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Rural
Mondovi bakery prepares breads, desserts, jams from scratch
May
8, 2007
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You Go |
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Name:
Countryside Bakery.
Established:
1996.
Owners/
operators: Mary Stutzman and Katie Ann Stutzman.
Address:
N368 W. Highway O, Mondovi.
Phone:
No.
Hours:
Sunrise to sunset Fridays only, April through December.
Wheelchair
accessible: No.
Parking:
In farm driveway.
Prices:
Fruit pies — 9-inch, $5, or 6-inch, $2; 9-inch pecan
pies, $6; cookies, $3 per dozen; cinnamon rolls, $2 per 9-inch
square; sticky buns, $3 per 9-inch square; cakes, $3; breads,
$1 to $2 per loaf; fruitcake, available October through December,
$6; six to eight Whoopie Pies, $3; jams, jellies and apple
butter, $2 per glass; handmade noodles, $2 per bag.
Extras:
Countryside sells products at the Menomonie farmers market
and takes baking orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Glazed
doughnuts may be ordered for Saturdays at $4 per dozen.
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The
Countryside Bakery is part of an Amish family farm off Highway 85
in rural Mondovi, between Rock Falls and Durand.
Owners
Mary Stutzman and her mother, Katie Ann Stutzman, make everything
from scratch — and mix everything but bread dough by hand.
Pies
and other sweet things are baked in wood-burning ovens.
Bread
dough is kneaded in a motorized mixer and baked in an oven fired
by kerosene.
The bakery
is open April through December on Fridays only, from sunrise to
sunset.
Our favorites
at Countryside include cinnamon rolls, sticky buns and pie crust.
And something nostalgia-inducing called a Whoopie Pie.
The cinnamon
rolls and sticky buns are made of sweet yeast dough rolled out,
brushed with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar, rolled up, sliced
into spirals and gently crammed into a 9-inch-square pan for baking.
The
cinnamon rolls are best plain; the frosting is distractingly sweet.
Jeff likes them at room temperature, when they have good surface
chew and the sugar-butter-cinnamon goo pools in random places and
depths.
Audrey
likes them warmed. This softens the dough, sets free the scent of
cinnamon and slicks that goo into a lovely liquid glaze.
Countryside's
definitive sticky buns add nice crunchy walnuts and a deep-caramelized
sauce that seeps into all crannies and clings, deliciously.
The pie
crust, made with vegetable shortening, is tender, flaky and wonderfully
thin. Our favorite so far: a cherry pie — of whole frozen fruit
— with a refreshingly light filling and a good balance of tart
and sweet.
Whoopie
Pies, possibly Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch in origin, are built
of two 4-inch cake-batter cookies stuck together with sweet icing.
The super-chocolatey Whoopies with vanilla filling are best.
In the
car on the way home, we were just happy kids again: eating chocolate
cake from our hands, whooping it up.
Main
Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review column, runs the
fourth Sunday of the month. Diners' Notebook, a sampling of favorite
food offerings, runs the second Tuesday of the month.
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