Artisanal bakery with pistachio burnt cheese croissants by ex-Keong Saik Bakery head baker

Hamilton Road is part of Singapore that’s dominated by bakeries and cafes. When wandering alongside this space, it’s possible you’ll move by La Levain, which dons a vibrant orange-coloured storefront. 

La Levain is an artisanal bakery co-founded by Executive Chef Wythe Ng, who was previously the top chef at Keong Saik Bakery and Bakery Brera. 

In 2022, Chef Wythe was named as a 2022 World Gourmet Awards Baker of the Year finalist, whereas La Levain was named a 2022 World Gourmet Awards Cafe of the Year finalist. 

I visited La Levain on a Friday afternoon and was greeted by an inviting house. La Levain prides itself on baking all its merchandise contemporary every day, and even has a glass-encased kitchen the place prospects can peer in to look at the manufacturing of the bakes!

What I attempted at La Levain

We began off with considered one of La Levain’s oven-baked pizzas, which have been obtainable from 11am to 3pm. The flavour that we tried was the Pizza Quattro Formaggi (Four Cheese) (S$20.80), consisting of a freshly-baked pizza topped with home made ricotta, DOP awarded gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, and drizzled sizzling honey.

Despite its comparatively easy look, my eating companion and I have been blown away by the advanced flavours of Pizza Quattro Formaggi. Made with a hand-stretched dough that had been fermented for 72 hours, the pizza crust was chewy and light-weight, whereas the 4 totally different cheeses offered totally different layers of savoury and salty profiles.

The drizzle of honey on the floor of the pizza added simply sufficient sweetness to enrich the wealthy and salty cheese, making this pizza an absolute flavour bomb. This simply might need been the most effective cheese pizzas I’ve had!

Next, we moved on to considered one of La Levain’s hottest baked merchandise, the Pain au Chocolate (S$4.50), crammed with three 44 per cent cacao berry chocolate sticks. The Pain au Chocolate was ethereal and crispy, with a floor that crackled satisfyingly once I minimize into it.

La Levain’s Pain au Chocolate had beautiful laminated layers and an extremely aromatic buttery style. Though the chocolate sticks didn’t occupy a lot quantity inside the pastry, the richness of the cocoa could possibly be tasted all through the whole croissant.

As far as basic French bakes go, La Levain has actually nailed the well-known Pain au Chocolate to a tee.

The bake that excited me essentially the most was the artistic Pistachio Burnt Cheese Croissant (S$7.80), made with pistachio puree and burnt cheese filling. 

Cutting open the Pistachio Burnt Cheese Croissant was a visible delight, because the beneficiant fillings immediately flowed out to create a shocking inexperienced lava. 

The burnt cheese filling was creamy with a powerful nuttiness from the pistachio and a wealthy cream cheese flavour. The flaky croissant properly held the fillings, and I particularly loved how distinctive the idea of the pastry was. Overall, the Pistachio Burnt Cheese Croissant was not too candy and had a powerful quantity of flavour and texture to justify its steeper worth level.

Next up was the Muar Otah Danish (S$5.20), considered one of La Levain’s savoury bakes, encasing chunks of candy muar otah mackerel. Compared to the croissants, the Muar Otah Danish was a tad drier, however was nonetheless extremely crisp and buttery.

The muar otah filling was mildly spicy and really flavourful. It was not too salty and didn’t have an excessively fishy style. I loved how juicy and delicate the otah items have been, however I do want the quantity of fillings was extra beneficiant for me to have the ability to higher respect the otah.

Finally, we ended off with the Speculoos Cruffin (S$5.20), crammed with lotus speculoos. Despite being formed like a muffin, the croissant components of the Speculoos Cruffin have been nonetheless evident, with a crispy exterior and a delicate, well-laminated inside.

The speculoos fillings have been fragrant and wealthy, with little bits of speculoos biscuits speckled inside the cruffin, offering it with each a easy and crunchy texture. You can’t go improper with a basic speculoos-based bake, and La Levain’s Speculoos Cruffin is just not one to be missed.

Final ideas

The prime quality of La Levain’s merchandise was evident from the second that the bakes have been served. The factor that impressed me essentially the most concerning the artisanal bakery was the creativity of its bakes, making it a bakery that stands out from the throngs of different cafes and patisseries within the space. 

It’s no surprise that La Levain exploded in recognition as shortly because it did, and I’ll actually return sooner or later to strive their different distinctive flavours too!

Expected harm: S$4.50 – S$22 per pax

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