Coco Cited in Midwest Living The recent online issue of Midwest Living spotlighted Coco's Bakery in a article described nine scenic autumn drives The segment featuring the drive through northern Bayfield County suggested starting "in Washburn, where the route runs past Coco Artisan Breads and Fine Pastries (try the Washburn bread – pumpernickel with cranberries and walnuts)."  www.midwestliving.com Pasties Now on the Menu Pasty, the Cornish national dish and, for the last 150 years, a American Finnish favorite as well, are now being served at Coco’s Café and Bakery. Pasties are hand-pies stuffed with meat, potatoes and onions. Coco’s pasties are available hot or frozen to go. Popular with tin miners, pasties formed a complete meal and stayed hot deep in the mines. They were brought to Wisconsin in the 1830s by miners who dug for lead near Mineral Point. Later, Cornish miners brought them to the copper mines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A few Finnish immigrants followed the Cornish miners in the 1860s and adopted the dish. More Finns followed and they, too, fell in love with this Cornish delight. It spread with miners to the Iron Range in Minnesota. Pasties are now a Finnish culinary tradition. After many requests from customers, Noreen Ovadia Wills “broke down and added them to the menu.” Of course, the Coco pasties are especially delicious. Taste them; you’ll agree.   Coco Makes Classic Baltic Bakery-style Rye Breads   Coco has been baking great rye breads since the bakery opened two years ago.  Several of the breads are identical in flavor and texture to the traditional loaves produced by the former Baltic Bakery of Chicago. The Baltic Bakery was located in the “Back of the Yards” neighborhood in Chicago’s south side, once a Lithuanian-Polish-Irish enclave. Coco’s Noreen Ovadia Wills explains her incentive to produce great rye bread in the tradition of the former Baltic Bakery: “In October before we opened, Ed Hartig, proprietor of the Island Market on Madeline Island offered to give us some free equipment if I would pursue creating breads such as the Baltic Bakery used to sell. Ed is originally from Chicago and when he opened the Island Market he began having Baltic Bakery ryes shipped to Madeline Island from Chicago. They stopped shipping when the Baltic Bakery changed hands. The Baltic Bakery was eventually closed. Ed asked that I make four breads — Lithuanian, Polish, Polish with caraway  and Russian. When I lived on Madeline Island, I used to purchase Baltic Bakery Rye from Ed back around 1993 so I knew of which he spoke.” Picking up on Ed’s challenge, Noreen acquired a 250-year-old sourdough starter months before she was able to arrange financing to open the Coco bakery. Rye sourdough is much more finicky than white sourdough: it has to be watched constantly, be fed and re-housed constantly. A white sourdough starter can be ignored for a week. There are major differences in the biochemistry of wheat and rye that affects the bread making process. Rye amylase, which breaks down the starch in flour, remains active at substantially higher temperatures unlike those in wheat gluten. That makes a big difference in the structure of the bread because it reduces the rise during the baking phase. Traditionally, sourdough, not baker’s yeast, is used in classic rye breads because the acidic environment inactivates the amylases in the rye flour. The adventure replicating Baltic Bakery’s rye breads began in earnest as soon as Coco opened in April, 2009. “I made batches of Rye based on my knowledge of bread,” she recalls. “Each batch was a one-shot development process - I was very happy with each of them the first time I made them. The problem I struggled with all summer was interior cracking in the bread. I finally resolved that problem in August of 2009.” Using her deep knowledge of bread making, Noreen crafts traditional rye breads that are every bit as good as those made by the Baltic Bakery. An  89-year-old customer, who grew up in Lithuania,  makes a 60 mile round-trip every Thursday to purchase Lithuanian Rye because “it is just as his mother used to make — moist, heavy textured, lighter in color” than the other Baltic breads. Lea Landmann (nee: Paradowski) raves about the Polish rye. She fondly remembered similar Polish ryes from ethnic bakeries in Milwaukee.  Ed and his daughter Gudrun gave the thumbs up to the Russian — Gudrun spent a year in Russia. Noreen’s personal favorite is the Lithuanian, “but I suppose that is because I have access to the Polish with Caraway every day and the week.” Rye bread is delicious, but it is good for you, too. That is especially true of the hearty classic loaves baked at Coco. Rye bread is high in fiber and contains only a little fat. Rye bread does not generate the blood sugar spikes produced by white bread. Coco will begin shipping traditional Baltic-style rye bread in late September. Until then, it will still be available at Coco Bakery and Café on Bayfield Street, in Washburn.

"Honest, we didn't call each other." Coco staffers (from left) Kamron VanDonkersgoed, counter sales; Derek Rumpza, counter sales; and Keith VanGilder, manager; showed up for work wearing similar black shirts. They claim it was an just a coincidence, a lucky happenstance.

Coco’s Strawberry Bread Pudding Recipe on Star-Tribune Web
Rick Nelson, reporter for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune visited Coco last summer. The visit and Noreen’s strawberry bread pudding so impressed him that he posted a blog on the paper’s website. He points out that, after Google, it's the most-read website in Minnesota. He writes:

“During a trip last summer to Lake Superior's south shore, I walked into Noreen Ovadia's bakery in Washburn, Wis., and immediately hit the strawberry Mother Lode. It was a fantastic bread pudding, rich and creamy and bursting with berries that had been plucked from the farms that stretch out on the hills high above the neighboring town of Bayfield.

