No Pain, No Grain

Bread may be the staff of life, but it began as a baking blunder by an inept caveman. Historians say a prehistoric chef probably left grain gruel on the fire too long, producing the world’s first flat bread.

Since those humble beginnings, bread--from India’s chapatis to Mexico’s tortillas--has become as basic to meals as water or wine. Since ancient Rome, village bakers have been an integral part of most communities.

But modern life has threatened the time-honored craft of baking. Grocery stores and wholesale food clubs have taken a huge bite out of the baked-goods business. In Orange County, only a few Old World, European-style bakeries survive.

“It’s kind of a dying craft,” said Fred Hyde, owner of Poul’s Bakery in Orange. “The older guys are retiring, and the younger guys don’t want to work that hard.”

Stiff competition from in-store bakeries has wiped out mom-and-pop stores the way giant chains devoured most small bookstores. Professional bakers say that even though the ingredients in the market bakeries are inferior to those used in Old World-style bakeries, people often prefer the convenience of the grocery store.

“Kids grow up on the market stuff, and it’s cheap,” Hyde said. “Lots of people don’t know the difference.”

*

We found a handful of Old World-style, mom-and-pop bakeries supplying customers with traditional pastries, cakes and freshly baked bread. Among the region’s best are Poul’s in Orange, Great Dane Baking Co. in Huntington Beach, Herb’s Black Forest Bakery in Fountain Valley, Scandia Bakery in Laguna Beach and Champagne French Bakery Cafe in Irvine.

Hyde, who also owns the Judy Lynn Bakery in Fullerton, started working at age 8 in his dad’s bakery, the Judy Lynn, which opened in 1951. Hyde bought Poul’s in 1976 and added his recipes to the Old World Danish formulas of the original owner. Nearly every day, he begins baking at midnight to satisfy his customers, as well as about 12 catering companies.

Each day, Hyde sells about 80 pounds of Danishes, 200 dozen cookies and 12 kinds of breads, he said. His specialty is the Scandinavian princess cake, a white, dome-shaped dessert layered with fresh whipped cream, custard and raspberry filling and covered in colored marzipan. His second-biggest selling cake is chocolate layered with fresh bananas, whipped cream and custard.

Real butter and just-out-of-the-oven freshness are the key differences between the products from small bakeries and those on most supermarket shelves. Market products are often shipped frozen from factories and decorated with vegetable shortening frosting, which holds up longer than butter. Poul’s and similar European bakeries typically use more butter and fresh whipped cream and cheeses than supermarkets do.

Another difference between ordinary bakeries and Poul’s can be found in products such as the cheese bread, which at Poul’s is baked through with the cheese, not just layered on top.

Hyde uses 20 pounds of dough to 7 pounds of butter; most of his products are nearly one-third butter, he said. Poul’s also uses fresh fruit, custard and whipped cream. Cookies, breads and pastries often are sold warm from the oven.

One recent day in his kitchen, a pastry cook armed with what looked like a blowtorch glazed purple frosting on giant cakes lined up for decorating. Racks of cupcakes lined one wall, ready to be topped with colorful creams and edible adornments.

Hyde’s sweets are selling like, well, hot cakes. Crowds line up in the parking lot for the princess cakes, which at holidays are decorated with seasonal touches. Most days the bakery, where there are tables and chairs to sit and savor sweets, is filled with regular customers, many of them Danes, Swedes and other Europeans.

*

Jody and Keld Pedersen opened the Great Dane Baking Co. in April 1998. Keld, who lived in Scandinavia for 35 years, specializes in Danish pastries, French and Italian Old World-style breads and a dizzying array of cakes and cookies from traditional European recipes. The princess cake is also one of Pedersen’s specialties, along with Kringle coffeecakes, Budapest cakes, Swedish limpa bread, white-chocolate raspberry cake and dark-chocolate mousse cake.

The Pedersens’ special occasion pastries, such as the princess cake and the mousse cakes, sell about as fast as they’re baked. Their signature cake is a colossal ladyfinger creation filled with custard, topped with chocolate-dipped strawberries and circled with a frosting ribbon.

Other fancy cakes are dusted with gold sprinkles or ringed with exotic fruits. Poppy-seed pastries, bear claws, almond and nut chews sell as well as the chocolate chip and butter cookies. On weekends, Danes from all over Southern California come for rundstykkar (hard rolls) and kranse kage (coffeecake).

*

Like Poul’s, Great Dane uses high-quality fresh ingredients, usually bought from European suppliers.

