As a very welcome alternative to the Espresso House and Starbucks coffe shops that seem to be…read morepopping up everywhere in Oslo, the artisan bakery Handwerk offer up delicious baked goods, homemade juices and excellent drip coffee. All of their bread is made with sourdough - even the sweet buns! They let their doughs mature for a very long time (a full 40 hours for the breads), which makes for the tastiest and chewiest bread I have ever tried. Using sourdough in sweet baking is also something I have never come across before, but it makes the buns extremely moist.
On my first visit, I tried the white sourdough and egg salad sandwich, which was freshly made and delicious, the sourdough bread with pumpkin seeds, the cardamom sweet bun, the blackcurrant sweet bun, the almond and chocolate sweet bun, a lemon poppy seed muffin and the cream cheese cookies (no, not all in one sitting - I had to take som of it home ;). The muffin itself would have been worth the visit, as it was the fluffiest and yet most succulently flavourful muffin I have tasted! I also had a coffee and a carrot, orange and ginger juice, which was vibrant and fresh.
In addition, the staff at Handwerk are extremely friendly, and the manager, Pontus, was more than willing to share his insight about sourdough baking and offered me tips on how to improve my sourdough.
I will most definitely be stopping by Handwerk whenever I am in the area, as this is my new favourite bakery!
