Biscuits are definitely more a staple of southern cooking, but with access to the very best in dairy here in Wisconsin comes some amazing baking.
At Bloom Bake Shop in Middleton, not only do they produce a fluffy, towering buttermilk biscuit, but they’ve managed to do the nearly impossible – they’ve created a vegan (and gluten-free) biscuit that stands up to the high standards they’ve set with their dairy-containing version.
Sure, the vegan version isn’t for everyone, but the fact that baker Annemarie Maitri spent more than two months perfecting the recipe for this buttermilk alternative should give you an idea of whether or not it’s worth your while.
Bloom has carved out a niche in the Madison market with their organic, vegan baking that shares the case with goodies and treats made with all the dairy you're probably used to.
The basic sandwich is called the Wisconsin and it's chock full of local ingredients, from Murphy Farms butter, Pecatonica Valley Farm eggs and bacon, Hawkwind mustard to Cedar Grove cheese and Organic Valley buttermilk. The vegan version, has season-specific vegetables and provides a hearty meal on its own.
The one complaint you'll hear from some customers is that the biscuit is TOO fluffy, making the breakfast sandwiches difficult to eat on a commute. But the care and attention Bloom puts in their products is ultimately about getting people to slow down and take notice, so they can't be too upset if customers have to take a moment to stop and enjoy their food.
The biscuits have that amazing, crispy, somewhat flaky exterior before you get to the fluffy center. A bread connoisseur might notice a very small texture difference in the interior of the vegan biscuit, but I'd bet you wouldn't actually notice it.
Embracing their location so close to so much farmland in the middle of the state, Bloom bakes from scratch with the freshest of local ingredients. You can taste not only the quality of the ingredients but the care and thought with which they're combined to make some amazing food.
If you're not in the mood for savory or you're just looking for something different, check out Bloom's version of a sweet biscuit. A light drizzle of syrup joins currants and oranges to make a beautiful version of their signature biscuit.
I'd never thought I'd be craving a sweet buttermilk biscuit, but this version is chock full of flavor and so unique that you'll be thinking about it for days after you have one.
If you're not already sold, check out this tower of biscuit goodness. A great biscuit will melt in your mouth, but hold its crumb before that. There's nothing worse than a biscuit that crumbles the minute it's touched. That Bloom can slice their biscuits and build these sandwich masterpieces tells you a lot about the quality of the biscuit.
