We’ve missed sourdough bread since we moved to Istria. We did find it once, in a Konzum supermarket in Rovinj, but have never found it again. Italy, so far, hasn’t turned it up either for us. We used to buy it from a very cute shop on Burton Rd in West Didsbury called And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon, which was literally twenty steps from our house, so very convenient. We’ve taken to making our own bread, because if we run out of shop/bakery bought, we don’t have a shop on our doorstep, but it’s soda bread we make, not sourdough. As unfortunately that’s just far too complicated and time consuming for novice bakers like us. Fortunately for us, and we think many other people judging by the reviews, Bread Point Bakery has arrived in Poreĉ, a bakery/patisserie which specialises in sourdough. And the most sublime sweet treats.
It’s a small shop in Porec, but with bread and rolls and foccacia, all baked fresh and displayed clearly and neatly. Cakes are displayed in a glass cabinet and are very easy to be tempted by. Believe me. I am tempted – and succumb – every time I visit. All of the bread is sourdough but there are plenty of varieties – although I have to say the traditional recipe simply cannot be beaten. Because the shop is not on our doorstep, I tend to bulk buy the bread and freeze – wrapped in cling film, it’s as good as fresh, once defrosted. The pieces of the Istria jigsaw are coming together, as we find things we have craved, or which we thought just simply didn’t exist here. A bit of googling and patience tends to work, and we’re finding that life is so much easier and so much closer to what we used to have in West Didsbury. And, if Bread Point could open a second shop, as close as And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon was to us back in Manchester, we’d be getting close to finishing that jigsaw.
The croissants are absolutely delicious. Very generously sized, and between the doughy, stretchy layers, and crispy outer crust, the fillings go all the way through. Unlike other croissants where you might discover a pocket filling, these fillings ooze out between the layers. The chocolate croissant is as good as you’d expect, but the vanilla and pistachio cream is off the scale. Just off the scale…
And then we have the cheesecake. The Basque Cheesecake. According to Google, this cheesecake “…isn’t smooth or dense; instead, the dessert—baked at a high temperature—is light and scorched and caramelized on the top with a rich, gooey interior. Made with cream cheese, sugar, and eggs, Basque cheesecakes don’t have a crust, giving it a similar feel to a mousse. Its outer edges are typically wrinkled and nonuniform, thanks to cooking the cheesecake in parchment paper. The dessert originates from La Viña, a cafe in the resort town of San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. In 1990, Chef Santiago Rivera embarked on an experiment to make a new type of cake every day. Eventually, he developed the Basque cheesecake recipe…”
I had absolutely no intention of buying a slice of cheesecake, let alone a WHOLE cheesecake, when I last visited, but I was so taken by the enthusiasm of the person doing the selling – I know! – that I gave in. And before I knew it, I also had a boxed cheesecake, to take home with me and my sourdough loaves and pistachio croissants.
To be fair, it did sit in the box, in a cool place, for a couple of days, as it just felt far too indulgent to be cutting into it. It felt it should be being served at a dinner party, not snaffled on a Tuesday night, in front of the TV. But then we reasoned we’d be waiting a long time to serve it at a dinner party, and perhaps we should just tuck in. It lasted two nights, which was good, considering we could easily have eaten the whole lot in one go. And safe to say, the guy from Bread Point was not boasting – or lying – when he sold me on the Basque Cheesecake. I will honestly not be able to eat any other kind, going forward..
Internal Bread Point Photo : https://plavakamenica.hr
All Other Photos : We Are Life Photos