Prominent retail bakeries in the Big Apple are driving innovation in flavorful ways, with a keen eye on what modern consumers expect today – authentic, wholesome, and unique.

Ole & Steen, Denmark’s favorite all-day bakery, now with multiple locations in New York City and 100-plus in Europe, specializes in traditional Danish breads and pastries, like Carrot Rye and almond-filled Copenhagener with their own modern twist. 

This year, they’re celebrating sourdough season by highlighting their seven different types of bread with new menu items, an IG Breaducation video series, and more. Ole & Steen's head of production and official bread aficionaDOUGH Josh Pickens provides an inside look at their trusted process – from creating and feeding a healthy sourdough starter, the fermentation process, shaping your loaf, and storing your bread.

“Our production is pretty unique. We have three- to four-day mix processes, and we use old-school ingredients with an intense leavening process,” says Pickens, who has encountered a long and winding journey to reach his current position.

Pickens firmly believes they have one of the best bread teams in the country, with an incredible setup for baking. 

“We have five stores in the U.S. now. We are working on efficiency. It is cool to be at the start of something really big – hearty Danish breads that are built for something beyond 1-day shelf life,” he says.

“You have to focus on sustainability. We utilize what is available to make it last. There is a cultural push toward sustainability. The whole Nordic region is all about this. Sustainability is the push in every aspect of our business. Building up the local market and local mills.”

The bakery continues to source locally, bringing in flavorful grains including local rye.

It all started in 1991. Ole Kristoffersen and Jane Borup opened the first bakery on the ground floor in Copenhagen, more specifically Christianshavns Torv. If you stand on Christianshavns Torv and look up and down the building, you will see why we are called Lagkagehuset in Denmark. Lagkagehuset means “layer-cake” in Danish, so the name came quite naturally, because the beautiful square building from 1930 looks like a giant layer cake with the alternating whipped cream and cream-colored layers. 

Lagkagehuset opened in 2016 for the first time outside Denmark in London under the name Ole & Steen. Especially the cinnamon stick, which in English is called a Cinnamon Social™ is a big hit among the British. By the end of 2021, the group had 16 stores in London.

In early 2019, the group opened their first store in New York at Union Square in Manhattan. New York City is a melting pot of many different cultures, and the group had the dream of wanting to bring Danish culture and traditions to one of the greatest cities in the world and educate U.S. customers on the Danish ways. New Yorkers immediately fell in love with their traditional breads, pastries, and their famous Cinnamon Social™.

Ole & Steen’s bakers are up early in NYC to bake freshly made bread. All breads are made from their 100+ year old sourdough starter to ensure that all breads always have the same distinct taste, structure, and crumb. This includes all Danish rye breads and all sourdough breads. Customers enjoy classic breads like the skagen, Ølander, rye, and sourdough loaves. The variety of rolls can be enjoyed any time of day with butter, Danish cheese, or simply plain.

Experience matters

Pickens brings a wealth of experience to his craft. He took his first bakery job in 2005 and studied at the Culinary Institute of America, staying on afterward graduation to teach. For a time, he worked at Wheatfields in Lawrence, Kansas, famous for its incredible Llopis oven.

Then he and his wife, a cake decorator, worked at Bread and Cie in San Diego, where they specialize in rustic, stone-hearth breads. Ultimately, the couple moved back to New York City where Josh joined the famous Williamsburg Hotel in Brooklyn as head baker until leaving in 2017. For the past few years, he and his wife ran their own bakery in Queens, producing in-house milled, freshly baked breads. Then came the pandemic, and business slid.

When a job opportunity arose at Ole & Steen arose, Pickens was immediately intrigued. “I spent a lot of time in Copenhagen. I love Denmark,” he says. “I always want to create things that I want to eat. When we use great grains, the flavor is beautiful. I felt that way my first day at Ole & Steen.”

After having joined the bakery as head of production in May, Pickens enters his first holiday period at the renowned bakery, which has five locations in New York City (Bryant Park, Midtown East, Tribeca, Union Square, and Upper East Side).

“We do thousands of ginger hearts. This is my first holiday lunch,” Pickens says with youthful delight. “We do a cinnamon social, with cardamom in the filling, and a festive hazelnut flavor. Another special flavor is our Othello slice, a vanilla sponge cake with raspberry jam and marzipan crumble, topped with vanilla cream, tempered chocolate, and hazelnut. We make a salted caramel apple Danish and a Marzipan tower that is 15 tiers tall – extremely elegant.”

They make Challah at their upper east side location. All is hand shaped. “We do four-braided Challah.”

Ole & Steen delights customers with popular breads such as carrot rye, soft grain rye, seeded rye, Ølander loaf, and sourdough loaf.

Their bread delivery and takeout service makes online ordering easy and convenient, and customers choose whether they want their bread to be delivered at your doorstep or to be handed personally at any desired location in Midtown Manhattan.

THC-infused chocolate bars

Without doubt, offering distinctly unique products is a winning formula with today’s consumers. Another example of such projects throughout the retail baking world, incredibles, an award-winning cannabis edibles brand from Green Thumb Industries Inc., just announced a partnership with Magnolia Bakery, New York City’s world-famous bakeshop. Starting Nov. 1, fans of both brands can shop the collaboration featuring two limited-edition THC-infused chocolate bars at RISE Dispensaries in Illinois, Nevada, and Massachusetts, with wider availability across the three states to follow.

Magnolia Bakery’s first venture into cannabis by way of this collaboration celebrates the brand’s most iconic, fan-favorite flavors in a new light, with chocolate bars inspired by its signature banana pudding and red velvet cupcakes. In partnership with Magnolia Bakery, incredibles has created two THC-infused chocolate bars:

Swirled Famous Banana Pudding Bar: a swirl of creamy vanilla pudding, crunchy vanilla cookies and freeze-dried bananas, containing 10mg THC per piece and 100mg THC per bar.

Red Velvet Piece Ahhh Cake 1:1 Bar: flavors of moist crimson cake, cream cheese tang and rich dark chocolate, containing 10mg THC and 10mg CBD per piece and 100mg THC and 100mg CBD per bar.

“There are few bakeries as recognized as Magnolia Bakery, with their world-renowned treats that customers flock to,” said Dominic O’Brien, senior vice president of revenue at Green Thumb. “And in cannabis, there is nothing like incredibles, the number one best-selling chocolate edibles brand across all our existing markets. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Magnolia Bakery on this collaboration, crossing their classic flavors with our commitment to deliver an ‘effect you can expect’ that incredibles is famous for.”

“With their national reach and proven track record of consistent, quality products, incredibles is a perfect partner as Magnolia Bakery expands into the realm of cannabis edibles,” said Sara Gramling, vice president, PR and Partnerships at Magnolia Bakery. “Magnolia Bakery is dedicated to crafting delicious desserts for visitors of all tastes and preferences and can now share our signature flavors with cannabis consumers in three markets. We hope that fans enjoy this all-new way to get baked with Magnolia Bakery.”