16 Princes St, Turramurra, New South Wales 2074
cookaborough.com/flour-shop/menus
A few weeks ago we had occasion to drop someone off near Turramurra around lunch time. A perfect opportunity to find a new bakery and try it out! A bit of searching located the cleverly named Flour Shop, nestled in a tiny cluster of local shops in a residential area.
Entering showed mostly racks of delicious looking bread, including one (currently empty) space allocated for loaves declared to be SUPER SEEDY. There were also a small number of other treats such as chocolate cherry cookies and ginger nuts, and a savoury croissant filled with pastrami, pickles, and cheese.
But to one side, cooling off on a baking tray after having just emerged from the oven, was this delicious looking array of sausage rolls!
The menu here changes weekly, and this week they were cooking pork, fennel, and apple sausage rolls. Well, hot and fresh from the oven… this absolutely had to be tried. I paid for one and took it outside to eat while sitting on a nearby bench.
The roll is very well cooked, a dark golden brown colour from significant caramelisation in the oven. It’s a short but very plump shape, with the pastry crimped together on one side in a way that seems to be getting more popular these days, rather than the seam being rolled underneath. There are numerous whole fennel seeds stuck to the well-glazed top of the pastry. The meat filling protrudes enticingly from within, the ends crispy and caramelised from the sugar content of the apples in the mix.
Taking a first bite…. wow. The filling is absolutely delicious. Soft with a pleasant mouthfeel and some sweetness from the apple prominent. Then the fennel and fresh green herbs come through. There are chunks of apple providing the occasional burst of sweetness as you chew them. And then more layers of flavour complexity emerge: a well-seasoned spiciness with a noticeable kick of black pepper. This is a true gourmet combination of well-balanced flavours. And we haven’t mentioned the pastry yet! It’s crisp and flaky and provides the perfect texture contrast to the soft, moist filling.
This is amazingly good. I’m counting down the days until I can return here to try another. For dessert I tried one of the chocolate cherry cookies, and that was amazing too.
Pork, fennel, and apple sausage roll: 10/10