Wild Earth Bakery and Coffee

(On 99 Street just down from the IGA)

It seemed like the "experienced baker wanted" sign hung in the window of the un-opened Wild Earth Bakery for ages. Apparently Norm Joly, Wild Earth's owner was waiting for the right baker. Seems he found what he was looking for.

Wild Earth opened last week and from all appearances on the Sunday morning Cakes and I visited, things were all running smoothly. The place was positively packed. As I've often said, Edmonton lacks enough good coffee/cafe type places where you can pop in on a weekend morning, read a paper, have a decent coffee and just chill. I'm glad to say that Wild Earth fits the bill perfectly. And I guess that shouldn't be a huge surprise, as Norm is not a stranger to the food business in Edmonton: he owns the IGA on 99th Street, just a few doors down from bakery.

Cakes and I both had a latte, which was good by Edmonton standards but not necessarily world standards. Maybe I'm just clinging too furiously to memories of coffes in Melbourne...where even cheap lattes from dodgy corner stores have a beautiful crema around the edge of the milk froth and a much deeper, richer taste...

But I digress.

Cakes and I had worked up quite an appetite as we'd gone for an hour-long stroll through Mill Creek Ravine. He ordered and devoured a feta & dill scone (which I sampled of course) and it was fan-bloody-tastic. I had an apple and cranberry muffin which was loaded with fruit, moist and not overly sweet, in a word - muffin perfection.

We also cleverly (or not so cleverly if you take into account the calories...) purchased a selection of the six other items pictured above for sampling at our leisure at home. I was astounded that the six items cost us only around $8. What a bargain!

My favourite of the six was definitely the raspberry danish. Not too sweet, beutifully creamy custard cream and the pastry was flaky but still very moist. Cakes favourite (surprise!) was the apple strudel which was incredibly apple-y and again not overly sweet.

We didn't really like the trail-mix cookie, which was quite cake-y and dry. I definitely prefer my cookies chewy and moist. The filling in the mixed berry tart was way too sweet for my liking - like jam with sugar added - it was, however, packed with intense berry flavour. Pastry was nice and moist but there was way too much of it. with the result that, it looked like a tartlet but tasted rather alot like a thick slab of pastry topped with a dollop of oversweet jam. I probably won't be buying that one again.

If there is a continuum at one end of which is a cupcake and at the other is a an oat bran muffin of the sort my mother used to make when she was dieting, I'd have to say The blueberry and lemon muffin is very, very close to the cupcake end - very close to a sweet white vanilla cake with some fruit in it. Which is great if you're a cupcake rather than muffin person, but I think I'd prefer my muffins to taste a bit less like dessert if I'm eating them for breakfast! I have to maintain at least some illusions for myself. I suspect that the apple cranberry muffin I loved and the blueberry/lemon one I didn't were probably made with the same batter. I just think the tart and plentiful fruit in the apple and cranberry one overcame the sweet cakey-batter better than did the blueberry and lemon.

The cheese stick was very cheesy, but perhaps a bit less than fresh as it was quite hard and tasteless. Probably wouldn't buy that again either.

All in all, not a bad showing for having been open only a handful of days. Drop in, say hi to Norm and grab a raspberry danish and a feta and dill scone and some coffee and just hang out for a while.

If first impressions are anything to go on, Norm and his "experienced baker" need to do a bit of corrective work oin some of the recipes, but if they do get it right, they'll be around for a while.

Comments

[Don]

Yum! Now that's a tasty pile of carbs if I've ever seen one!

[Tanna]

Nothing can beat a great coffee/breakfast/weekend place. When place and food and people come together to create that perfect harmony, the world can pause for perfection. I love breakfast. And I'm so with you on the not too sweet.

[Dianka]

Yum, I think I'd go for the Apple Strudel (in order to represent being Czech!) Sounds delicious, wish we had one of these close by.

~Dianka
http://na-zdravi.blogspot.com/

[Lyn]

Don, do go. Their stuff is really really nice.

[Kiri Miller]

Thanks for blogging this one -- I headed over there 10 minutes after reading your review. Edmonton is sorely lacking in real coffee shops, which to me means good coffee backed by good in-house pastry and decent seating. Wild Earth does pretty well in all these categories, though I can't imagine buying actual bread there with Tree Stone a few blocks away.
-Kiri

[susan]

Went early last week as well, and really wanted to like the place, but found some of the baking pretty below par. The scones looked like they were mixed too dry and then overdone, though I didn't try them, and the tart's pastry in particular was dense, tough, and had an off flavour. The croissant had a good crackle to it though. The danish at least tasted like it was made with real fruit, and the buns were fine. Like someone mentioned, a neighborhood with Tree Stone down the street is going to have high expectations. For what was done well it is pretty good value. Could be a treasure of a place if it works out the kinks.

[Lyn]

Susan,

I'm going to give it a few weeks and try again. See if they've fixed up some of the less-than-perfect stuff. I did like that danish and the cranberry muffin though, so am hoping that the other offerings catch up to them in quality.