(stay with me here) it was three rows in half the arena. A lot of booths selling gutter covers, title insurance, drainage tile… windows, and one booth with a bale wrapper, a TMR mixer, and a manure spreader. A few lawn mowers scattered around, and one place selling cattle gates and sorting equipment. Didn’t take long to walk around the “show”. There was also about 4 booths of Amish selling siding, windows, small storage buildings and FRIED PIES that were really good. That’s what we bought. And my thoughts on bakeries. They have a St. Charles address, so it would be East for us. 20 miles.
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I’m probably not supposed to tell you all, but I just discovered that Krista is in North Platte, NE to see the migrating sandhill cranes. I hope she’ll share the experience with us, perhaps by submitting a blog about it. How about it, Krista?
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My go-to bakery for years was Jerabek’s. long gone now, and the donut shop that had no rival in my area was Granny Donuts, which closed up with the pandemic shutdown and never reopened. I am rather agnostic on bakeries these days. I have been to a number of places, but everything seems so expensive and not that great. Millenials seem to love Mojo Monkey, but it didn’t do much for me. They pile everything high with frosting, or add weird stuff like bacon to their donuts.
My sister’s neighborhood had a perfectly serviceable donut shop called PJ Murphy’s, but it became La Boulangerie Marguerite, and everything seemed to triple in price. Now I occasionally get a muffin at the local coffee shop on Smith, but I just buy bread at Aldi and don’t go to bakeries much.
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I miss St. Agnes.
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Oh me too… that was a wonderful experience!!
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Yes, I was sorry I never got there before they closed.
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i’ve thought about asking sift if i can apprentice
gluten free is an invisible art
most tastes like cardboard
anyone heard from clyde?
he cared about that
i had a bakery in my teens …richards and we’d stop in at midnight on our way home friday night and he’d give us rack a giant bag of donuts for a quarter
i never did much bskeryvstuff before that so bismarck’s eclairs fried cinnamon bear claws napoli and almond paste rolls that flake apart as you bite
i’m watering at the mouth
o do wouletts and the one vs introduced me to that does $9 raised donuts on wednesday
good but i can’t afford 2
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on italy the little pastries used to make me so look forward to breakfast
espresso and little sweet tortes and colorful delicacies
never knew what they were but laughed as i ate
orgasms on my tongue
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Last time he was on was just before Christmas. I emailed him once and haven’t heard back..
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Yes good
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