2024-03-12 13:14:02
“I didn’t expect to have Finnish korvapuusti again in Budějice,” writes one of the reviewers of the Leipomo craft bakery on Google. This family business has a number of similarly surprised and at the same time very positive comments. Everyone gives five stars. Panská street, in which the bakery is located, seems to be an indispensable stop for lovers of good food.
“Leipomo means bakery in Finnish,” explains Jiří Hynek, who co-owns the craft bakery with his daughter. Her husband comes from a Finnish family of bakers, and from there it starts to be understood why she opened a Czech-Finnish bakery in the center of Budějovice in August 2022.
Internet sleuths predicted they would end within a year. But in the small area of the bakery, where customers can see the oven, the door does not open. They say the most on Saturdays, when there are farmers’ markets in the center.
A good bakery is based on craftsmanship and flour. “We bake with eight types of high-quality flour, which we buy from several small, mostly Czech companies. We couldn’t do it like this with industrial flour. We have three types of wheat bread and one hundred percent rye bread. Our so-called flagship bread is Leipomo,” says the entrepreneur, adding that that this bread they bake with Italian flour won a regional competition.
Kallio bread, which means stone in Finnish, got its name because of the flour. The company that supplies it grinds cereal grains on stone mill wheels. “Sourdough bread is made for two days and only then goes into the oven. First it has to be left to rest. The bread that you see here on Tuesday was already made on Sunday,” explains the co-owner of the bakery, adding that the sourdough that his son-in-law brought from Helsinki, they are centuries old.
Since the Finnish baker enlisted the help of his friend a year ago, two Finns are now in charge of production. He doesn’t know much Czech, he can get by with English. They said they liked České Budějovice.
Sourdough bread can be kept in a paper bag or cloth towel for at least a week. Jiří Hynek also tests the durability of his bread when he travels with his friends on motorbikes. However, he does not recommend putting bread in plastic containers.
Finnish palates
Leipomo also has Finnish sweet pastries in its assortment. The aforementioned korvapuusti cake is so famous that it even has its own day in Finland. If you happen to walk through the streets of Finland on October 4th, you will smell cinnamon, butter and sugar almost everywhere. In Finnish culture, offering korvapuusti is said to be a sign of love and goodwill.
In addition to cinnamon, Northerners also like cardamom, so the bakery also has a sweetness wrapped in this distinctive spice. It is said that the people of Budějovice really liked the local croissants, which you might not expect in a Finnish bakery.
“They also learned to make them in Finland and they are commonly offered in stores,” Jiří Hynek explains, adding that they use French butter and dark Belgian chocolate for croissants.
Finns use a lot of spices in their sweet pastries. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
Some sweets are seasonal. They recently had a Finnish Mardi Gras laskiaispulla on the menu. The bun with cream and jam in Leipomo is nicknamed “Heaven in the Mouth”. But this feeling is likely to occur with several products of the Budejovice bakery.