Håndbakt

Tucked away in a quiet yard shielded by a brick wall, Håndbakt (meaning “hand-baked” in Norwegian) is located on the ground floor of Factory Tøyen, a coworking space. When the bakery opened its doors in September 2021, it was the first plant-based micro bakery in the whole Norway. Today, it has become one of the most popular brunch/coffee places in Eastern Oslo.

The red brick building that houses the bakery is a renovated factory building that dates back to 1911. Echoing the building’s historical atmosphere, the bakery’s interior is decorated in a modern industrial style, with wires and steel pipes running across the ceiling, and naked red brick walls complimented by broad-leaved plants. Thanks to the high ceiling, large windows and dimmed lighting, the space conveys a sense of airy openness, and at same time exudes a welcoming warmth of comfort.

The owner Jenny Marie El Kadiri-Andersen claims that she is building “a bakery of the next generation”, yet half-jokingly admits that the way they bake follows those of “the old days”—high quality, organic ingredients from Norwegian farms, long proofing time, sourdough, and pure plant-based products. All these are supposed to help reduce the chance of allergies as well as be more friendly to people with lactose-intolerance.

The bakery started out making plant-based cinnamon buns, which turned out to be a great success. They then moved on to make school buns (“skolebolle” in Norwegian), a traditional Norwegian custard bun pastry. This made them realise their niche, as the vanilla custard was quite difficult to make without eggs, according to El Kadiri-Andersen’s interviews with local media.

“It would be smarter to focus on this [full plant-based concept] rather than try to pick a fight with those big, established bakery chains,” El Kadiri-Andersen said in her interview with bakeri.net, a Norwegian trade media.

In addition to their famous cinnamon and cardamom buns, their espresso buns are another must-try. Resembling the cinnamon buns in appearance, the espresso buns, as the name suggests, were mixed with finely ground coffee. One bite into the bun unravels a punch of flavours: the faint bitterness of espresso taking the lead, followed by the natural sourdough acidity mixed with pearl sugar, only to finish with a lingering fragrant aftertaste of coffee. In fact, their espresso buns are so unique that we have not been able to find anything similar in Oslo.

When it comes to food and brunch, we tried the Turkish chipotle eggs (175 NOK) on our latest visit, representative of their cooking style. The dish was served with a cut-up sourdough bread roll (“rundstykke” in Norwegian), topped with two poached eggs, seasoned with chipotle, herb oil, and labneh—a kind of fresh cheese made of yogurt and salt. Simple, light, full of flavours and it does feel quite healthy.

Coffee served at Håndbakt is usually brewed with beans from the Oslo-based roastery Lippe, and it is of good quality. At the same time, we also want to highlight their tea selection. Their tea is mostly sourced from the Oslo-based independent tea supplier Spill the Tea, and we highly recommend to try their jasmin pearl tea.

The tea leaves are usually hand-kneaded together with jasmine flowers into a pearl shape so as to enhance the scenting process. Once soaked in hot water, the tea leaves will gradually unfold and expand, letting off a natural yet persistent, deep jasmine flower fragrance. There is an indescribable chemistry between the classic Chinese floral green tea and the sourdough buns—it might seem a bit exotic in the beginning, but once you get it, you will never forget it.

The bakery turns into a bar in the evenings Thursday through Saturday, where they feature a curated selection of natural wines. With the lights off and candles on, flames flickering, shadows, silhouettes, reflections, long and short, bright and dim, criss-crossing on the red brick walls and the high ceiling, you will witness the real charm of this place.