Brazil Bakery and Pastry
Far along Dundas Street West, past the quaintness of Little Portugal and beyond the gentrification creeping out from West Queen West, there appears to be a dearth of good eating. The darkened windows of small store fronts and family homes line the streetscape but making the trek all the way to Dufferin will reward you with the enticing glassy facade of the Brazil Bakery and Pastry Limited.
Brazilian cuisine culls its influences from a variety of cultures but the most prominent one you'll find here is Portuguese. Tall wire racks display fresh corn breads, loaves and crusty buns. On the wooden shelving sits bags of beautifully browned Portuguese style brioche from a bakery just down the street. Although they do make their own sweet bread (gigantic and stacked in baking tins around the counter), the other bakery's version has a pronounced sweetness that's perfect for weekend brunches of croque madames at home.
A glassy display beside the counter reveals some tantalizing baked goods and a few delicious pastel de natas. Most may recognize these custard cream tarts from Chinese bakeries but their origin is purely Portuguese with a sugary sweet edge. This particular rendition lets up on the sugar a bit and the crust is crunchy without any lardiness, my favourite in the city. Catching a fresh batch of their malasadas dois will give you the perfect morning coffee treat. These Portuguese doughnuts are large, spongy, lemony and covered in sugar.
Some savouries can be had in the form of various croquettes or stuffed and fried buns. They're all rather greasy but packed full of filling and must be heated up before eating. If you're not quite patient enough to dig into your baked goods at home, you can take a seat in the cafe sharing the same space and snack right then and there while watching the Dundas Street traffic go by.
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Oh lord, those malasadas dois sound wonderful.
the trick is catching them fresh! a day or so old they'll still be ok but the texture gets a little stale. great for breakfast but they're so big it's like eating two regular doughnuts.
How much are the malasadas dois?
89 cents! the brioches that i adore are between $3-4 and it's dependent on the size as they're sold in loaf form. i know you didn't ask, but these are by far my favourite brioche of the city.
Cool thanks! I've wanted to visit the place since you raved about the malasadas dois on chowhound (I think) but haven't had the time to go for a visit and have been wondering how much they cost.
I'd like to pick them up for a company snack sometime. Since joining the event committee I've been slowly trying to increase the quality of the company paid snacks, lunches, etc.
I looooove custard tarts, there aren't many bakeries around that have a proper custard oven, a lot of bakeries just buy their custard tarts from the ones that have the proper tools, so it's hard to find them fresh. I've been going to Nova Bakery on Cawthra and Burnhamthorpe in Mississauga for my custard tart and cod cake fix, but I'll have to try this place now.
Hint hint: the custard tarts that are darker on top are sweeter (burned suger = yummy!)
Thank you for the blog, and comments guys, my name is melanie and i'm one of the boss' daughters. We have two other locations if this will interest you. 5700 mavis road. In Mississauga and 2905Eglinton in Erin Mills
thanks for all the good responses =)
i work there :D
Hi. It is called Brazil Bakery but pastel de natas is tradionally Portuguese and everything else on the pictures looks portuguese as well. Do they have actual Brazilian bakery treats such as coxinhas, enroladinho de queijo, pao de queijo, brigadeiro, quibe etc?
the pasteries are good, but don't order cakes here, its a rip off...i ordered a cake at the bakery(paid $50.00) and explained to the owner i wanted some letters around the cake(ABC & 123)for my sons 1st birthday. he said it would be toooo much trouble because the baker had to crouch down and write it...WTF??? i told him he wanted the cake and my money tooo!!!! so i asked for my money back and went to NOVA ERA and got the same cake for cheaper and nicer!!!!!
I am in the process of opening a Brazilian Rerstaurant and I am having some difficulties finding individuals who is well versed in cooking Brazilian meats and other foods.
Does anyone out tyhere know of anyone who fits my needs for a FT position or available to train another chep
Appreciate your response.
Abrigado!