Automne Boulangerie

On our last day in Montreal before an evening flight, we decided to hit up a few places where we could bring some things back to Vancouver.  One of which was Automne Boulangerie.  Opened in 2016 under the partnership between Seth Gabrielse and Julien Roy, their mission was to use local ingredients to craft their high-quality products.  They work with local mills and the results speak for themselves.  They are now up to 2 locations with the original being on Avenue Christophe-Colomb and the one we visited at 1470 Rue Bélanger.

Fortunately, it wasn't too busy for a Sunday morning (at 10:30am) as we were able to walk right up to the counter and order.  We even scored a table!  Beyond a few hot bevvies, we got a collection of baked goods including the Butter Croissant.  Gotta say, this was a good croissant.  It was flaky and shattered when I bit into it.  Nice lamination, yet the inside was a bit dense.  Definitely could taste the butter and was nicely aromatic.

One of the more striking items we tried was the Chocolate Danish.  However, it looked more like a sweet version of their Croissignon.  With a spiral design on the outside, it had plenty of texture in the form of firm crunchiness.  It was also plenty aromatic and buttery. Inside, there was some softer buttery portions encasing a semi-sweet chocolate filling.  Adding more crunch was some cocoa nibs on the outside.

Another interesting item was the Cruffin à la Cannelle.  So as the name suggests, this was a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin.  Consisting of croissant dough, this was flaky and buttery.  Due to its compact nature, it was not as light and airy as the butter croissant.  Inside, the cream cheese filling was creamy and not too heavy.  It was purposefully sweet while still maintaining a rich cheesiness.

Looking quite delicious, the Noeud Cardamome or Kardemummabullar is a Scandinavian cardamom knot pastry.  So think cinnamon bun but in a different shape and of course focusing on cardamom.  I loved the crispiness of the exterior, especially the sugary crunch on the top.  Inside, the bun was soft with some elasticity.  The cardamom did come through and it wasn't too strong so the sweetness was at the forefront with only a bit of background aromatics.

Heading to something fruity, we tried the Brioche Saisonnière featuring blueberries.  This was fairly light pastry where the brioche was soft and airy as expected.  However, on the outside, it great colour and just a touch of crunch.  Nestled in the middle we found the juicy blueberries in a semi-sweet glaze.  There was enough of it for every bite of the brioche.

Our last item was an Muffin aux Pommes which had classic apple cinnamon vibes.  It was pretty sweet, but had enough tang with the apple to balance.  The muffin itself was somewhere between fluffy and dense, which was a pleasant texture.  A bit of crunch on top added more sweetness and butteriness.  In addition to these items, we had dined on Automne Boulangerie sourdough several times when we were in Montreal.  Really good bread with a crunchy exterior where the inside was moist with a pleasant chewiness.  Overall, the stuff at Automne is solid, especially their sourdough.  Definitely can see why they are one of the best in Montreal.

The Good:

- That sourdough

- Solid baked goods

- Now they have 2 locations

The Bad:

- Croissant could be more airy inside