Five country bakeries worth the drive
Is there anything more Aussie than driving through a country town and stopping at a bakery that claims to have the best vanilla slice, meat pie or bread?Some country bakeries are good for an emergency lunch stop; others are destinations in themselves. We’ve scoured the country to find our favourite purveyors of bread, cakes, pies and other pastry delights. It is definitely time to jump in the car and go on a culinary delights tour.
Kenilworth Country Bakery, Kenilworth, Queensland
Not one bakery but two! Separated by a narrow laneway, the Kenilworth Bakery has savoury concoctions on the right and sweet on the left and both are at the top of their game. By savoury, we mainly mean pies that are crusty on the bottom and flaky on top, filled with chunky goodness. The cake shop is given over entirely to doughnuts with some very inventive flavours (there’s a two-for-one coffee filled variety) and if you’re game, try the one-kilo doughnut challenge and get your name on the wall of fame. Kenilworth is in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and also has a famous cheese factory.
Bakery on Broadway, Wycheproof, Victoria
One attraction of Wycheproof is its position almost halfway on the drive from Melbourne to Mildura, making it the perfect place for a stop. The other is Bakery on Broadway, a real community venture housed in an old bank building with lots of shady outdoor seating and very scrummy food and coffee. There are pies, of course, including the whipped-potato-topped Mountain Man (named after the pimple-sized Mount Wycheproof) and a fiery chunky pepper beef. The cakes are a step above ordinary fare, tomato sauce comes in bottles, not plastic sachets and you might even see a train going down the line on the main street.
Ludo’s Gourmet Kitchen, Avoca Beach, NSW
Few places are more Aussie than Avoca Beach on the NSW central coast but Ludo’s Gourmet Kitchen is rooted in the traditions of French patisseries and we all know what that means: lots of yummy sweet baked stuff. The pies are pretty good but with croissants the size of a poodle, quiches like feather mattresses, creamy lemon tarts and much more, the drive up from Sydney has never seemed more worthwhile.
Yallingup Woodfired Bread, Yallingup, Western Australia
A bakery is a shopfront with dozens of sweet and savoury choices, a range of coffee and a place to sit and enjoy it all, right? Well no, not in this case. Yallingup Woodfired Bread just does bread – nothing else – and it’s situated in a farming subdivision in the Margaret River region that takes some finding. Look for the queue of cars: the range of sourdough, rye, maybe olive and fruit loaf all crisp and warm from the woodfired oven is so popular, it usually sells out soon after opening at 3pm.
Clare Rise Bakery, Clare, South Australia
Pedalling or walking the Riesling Trail through the Clare Valley can be hard work so stopping for a bite, coffee or takeaway from this bakery makes perfect sense. Clare Rise inhabits a lovely 1895 sandstone building in town and the bread, made from healthy stone-ground durum wheat, is among the country’s best. Don’t stop there though: the Danishes, hot cross buns and pies are exceptional and local fruit features in many of the cakes. Utterly dee-lish!
Related: Top five country pie shops worth the drive
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