6 Bakery Trends That Have Found Sweet Success in Shanghai

With close to 4,700 bakeries scattered throughout Shanghai (stats from the Shanghai Commercial Association), the city clearly has no shortage of carb lovers, and its bakeries are working overtime to satisfy everyone’s cravings.

The city’s amalgam of Old Shanghai-style bakeries, French pâtisseries, and East Asian (mostly Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean) café culture makes its dynamic bakery scene incredibly exciting, but it’s also almost impossible to keep up with the latest buzz, so we’ve gone ahead and done the homework for you. 

Here are Shanghai’s trending baked goods that are currently selling like hot cakes, and that warrant a taste!

For those who normally pass on the crust from sandwich bread, this might change your mind. 

If you thought the classic shokupan or Hokkaido milk bread couldn’t get any better, wait till you try Pretzel Toast. A game changer, this new style of toast has the deliciously soft and fluffy texture of Hokkaido milk bread and the hallmark exterior of a pretzel — dark brown, slightly salty and chewy.

Photos via PAOPAO Bakery & Café

Preparing said pastry involves making shokupan dough and dipping it in an alkaline bath, which accelerates the Maillard reaction, the chemical process that causes browning and forms a deep caramel exterior.

Photos via Basdban

Bakeries around town are giving laminated dough a glow up. What used to just hum in the background is now considered as important as its toppings or fillings.

Previously, puff pastry was the standard go-to for tarts, but mille-feuille pastry has been having a moment.

Bakers allow the laminated dough to crisp all the way through, all the better to maximise its flakiness and butteriness, before adding sweet or savoury fillings. Once you’ve had a taste, old-school puff pastry tarts will never be the same again.

TIME OUT TIP: Both puff pastry and mille-feuille (meaning ‘thousand-leaf’ in French) refer to buttery, layered pastry dough, but their differences lie in their respective methods of preparation and application.

Whether it’s called the Croissant Biscuit or the Flat Croissant, this cartoonish, ‘two-dimensional’ croissant first popped up in South Korea last year, made waves across TikTok, and has now surfaced on the streets of Shanghai.

Chinese netizens call it the ‘Guoba Croissant,’ a reference to the burnt, crispy rice at the bottom of a pan.

Photos via bebaked

To make it, fresh croissants are first flattened before being coated in butter and sugar, and finally baked until crisp.

With a slight resemblance to the famous palmiers of Shanghai, it’s no wonder this buttery treat is doing well locally.

Shanghai has the ciabatta craze, and it doesn’t seem to be fizzing out anytime soon.

Far from a new trend (having been invented in 1982 by a baker in Adria, Rovigo, Veneto), the Italian bread uses a high hydration dough that gives it a distinct airy structure, and is traditionally used for sandwiches, therefore falling on the plain-tasting side. However, ciabatta flavours in town are ever-evolving.

Local bakers are mixing in unconventional ingredients, some Chinese-inspired, and pushing the envelope of what might even be considered a ciabatta. 

Vegetarian Chicken with Soy Sauce Ciabatta at Cycle & Cycle. Photo by Sammi Sowerby

Mix-ins range from OG favourites like black beans and pine nuts to Shantou squid ink balls, preserved vegetables or mugwort.

Love it or ‘loaf’ it, Shanghai’s ciabatta trend is here to stay.

Coming from Hong Kong, I was surprised when Shanghai’s bakers began devoting their craft to my hometown staple this year.

The Hong Kong egg tart, itself a derivation of the Portuguese pastel de nata, is composed of a pastry crust and an egg custard filling.

Salted egg yolk-stuffed egg tart from Youta有挞.

Photo via the bakery

While the egg tart’s primary flavour is that of, well… eggs, bakeries in Shanghai are turning things up a notch.

We’re now snacking on pistachio, banoffee, and salted egg yolk and pork floss egg tarts in town.

Photos via bebaked and Drunk Baker

Widely popular and available at both convenient stores and speciality dessert shops alike, purin or Japanese pudding is Japan’s rendition of flan or crème caramel.

Here in Shanghai, this treat hasn’t been content with just being a solo act...

Caramel pudding has been making surprise cameos atop desserts such as tarts, cakes and ice cream.

Its mild creaminess makes it a great canvas to pair with a wide range of textures and flavours, and adds a playful touch to any classic confection. 

Photo via 1688 Handmade Pâtisserie

All images were either shot by the writer or sourced via the respective establishments. This article is not to be replicated without prior consent.

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