Pastry horror show. Do you eat it or does it eat you? Stay tuned to Breakfast Bro Texas Edition.
One taste of the baked goods at JB's told me that they make all of their breads and pastries from scratch using old-world techniques. And that was verified when I went to their website: http://www.jbsgermanbakery.com.
Owner and operator Juergen Kazenmayer brings decades of German baking experience to the small, but lucky community of North Padre Island. He and his wife Brigitte opened the bakery five years ago with their wood-burning oven imported from their homeland. My guess: JB = Juergen & Brigitte.
My realtor, Lynn Smith put me on to this place. The bakery and cafe is located on Padre Island Drive just over the high-rise bridge from Corpus Christi. Follow the road in from the bridge and you will see the odd-shaped blue building on the right. That's JB's. For more information on JB's Bakery go to www.jbsgermanbakery.com.
Behold ... the Cream Puff!
Tired of cream puffs with that white artificial junk inside. Go to JB's. Here it's the real stuff.
I'm trying to taste as many sweets before I leave the island, and all my girlfriend Jewell wants are the cream puffs. Okay, they are great.
This one looks like another human-eating pastry ... it's licking it's chops waiting for Jewell to get too close. Come closer, Jewell, come closer.
Custard Pies:
I wish I had bought the whole pie ... or what was left of it. Instead, we took a slice of the blueberry and a slice of the coconut custard pies (and a cream puff) home to Canyon Lake with us. If you like custard and love blueberries, then I don't have to describe how this taste.
The coconut custard pie, though, had a slight taste resemblance to Mounds, but much-much better than any Mound candy bar I have ever eaten. The a-hah moment came when I realized that the pie had chocolate chips in it, but only enough that there was only one chip per taste. So the chocolate taste was subtle.
Cherry-Cheese Pie:
Cream cheese must be one of JB's favorite ingredients, and does it mix well with cherries. Look at that pie. The slice didn't last five minutes when I returned from the coast.
Ham & Cheese Bretzel:
A bretzel is pretzel dough. This bretzel has ham and cheese baked into it. Really good stuff. I didn't know what a bretzel was until I bit into this wonderful soft-baked pretzel. And wow, what a surprise.
Build Your Own Omelet:
You don't really build your own omelet, you just tell them what you want on it. Jewell said "Everything!" So above is what an everything omelet looks like. My guess is that JB adds a touch of heavy cream to the eggs. Might as well ... they add heavy cream to just about everything else.
Raspberry Cream Strudel:
The title says "Buy Me!" So I listened. We took this one back to the condo we were renting for a late night snack. People in their late 60s are not supposed to have late night snacks. Oh well. It was worth it. I could do a raspberry cream strudel again. JB's also makes blueberry cream and lemon cream strudels. Below is the lemon strudel.
Brisket Strudel:
JB figured out how to throw a Texas spin on German cooking: chunks of brisket seasoned softly with a mild barbecue sauce rolled in whatever wonderful dough is used to make a strudel. I ordered this one for breakfast along with the raspberry strudel. The brisket one filled me up. That's why the sweet strudel made it to the condo with us.
French Toast:
Homemade bread goes into the French toast which makes all the difference in the world. Hiding behind the toast is a long length of bratwurst ... only in a German cafe. I love this place.
Onion Quiche:
I make quiches and nothing I make or have ever had was this good. This quiche appears to be somewhere between a quiche and a soufflé. Slightly more heavy cream is my guess for the secret ingredient. And the onions, oh, the onions. I believe that the onions were sautéd before being added to the pie mixture. This was heavenly. I would come back just for the onion quiche.
Veggie Quiche:
You know I don't do veggies very often in this blog, but had to here. This has to be about the most colorful slice of quiche that I have ever seen. And it was good.
Sausage Kolache:
I was trying to get a cheese kolache, but pointed to this one instead. That's okay. Great sausages and great dough, all cooked together for perfection. Hey, my bad. Had another one. The cheese is in the sausage.
Bacon Bagel!
Bacon makes everything better, even bagels. I had to buy this, and oh it was good, really good. What do I put on this, cream cheese or butter? Yeah, cream cheese.
Other Sweets Not Tasted (Yet):
So much to eat and so little time.
Other Bread Products:
I offered to work here if I could be paid in food.
And they have a food truck!
And I haven't started on the breads. You know I'm coming back.
