Top 3 Munich Bakeries
I visited a few of Munichs best bakeries and i'm telling you want i ate and what i think about them! Also, a few side facts on why i am destined to be a sourdough baker 🩵🤍
Welcome to Munich! 🇩🇪 🥨 🍞 🥖
When it comes to baking, Munich is some of the hotspots of the german bread culture, so that’s naturally where i have to go. Munich is best known for the “Brezel” that is in reality nothing like anything you are served outside of Germany. The german Brezel is a symmetrically shaped wheat dough 🥨 treated with sodium hydroxide solution before baking, which gives it its typical deep brown crust and savory flavor.
Traditionally sprinkled with coarse salt, it is a popular pastry in Germany, especially in southern Germany, so where i am from (Freiburg), we know a lot about Brezeln as well.
Why you can trust my taste
To start if this review, i want to make sure you trust my taste thats why im telling you something of an anecdote of me and my heritage. I pledge to be a good critic when it comes to everything cake and bread!
It all starts with my Family Name: Herrmann. “Herrmann” is a german name that goes way back and even appears in the bakery world. In the 80s and 90s german culture, there used to be a so called “Herrmann cake”, a sourdough starter, which was often passed on as a kind of “chain letter”. In common parlance, Herrmann cake is a wheat based sourdough starter. So you can say: Sourdough runs through my veins. But not only that, the start was used to make a bread based cakes.
Combining bread & cake. This can’t be a coincidence.
I was destined to make “Kuchenbrote” (Cakebreads - as i am doing on my instagram account). This makes me wonder if i even invented this by myself or if it was given to me - it’s definitly not just something that i do: It’s what I AM!! 🍞🤝🏼🍰
Please tell me , if you know anything about the “Herrmann cake” i would love to hear your stories or thoughts about that!
Top Bakeries
Before my Trip here, i asked you guys on instagram to give me some local tips for quality bakeries here in munich, so i visited 3 of the top ranked:
Julius Brantner, Brotraum and Bageri
So without furtherer due, let’s start this review and jump right in.
1. Julius Brantner
📍Backstube Schwabing Nordendstrasse 23
True to the motto “You can’t fool nature,” Julius Brantner focusses on long dough resting times, bio certified flours and the use of sourdough. Julius Brantner is convinced that the natural process of maturation and fermentation produces the best quality for his organic breads - just as i am! He is the most renomated baker in munich because he makes bread a luxury! High prices and high value go hand in hand and you really get that here at Julius Brantner.
i tried some classics here:
The Brezel
As is mentioned in the intro of this article, the southern Germans know the art of Brezeln. Eventhough we are in Bavaria, this particular Brezel-style originated in Swabia. The Brezel with skinny arms and a fat belly, how bakers call it. The munich style Brezel normally has too, a fat belly, but also fatty arms! :D Sounds funny - is funny and everybody is free to choose their favorite style.
This Brezel even has sourdough (i even checked at the cash register) and tastes exactly how a Brezel has to taste in my opinion. It’s crunchy in the outside, even cracks when you push your fingers into it, but a super soft interior and belly center. Slightly buttery, a touch of sweetness & paired with thick chunks of salt they really are an orchestra of texture and flavor. Started off strong!
The Handsalzstangl
This to me, looks a lot like the korean salt bread that is all over instagram (or just my niched down recommendations). It’s soft and crunchy yeasted dough, handrolled into a long log and topped with whole caraway seeds and salt. This is something that’s really german and you can casually grab to go wherever you are when in need of a little carby situation!
The Sesame & Walnut Bread
Last but not least, i got to try the special offer of the day which was a rustic roasted sesame and walnut loaf. To me it looked so appealing because i really love anything nutty in baked goods or to be more specific in bread.
Because i was on the go i ripped open the loaf and tried it on the spot, because it was still warm from the oven and smelled sooo delicious! And not to jump to conclusions too quickly, but this loaf was truly magical. The roasted notes in this loaf tastes nutty and almost like caramell. I think they put some sort of sugar in this because it was really sweet and complemented the rustic roasted flavors so well. I think i will try and bake a loaf like this myself in the future!
2. Brotraum
📍Herzogstraße 6, 80803 München
Brotraum is a bakery that embodies a more casual and cozy vibe and serves more viennoiserie products on a daily basis. When i visited, there where a few options on the croissant dough frontier and i decided on the plain croissant to really test the flavor of the dough. Also, they had a cinnamon bun handshaped just as i like to do (you can read about it in my cinnamon bun article). I wanted to see, if my own bakes where as good as a munich bakery’s.
The Croissant
I can proudly say: Tasted as good as a parisian croissant! The hold their shape very well and taste of 100% butter just as they should. So, big recommendation to anyone in munich thats not able to go to paris for their croissants.
The Cinnamon Bun
Maybe it was because of their size, but i found them to be a bit dense and not quite as fluffy as i would want them to be. Also, the flavor was not that special and i would have loved something more of a kick to these. In store, you can choose between a sugar coated bun or a natural one, as you can see in the picture, so maybe i should have gotten the sugary one for that extra pop. Still good!
I wasn’t so sad about them because i knew - the trip ends at Bageri.
3. Bageri
📍Adlzreiterstraße 21, 80337 München
The small bakery is known for their sweet yeast buns and. They serve traditionally twisted cinnamon buns and the artsy spun cardamom buns that i really love from Sweden. So this is where we ended the trip.
The bakery is open 4 days of the week starting on thursdays. Lucky me, i could grab a piece when i was there and enjoyed a big and fluffy cardamom bun!
The cardamom bun
Due to the size of these, the center of the buns where so soft and fluffy and i really loved all about these! The cardamom was super present and complemented the sweet and buttery pastry so well. They also look so beautiful and to me, this is a huge bonus point on baked goods like these :-)
I was really happy with all of my bakery finds here in munich and I loved the city very much! So thanks munich for the experience and thank you for the great tips! Will be coming again soon :-)