Korean bakery Buttered in Chippendale serves sweet and savoury flaky baked goods that conjure small moments of happiness.
Physicians may weep, but beautifully made pastries, cake and bread never let you down. Golden, flaky baked goods – sweet or savoury – can pull a day from the weeds, whether it’s baklava on the bus, croissants in the cafeteria or sfogliatelle after school.
I can see this in the faces of customers lining up at Buttered, a two-month-old Chippendale shop creating Korean-style baked goods. Away from the winter cold in the boutique hotel-like space – a soothing blend of glowing archways and matte-grey pillars – they are riveted by what’s in the long glass cabinet set across a vast marble counter.
I’m here to kiss my troubles goodbye, however briefly, by tackling the bakery’s version of “tissue bread”, which is something of a TikTok sensation. Made by baking laminated croissant dough in a square baking tin, the crunchy edged fist-sized cube reveals gauzy layers of soft pastry when pulled apart. Buttered also loads its tissue bread with chocolate, matcha, pistachio and flavours, plus a particularly marvellous lemon meringue.
The plain, pistachio and matcha varieties (I have many troubles to farewell) work surprisingly well dipped into Buttered’s frothy Signature Velvet sweet corn drink. It’s essentially a corn-flavoured latte, although there are other (much) sweeter flavours including butterscotch, royal chestnut and dalgona, or ppopgi, the traditional Korean honeycomb-flavoured treat made famous in the Netflix series Squid Game.
The counter also holds perfect rows of the signature “Salty Boi” − salt bread, aka sogeum-ppang. It looks like a cross between a croissant and a dinner roll, made by baking a finger-sized log of salted butter into a coil of cold-fermented dough. The added butter creates a crispy base below the roll’s crunchy exterior and soft filling. Pocked with several air holes, the Salty Boi accommodates a lavish spree of sweet and savoury fillings.
The most luscious filling is potato, egg and mayo, followed by butter-glistening garlic cheese. A corn cheese version is swoony and plump and has a lovely pop of sweetness against the bread’s saltiness. (That saltiness comes from the salted butter, by the way, not from extra sodium in the dough.) One of the most popular lunch items is the ham, tomato, lettuce and wasabi-mayo Salty Boi. Thanks to the seasoned bread, it’s a va-va-voom improvement on the average meat and salad roll.
Tissue bread orders are only matched by requests for cake cups bearing Asian-style sponge layered with milk cream and seasonal fruit. Heady stuff. I try the white grape version and it’s a relief to eat that fruit within all the sponge and sweet cream.
While it seems like there’s a new viral treat on every Sydney street corner these days, Buttered’s baked goods aren’t just for Instagram’s sake. The art and beauty behind the creations is clear, all the work of pastry chef Philip Choi, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. He says Buttered’s creations are inspired by childhood memories of neighbourhood bakeries in South Korea. I say they’re an express route to small moments of happiness.
Three other new-wave bakeries to try
Banksia Bakehouse
Famous for buttery croissants garnished with fillings and toppings, Banksia’s special this June is a gravity-defying coil of white coffee ganache creme patissiere layered with walnut praline and topped with mascarpone and candied walnuts.
Grosvenor Place, 225 George Street, Sydney, banksia.sydney
Tenacious Bakehouse
Few things are as beautiful as slicing into baker Yeongjin Park’s huge version of a Portuguese tart, its glistening miso caramel top oozing down burnished pastry and bright custard. Don’t miss the taro cream croissants either, with bellies purple like jacaranda blooms.
101 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst and 2/18 Sydney Street, Manly, tenaciousbakehouse.com.au
Pantry Story
If anyone knows how to pull crowds with new styles of baked goods, it’s Tiara Sucipto, co-owner with Hari Wibowo of this cafe-bakery on Sydney’s western artery. The menu changes weekly but the taro mochi croissant and beef pie are a sure-bet.
336 Parramatta Road, Stanmore, instagram.com/pantrystory_sydney
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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