The Bread Project

Yes! Without any doubt the best bakery in Singapore — better than the posh French in Takashimaya. I love going there on a weekend morning to get my croissants and wholewheat bread and some sweet treat. Last time: appleflap. THis is as Belgian as it gets, although the bakery is Malay run (as far as I can judge). Only negative point: they only open at 9 am.

I’m into sourdough bread. But disappointed that there’s yeast in the sourdough bread too, although in minute amounts. There is no sour tang in the bread. Crust is chewy and crumb is moist and chewy, I like. But not much flavour in the bread.
The olive bread is salty. Crumbs are airy and soft. Lots of small pieces of olives, fragrant.

I absolutely love the bread loaves here. I have never tried any of the small pastries, but everytime I get the sundried tomato loaf, I wonder how does something so simple make me so happy munching it.
The olive loaf is also good, much softer in the centre than the sundried tomato. But I personally still prefer the sundried tomato one. It has a great crusty top layer, with a doughy chewy moist and flavorful soft centre. So good that I can eat it on its own. You have to like chewy bread though. Yum!
They supply mostly to other restaurants and cafés. The store itself is tiny and not meant for a lot of walkin customers.

It used to be better…
I used to frequent Bread Project on a regular basis but a recent visit made me disappointed with the quality. Got myself a baguette, pain au chocolat & a kouign amann.
The pain au chocolat was ok but the baguette unfortunately was hard and the kouign amann equally disappointing. I’d recommend Maison Kayser to get your baguette fix, and Tiong Bahru Bakery for the buttery & flaky kouign aman instead.

I can’t stop eating! And yet my attempts to put on weight and keep it on have been futile. I think I have worms in my tummy.
A little birdie raved about this place to me. She went on and on about their breads, especially the Épi de Blé, Orange Cream Tart and Almond Croissant. She adviced me to go early — regulars just come and swipe the items off their shelves! So earlier this week, I hurried to this bakery before noon on Tuesday to get my breakfast before reporting for my afternoon shift in town.
Hungry, I bought whatever my buddy recommended. I was surprised to discover that the base of the Orange Cream Tart is not the crusty kind but is actually soft bread. I found it a little too sweet though. The Almond Croissant and Épi de Blé were winners! The latter may appear alien, but it makes eating bread less messy — you won’t grumble about crumbs falling on your clothes anymore!
The bakery is too far for me to visit more often though. I don’t go to Joo Chiat that frequently, so I’ll just try out other offerings at the cafes they supply.

First time I tried something from the Bread Project was at Toby’s Estate. There couldn’t be a better combination than Croissant and coffee. No wonder the Parisians love this. The croissant was an airy, flaky and buttery delight that left me wanting. Heard that its from TBP and I knew I had to try more at its store.
So I did. It’s a small shop front in the joo Chiat area and people were streaming in for the artisan bakes and breads. There weren’t many options left for the pastries and I managed to get hold of a Kouign amann, orange cream tart and croissant.
Long story short, the croissant was still as delightful. Not too impressed w the orange cream tart. And I prefer the texture of Tiong bahru bakery’s KA.

It was the next big bread thing…
In the early days, I’d struggle to get anything when I stopped by their bread bar — they’d sell out so quick! I even considered pre-​ordering, but I’d have had to buy $ 30 worth of bread and pastries, and that was more than my belly could handle. Thankfully, they started supplying a couple of cafes I frequented, so I finally got a chance to try them out, at a different price of course, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I marvelled at the fresh artisan breads, tasty stuff too! this was a time before Maison Kayser, Paul and Baker and Cook came into the picture. I really enjoyed their sticky buns and the exotic sounding bostok. When I saw a Kouign Amaan as well, I had to get one — this is after I tried one for the first time at a Joel Robuchon bakery in Tokyo — so I found myself picking up a couple whenever I saw some.
Then as the story goes, they got popular, and the bread tastes a little different now. They still run a brisk business, and I’d say still worth a try.