Kiedrowski's Bakery
 Cleveland, Ohio           Date of Visit: 05/06/11              http://www.kiedrobakery.com/

Recently we heard the announcement that a local bakery had been picked best in the country. Wow. Turns out it’s not as local as we expected. It in Amherst and about halfway there from Cleveland (where we thought it was) and we realized we were going to be much closer to a ride on the Millennium Force at Cedar Point than we were to Seti’s which we had just left on our designated day of gluttony. Dashing through the rain in the strip mall parking lot we were greeted by some rousing music from the front of the bakery. I’m assuming the music is Polish as these folks are unabashedly proud of their heritage and the pastries associated with them.
 

It's Official
 

The first thing that strikes you as you walk inside is the smell. I have not had a whiff like that since I worked at a small scratch bakery through the night. I have been in many bakeries since and none of them smell like that…that’s because when I got a look in the back it was full of people who were…well, baking. Apparently everything is being freshly produced throughout the day. And you can tell, first the smell and then the taste. I don’t know how you pick best bakery in the whole country, that’s a lot of eating, but this place knows what they are doing.

We tried a cutout cookie, a maple bacon cream stick, an apricot foldover, a glazed croissant and three snoogles. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to the snoogles in a bit. The cut out cookie was way too much cookie and not enough icing. I was also overwhelmed by the bacon on the doughnut but it was still pretty good. I thought the pile of bacon would be a plus but it turned out to be too much for me. After that everything was ethereally delicious.

The apricot foldover was light and packed with fruit and topped with a light glaze. The croissant is unbelievable. When you go to pull it apart it fights with you a sign that it has been folded and rolled the old school way instead of dough with a lot of butter chopped into it. The sugary glaze turns the whole thing into a sweet buttery major league walk-off homerun.

Choices Choices Galore
 

Apricot Foldover
 

Now the snoogles. The snoogle can’t be missed in the case. They have to be somewhere between a foot and a half to two feet long. It’s was created at Kiedrowski’s and it is trademarked so no thievery allowed. Apparently late one night two folks were working on lady fingers and cheese Danishes to find they had left over ingredients. Looking for something new they combined them into these monstrous pastries that have become their trademark. The dough underneath the glaze has that dry and crispy texture that lets your teeth know they are working. There is a streak of cheese running through the middle to give it a bit of richness. The woman at the counter told us they can push 100 dozen out the door in a weekend. A tray came out fresh from the back while we were standing there and most of them had disappeared before we left. The circle of snoogle. So good because they are and they make them all day long so they are super fresh. They are so good people constantly stroll through the door to satisfy their snoogle craving so they have to make them all day long. And the circle continues. I am glad this place is so far away. I might be dead in a year if they were on the block. Next time we are in the area though we will probably stock up on more than the three snoogles that made the trip home with us.
 

Fun Place...Proud To Be Polish
 

These Things Are Crazy...And Crazy Good