Best of the Gold Coast: 10 best bakeries in our region
WE name the top 10 Gold Coast bakeries as voted by you in our 2016 Best of the Gold Coast series.
Best of Gold Coast
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WE asked for your votes on which are the best bakeries the Gold Coast has to offer and you told us. Many obviously have loyal followings among their clientele but there was one clear
winner — here’s the top 10 Best of the Gold Coast Bakeries 2016.
10 The Pastry Emporium
Campbell St, Bundall
0435 919 433
Opening his own shop in the same block as the restaurant his parents founded, Adrian Grazioli is making his name with his handmade macaroons, tarts, Danishes, croissants and cakes. Hidden away in a tiny suburban shopping centre in Sorrento, The Pastry Emporium is a favourite for locals and a ‘need to know’ shop for the rest of the coast.
9 Panya Artisan Bakery
42 Currumbin Creek Road
Currumbin, QLD
0402 952 922
Supplying everyone from The Fish House to Blackboard Coffee and Feather and Docks with their baked goods, it’s fair to say Panya’s artisan loaves are some of the best on the Coast.
8 The Mill Bakery
1 Grice Ave, Paradise Point
(07) 5577 5664
After working in other bakers’ bakeries for years, Jerome Balen says he had to rise up in the name of baking the best bread. “I got so sick of seeing people just using the white bread base for every single loaf. Whereas all of my speciality loaves have their own distinct dough. They are truly authentic.”
7 La De Da Bakery
Tweed Heads
97 Kennedy Dr, Tweed Heads
5599 5688
While this bakery has been delighting locals for six years, co-owner and pastry chef James Braid has been getting busy in the kitchen for more than four decades. “You can taste our experience,” he says.
6 Flour at Ferry Road Markets
107 Ferry Rd, Southport
5532 4749
From traditional sourdough bread to an extensive range of pies, pasties and sausage rolls to pastries designed to tempt any sweet tooth, Flour comes up roses for any carb-lover. All of the baked goods are made using the freshest ingredients, giving customers a hearty and wholesome treat.
5 Paddock Bakery
Hibiscus Haven, Miami
The proud owner of The Paddock Bakery, Ursula Watts, says the rustic charm and passion for food is what makes the place such a hit. “It’s really homely and lovely, it’s an 80-year-old home and I think that’s why people like it so much,” she says. Ursula says everything at The Paddock Bakery is made with love on site.
4 Horner’s of Sorrento
Sorrento Shopping Village, 20 Bundall Rd, Sorrento
5538 4075
From baking cakes for prime ministers and sport stars to catering to corporate clientele, Horner’s of Sorrento has come a long way from its once-quiet corner of Bundall Road. Owner Robert Horner says his parents set up the bakery in 1977 after emigrating from England — home of the original Horner’s. “Some of our customers have been coming here from day one, back when there was no bridge and Bundall Road was a dead-end street. But the quality of our cakes and pies remains the same.”
3 Fosters Bakery
1/2227 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach
5572 6422
All the locals agree that owner Stuart Foster, who took over the business from his father, has the magic touch when it comes to his bakery delights. While the fresh bread, pastries and doughnuts sell like hot cakes, it’s the pies that keep customers coming back again and again. Stuart says it all comes down to using fresh ingredients and finding the right balance of flavours.
2 Pastree Bakery
Shop 9 Waterways Village/Sunshine Boulevard, Mermaid Waters
55727955
Just one year after purchasing this neighbourhood bakery in Mermaid Waters, owner and baker Jason Collins says he’s changed everything but the name. His shake-up is obviously a success, with the unassuming shop powering up the popularity list. Jason says he hasn’t reinvented the loaf, but rather gone back to bakery classics. “We’ve got all the thing you loved as a child — great fresh bread, sweet treats, savoury pies and sausage rolls … plus excellent coffee.”
Winner: Burleigh Baker
Shop 13, 50 James Street, Burleigh Heads
5659 1442
Geoff Dance is not afraid to drop the c-bomb. In fact, he swears by it. While carbs may be a dirty word to a gluten-fearing generation, Geoff has discovered the secret to ensuring people’s guts don’t hate bread … and vice versa.
Apparently, it’s all about the cheese factor.
“We effectively employ the same methodology used in the production of the best tasting foods like cheese, wine, beer and sausage,” says Geoff
“Just as grapes are fermented to produce fine wine, malt barley to produce beer, and milk to produce yoghurt or cheese, so flour is fermented to produce sourdough bread.
“The lactobacillus in the leaven breaks down the protein, which when combined with organic flours and no commercial yeast, makes all the difference.
“We take no short cuts, no compromises, rather it takes patience and artisan skills combined with natural starter cultures to do the work.
“I’ve been using the same starter cultures for more than 12 years and these originate from a bakery in France. The outcome of our work is not only bread that has those memorable subtle sourdough flavours, but wheat flour that becomes more digestible.”
Geoff says while people who have coeliac disease still must steer clear of his sourdough, others who are gluten intolerant report a delighted digestive system, even post-carb consumption.
He says his stomach-friendly secret was accidentally born from selfish purposes.
With a background at an agricultural college, as well as studying agricultural economics at the University of New England in NSW, Geoff worked in grain trading before adopting the baker’s hat.
“I wanted to get into the hands-on of baking, but I didn’t want to be at the beck and call of bread,” he says.
“The thing that I loved about sourdough is that it takes a long time to ferment and proof, if you can control the temperatures, you can control when it’s ready.
“I have all my timers on wi-fi so I can control it from my bed. It means I can have a life. Bakers still have early starts, there’s no getting away from that, but it’s nice to feel you’re the boss, not the bread.”
Geoff says the 10 to 18 hours of slow, cool-temperature fermentation and proofing required for his bread is how it develops it flavour, as well as how the ‘magic’ of digestible carbs occur.
He says Burleigh Baker is filled with customers, particularly women, who swear by his sourdough.
“I’m not sure quite why it is but women seem especially concerned by their gut health, so many of them suffer from what seems to be gluten intolerance but it turns out to be the inability to properly digest unfermented bread.
“It seems to affect women of all ages, from teens to young mums to over-50s. I have to admit I never got into this to save their stomachs, more to save my sleep, but I’m pretty chuffed I’ve been able to help.”
While his breads bravely go where no gluten has gone before, Geoff says Burleigh Baker is also the proud purveyor of tartines, gourmet sandwiches, handmade cakes, cookies and pastries.
“Life without carbs just isn’t worth living,” he says.
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