What should we know about Blossom Artisan Bakery?
Tucked away inside Buddy’s Farmer’s Market in Ballymun Industrial Park, is a brand new bakery - Blossom. Run by Xenia and Peter, pastry school sweethearts, everything is made in-house and from scratch.
Blossom opened a little over two months ago, and they are currently open Wednesday to Saturday from 09:00-15:00. They've been having issues with Google Maps so please use the eircode D11 RPC9 to find them rather than letting Google take you somewhere you really shouldn't be going.
What should we have?
Previously known as @that_sourdough_guy, Peter has been perfecting his craft for years. In their bread lineup, you’ll find country sourdough (made with organic wholemeal spelt flour from Oak Forest Mills), seeded malt sourdough (his signature loaf), French baguette, and a weekly special. When we visited they had zopf - a Swiss braided bread similar to challah.
The malt sourdough could go head to head with the city's best bakes, and their baguette is also in the big leagues, with its benchmark chew hard to stop chewing.
A brie and walnut ciabatta was less impressive, with the brie imperceptible - they might perhaps be using a brie made with pasteurised milk as opposed to a Brie de Meaux - but the bread made for a lovely egg salad sandwich the next day.
From the pastries, they recommended the chocolate knot, and it was a buttery and flaky with chocolate woven throughout. Top knotch stuff. A pain suisse on the other hand was under-baked with the custard a touch too thick, but look at those layers - a few more minutes in the oven and there would have been no problem.
Their almond croissant was faultless, with that ultra buttery crunch and crumble outside, and a sweet generous filling inside, and a white chocolate, pistachio and raspberry Danish was another of our favourite things - the tart raspberries and nuts managing to avoid it tasting too sweet.
The cinnamon morning bun is the lightest, fluffiest little buttery cinnamon bun there was, and at €2, it's a steal. The cinnamon-to-sugar ratio was spot on, it was gone in seconds, and we’ve been thinking about it every day since.
We were told they've been getting great feedback on their sausage rolls, and we can see why. The crunchy pastry topped with toasted sesame seeds, encloses a meaty, well seasoned filling, spliced with sweet red onion jam and spring onions, and it all felt very gourmet, and very juicy.
Is there seating?
They have a small indoor seating area, and a few picnic tables outside if the weather is good.
What is there to drink?
Their coffee is from Imbibe, was brewed perfectly, and it’s one of the best cups around until you hit Driftwood in Finglas.
Anything else I should know?
Bring your shopping bags and stock up on Dublin-grown fruit and veg from Buddy's (which we can't believe we didn't know about until now). Ballyboughal strawberries, Lusk tomatoes, plums from Swords - this is our version of a sweet shop.
Why should I go?
Blossom is without a doubt the best bakery for miles, which is good news for the locals. Not a local? Go here if you have a trip to IKEA or Decathlon planned, or even on the way to/from the airport. Just remember to use the eircode…
Blossom Artisan Bakery
Unit D, 2 Ballymun Industrial Park, 16 Carton Rd, Ballymun, D11 RPC9