“I've daydreamed about that strawberry-fest on more than one occasion. In the intervening 12 months since my visit, Ovadia has expanded her business. Now Cafe Coco - Artisan Bakery & Good Eats is serving breakfast and lunch daily. "So far, we've managed to sell the Chequamegon Bay Area on falafel-lake trout Ruebens as well as frittatas and 'Really Swell French Toast with Banana Caramel Sauce,'" she said. Wow. I'm so booking a return trip.”

Read more of Nelson’s blog and the recipe at startribune.com/taste/blogs

Wedding Cakes

Noreen took a busman's holiday to bake the wedding cake and all the festive food for the wedding of Nick's daughter, Trisha. The cake was delicious, as it was enormous. The groom, Glenn, is 6'4" tall.

Coco makes all sorts of delicious, beautiful, unique wedding cakes including cheese cakes.

T-shirts

Coco fans wear Coco T-shirts. They are available at Café Coco. One says "Just Eat It" on the back, another says "Never Fry Bacon Naked."

Star-Tribune lauds Coco

Some of Coco specialties are praised in a recent Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune article about food delights in the Chequamegon Bay area. Star Tribune writer, Rick Nelson, asks rhetorically, "Is there another Midwestern getaway that so vigorously celebrates its small cache of native ingredients?" We answer, we certainly celebrate them at Coco!

Nelson writes about Coco:

“Over in Washburn,baker/owner Noreen Ovadia Wills does wicked things with chocolate, steering it into fudgy, walnut-packed brownies and diet-busting tortes. Her made-from-scratch philosophy is evident in her homey lemon bars, simple vanilla cheesecakes and cream-filled Danish. There are breads, too, and those terrific plate-sized lavash.”

Of course, Nelson mentions Coco's lavash. "It's very popular," Noreen says, "We can't keep it on the shelves." Our advice: get to the bakery early.

The croquembouche, pictured above, is a special Coco creation for a wedding. The cone-shaped assembly of light cream-filled French pastry is decorated with threads of caramel. It is delicious and beautiful. The name comes from the French words croque en bouche meaning 'crunch in the mouth'.

Fan Mail

I was in your bakery again this past weekend and you still keep amazing me with your wonderful food! In fact I was in there twice, once after a long bike ride with my girlfriend to split a sandwich and have a molasses cookie each, and again on my way home to the Twin Cities. Everything you and your staff make is great. The cinnamon roll I had was the best ever, flaky dough and not too sweet butter cream topping, loved it! I tell everyone I know whose heading to Bayfield to go through Washburn and stop. In addition your staff is really a great crew. I'll always remember stopping in last winter before your expansion to the steamy warmth of your wonderful bakery. Keep up the good work and I wish you great success in the future.—Brian McCarthy

We stayed in Washburn Sunday night and stopped by and had breakfast here. All I can say is, WOW!!! I'm so glad that we ended up here and didn't miss out on this wonderful place with amazing food! The cinnamon raisin stuffed French toast with caramel and bananas is to die for! I wish this place wasn't the better part of 9 hours and 500 miles away from me. We'll definitely be going here again if we are ever in the area again! Keep up the great work!—Jeremiah Beaver

Another Rave Review

OnMilwaukee, the city’s popular daily on-line magazine raved about Café Coco in a June 28 travel article, “Seven Wonders of Wisconsin: Bayfield and the Apostle Islands.” Publisher, Andy Tarnoff, wrote:
 

 “There [Washburn], we ate at Café Coco, a place more known for its breakfasts and desserts, but one equally delicious for its soups and salads. The star of the meal, though, were indeed the desserts, particularly the carrot cake [pictured with Noreen] and an amazing Key lime pie. Coco is a must-stop when in the area, and locals all across the peninsula rave about it.”

Be sure to read the article about the Bayfield and the Apostle Islands in our delightful corner of Wisconsin,  OnMilwaukee, Seven Wonders story.

Café Coco Update GG

The bigger dining room seats 40. It is right next to Coco's current location on Bayfield Street. The two buildings are connected.

The expanded bakery and café features great sandwiches such as a Lake Trout Reuben, a vegan gyro, blue cheese & beef, as well as those famous Coco deli sandwiches.

Noreen and the Coco staff believe that food made fresh from real ingredients is best. Now there is more Coco to love. The expanded cafe serves cooked-to-order breakfast and lunch seven days a week 362 days a year. Check out the menu. Enjoy a leisurely meal, or grab a sandwich, home made soup or salad to go. Café Coco's bakery still makes wholesome bread and mouthwatering pastries and desserts fresh daily. It’s all there, but there is more of it, and all of it is delicious.

The Column Continues

Chef and pâtissier Noreen Ovadia Wills writes a column for the Coconorth website when she can find the time between managing the bakery and new restaurant in the adjoining building. We bet you'll enjoy Noreen's candid commentary. The third installment has just arrived. Click on Gazette.

Local whole wheat:
You can taste the difference

You’ve probably noticed the wholesome, nutty flavor of our bakery items containing whole wheat. That’s because the wheat is grown and milled just a few miles from our bakery in Washburn. We use fresh, local ingredients whenever possible. Of course, Bayfield County is famous for its apple orchards and berry farms. But it is also home of lots of small farms producing delicious honey, maple syrup, and garden-fresh produce.