Punk Rock Pastry At Bleeding Heart Bakery

This little storefront serves what it calls “local, sustainable punk rock pastry.” I’ll be honest and say I don’t even remember the names of what I purchased there, but everything was good. More importantly, Bleeding Heart will – with a little bit of notice – take food allergies and such into account. This is important to me, since we recently discovered my son has a peanut allergy and I was just starting to realize how just walking in and buying stuff from bakeries, the way I’m used to doing it, is not going to work for him anymore.

I purchased this Groupon variety pack, which included a couple of cupcakes (although they were already out, by early mid-day, of my two favorites–red velvet and salt caramel), of which I picked carrot cake and vanilla with strawberry frosting (and a surprise–a strawberry center). These were heartier-tasting than some of the more delicate cupcakes I’ve had in the past from other Chicago purveyors, and really flavorful.

The pack also included some big brownies in different flavors, a chocolate chip cookie, a giant cookie with ginger bits inside that I don’t know what it was called except that it took me four days to eat it myself, and these crispy-on-the-outside, cakey-on-the-inside cake balls in different flavors. I think of them as something akin to donut holes, except better. Seriously. I have no idea what flavor the blue one was, but it was yummy.

I should note here that my kid, with his peanut allergy, couldn’t help me eat all this stuff, and my husband, whose idea of great bakery fare is the stale happy face cookie (and yes, it has to be stale or it doesn’t taste right to him) at White Hen Pantry, doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth. So it took me days to eat all this stuff by myself. I didn’t mind at all.

If Bleeding Heart Bakery has a fault I’d say it tends to undercook so every once in a while you’ll get a pastry that’s just a tiny bit on the doughy side, which may be a result of the density of its products. But everything here is delicious, and hearty, and worth the price. I’d recommend this place–not just because of the great bakery items, but for a cute and quirky store that’s full of charm and personality and friendly folks.

Bleeding Heart Bakery has two locations:
1010 North Blvd., Oak Park
(708) 358-0559
1955 W. Belmont, Roscoe Village
(773) 327-6934
www.thebleedingheartbakery.com

By: helenlee

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About the author: Helen Lee is one of the contributor in Hungry City Guides that blogs about the world ethnic cuisine. www.hungrycityblog.com