“I need to be a step above [the competition],” said Keld Pedersen, who speaks with a Danish accent. “We are a neighborhood bakery that goes the extra mile. I want to be a ‘90s, up-to-date shop with traditional pastries.”

Besides supplying caterers, Great Dane delivers fresh goods to Disneyland, its biggest client, the Mighty Ducks and Disneyland-area hotels--seven days a week.

Pedersen, who was trained by a French baker in Denmark, has been a professional baker for 22 years. He says that he can think of few, if any, competitors that offer the kind of product he sells.

“There just aren’t many of us left,” he said. “Even in Europe it’s a dying trade. We don’t have many Americans who are willing to work that hard.”

Great Dane’s Karl Kernell isn’t afraid of hard work. The Swedish baker has been at the ovens for 30 years. He opened his first Scandinavian Pastry Shop in 1958; he had three shops in Huntington Beach and one in Buena Park.

Those shops long since sold, Kernell now bakes with the Pedersens and teaches Old World baking at workshops around the country. When he owned the shop that was the predecessor to Great Dane, it was selected to cater the King of Sweden’s official reception during the 1984 Olympics, he said.

Real Danish pastry is flaky and lighter than other baked goods, Pedersen said. It’s generally richer and not as sweet as other classic confections. French pastry often starts with a “dry” base such as puff pastry, croissant shells or pie dough. Then fruits, filling and frosting are added.

Italians use spirits and custard for sweets, such as tiramisu. Eastern European pastries are famous for strudels and poppy-seed cakes. German bakeries are known for their breads and rolls, as well as Black Forest cakes, chocolate tortes and cream-filled Bavarian pastries.

The German cookies and cakes at Herb’s Black Forest Bakery in Fountain Valley are almost as popular as its namesake specialty, Black Forest cake, and its sister pastries, raspberry tortes, chocolate mousse cakes and meringue crescents.

Black Forest’s Herb Mahler has been baking for 55 years. He learned the trade in Germany, where he opened a shop before moving to the United States to start bakeries in the early 1960s. The store’s Black Forest cakes with cherry and rum filling are its most popular.

*

Champagne French Bakery Cafe in Irvine is a newcomer to Orange County. French owner Jacques Pautrat opened the shop in April 1997. Pautrat, who has been baking for 24 years, was trained in Champagne, France, he said.

One of the county’s more expensive bakeries, Champagne produces top-notch pastries and bread. Champagne croissants go down like crescent-shaped clouds of flaky butter dough.

Chocolate mousse cake, eclairs and fruit tarts entice the sweet tooth while scones, brioche and turnovers fight for attention. Champagne offers a slew of cakes, including opera cakes, Grand Marnier cakes, fresh strawberry cakes and Black Forest cakes.

Authentic French pastries include baton Marecheaux, Palmier and Madeleines. All tarts are made with fresh fruit and butter pastry, and breads are made with unbleached flour, filtered water, sea salt and fresh yeast. The chocolate is from Belgium and France.

The Irvine location is Pautrat’s only Orange County shop, though Pautrat owns four bakeries in San Diego.

*

Laguna Beach’s Scandia Bakery has been serving European pastries since the family-owned business opened in 1977. Ben Tibrizi, son of Iranian-born Hassan and Roshan Tibrizi, who opened the shop, said seven members of his family work at Scandia.

Scandia sells 30 kinds of baked goods. Specialties include German breads and cookies, Italian tiramisu and wedding cakes, French baguettes, croissants and Napoleons, as well as Swedish princess cakes and marzipan crescents. The Tibrizi family opened Scandia Cafe in Aliso Viejo in April.

Scandia aims to offer traditional pastries with a modern look, Tibrizi said. He said his customers are knowledgeable about pastry and expect quality.

“Our customers are well-traveled, and they recognize what they see from their travels in Europe,” he said.

“It may be a dying art form, but as long as there are bakeries with fine pastries, there will be customers.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where the Joys Are

Champagne French Bakery Cafe, 4628 Barranca Parkway, Irvine. 7 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. (949) 653-6828.

Great Dane Bakery, 6855 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach. 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. (714) 842-1130.

Herb’s Black Forest Bakery and Deli, 18225 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley. 7 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays; 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. (714) 964-2584.

Poul’s Bakery, 770 N. Tustin, Orange. 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. (714) 532-5105.

Scandia Bakery, 248 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. 6:30 a.m.- 8 p.m. daily. (949) 497-1495.

Scandia Cafe, 26841 Aliso Creek Road, Suite E, Aliso Viejo. 6 a.m.-10 p.m. weekdays; 6 a.m.-11 p.m. weekends. (949) 448-9898.