TL;DR
We tried plain breads from 11 well-regarded bread bakeries within about 20 minutes walk from our flat in the Sant Antoni neighborhood. Taste and memory are subjective but my favorite was probably Pa Serra (Poble Sec), but nearer to home and also good were A27, Pa de Kilo (both in El Raval), and Forn La Llibreria (Universitat), Baluard (multiple), and even Turris (multiple).
The Quest
There's good-looking bread everywhere in Barcelona, but most of them are flavorless and lack texture and chew. I've made our bread the last 20+ years in the US, so am used to good chew and lots of flavor. I'm on quest to find that here.
When I bake bread, I use a pretty high hydration (70-80%), minimal yeast, and let it rise long and slow in a fridge -- for three days. I tend to bake it long to get a deep brown crust to develop the sugars. Where can I find long, slow fermented bread in Barcelona?
Grocery stores like Bonpreu have their own bakeries, every corner seems to have a chain like Granier, and there are independent bakers like Forn Can Bargalo a block from our place. We've tried baguettes and boules, rustic breads, breads with grains -- none had flavor, and the texture was like cotton wool. We had a "pan de aqua" which was full of internal holes, and a shattering crust, but was light as a feather and again had no texture -- it collapsed while slicing. I can't figure out what they're doing wrong, but I'm thinking they're exploiting super fast fermentation with lots of yeast, so no time for flavor development.
On November 14 2022, Nick Lloyd started a thread that addressed just this. I'm adding bakers found in the 2022 TimeOut article "El mejor pan de Barcelona", from the Ruta de Español de Buen Pan lists for 2022 by Dir Informatica and the 2021 list by Panatics.
My method: pick a standard loaf, plain wheat, white or mostly white; get price and weight, check crust, crumb, taste, crunch, etc. "Pa de Pagès Català" is a commonly available bread with IGP protection so it should be pretty standard -- that's what I'll pick when it's available. Otherwise, some as plain and white as I can get, frequently called "normal" or "country" loaf.
For our own convenience, I'm listing the bakeries by walking distance from where we live. First I give the name of the bakery (with link to website if available), then neighborhood and address (with Google Map link), and finally walking distance from our house.
Bakeries we visited
The Moritz store, in the brewery, is a retail outlet for their main branch
TRITICUM Just for Bread Lovers near Mataró. They open at 09:30 and the bread looked good in person.
I loved the dark crust, but I like it darker than Irene: it had a caramelized edge. The crumb was much darker than others we've had, like it had some whole grain in it: it called itself Pagès Tradició so it's not strictly following the IGP. It's less moist than some of the other loaves we've had but did leave a little condensation on the table. The density of the crumb was more than Mistral, but a bit less dense/chewy than Pa de Kilo or A27. There was just a hint of sourdough tang, which makes it good for Irene.
Cost was 6,64€/Kg, and they cut us half a loaf of 380g. They had a crazy bread cutter, not like the multi-slice saws, but more like a guillotine that slams a blade through the bread, moves it a bit, then repeats -- it's incredibly violent. I'd buy this again, but it's a bit more expensive than my other current notional favorites.
An old school bakery, also with a location around the corner. We've had great Panalettas from there.
Our 420g loaf seems light for its size. It has a shattering crust, and the crumb it not at all damp like most of the others we've had so far. It's a bit unsatifying, too light. It doesn't have any sourdough tang. The chew's ok, but there's not much flavor there. The texture's too light. Perhaps good for sandwiches, but not good as a basic bread for sopping up sauces. "It's unsatisfying, I feel like I want another slice." I probably wouldn't buy this again, except that it's super convenient -- it's worth the extra distance to Llibreria, Kilo, or A27.
Turris has many branches throughout Barcelona, and elsewhere in Spain. Turris on Compte Borrell is closest to me, next to Mercat de Sant Antoni, and there's one next to Mercat Ninot.
Definite sour dough starter taste, felt a bit wet, got it sliced and slices seemed to stick together I think from the sugars of the deeply baked crust. Irene said it was too sourdough-y and a bit too soggy/gummy for her. I'm OK with the sourdough but can live without it as long as I get good flavor from fermentation, but I also found the bread a bit wet.
They also sold pastries, and folks in the line out the door on a Saturday seemed to be buying more of those than bread.
Great crust with crunch and shatter, and an appealing darkness. Irene detected a mere hint of sourdough taste that Chris could not. Open crumb with lots of big holes ("where the baker sleeps"), slight gelatinization on the insides. The chew was good, lots of body without being like a bagel. I think it was 2.50€ for about a 500g round. I'd get this again.
We walked by this on Carme and the breads looked great. All the right words on the sign about long fermentation. Got a Pages (plain wheat) loaf for 2,20€ for about 460g, or 4,78€/Kg. The texture is full of good holes and complete gelatinization. It's crumb is lighter and less damp than Llibreria, and it has a pronounced sourdough tang. The crust is thin but with a good shatter. I'd get this again.
A couple months after our first taste, we went back to A27 and Pa de Kilo (below) and got loaves that were as close as possible, and tasted side-by-side. The A27 had an attractive blistered crust while the PdK was more smooth. PdK's had a more brown crumb and a taste that made me think it had a bit of rye or whole wheat in the mix. PdK's was quite a bit more wet than A27, and was cut more thickly. The A27 staled very quickly while the PdK was pretty OK the next day. I preferred the taste of the PdK -- a bit more flavor without feeling "too healthy" -- but Irene preferred the A27's clean flavor.
This smelled great when we entered, and the front was full of large loaves that were still radiating heat. The crusts were dark and looked shattery. A kilo-sized loaf was 5,20€. The sourdough tang was lower than Turris, but when we bought it, sliced, it also seemed a bit moist inside; it may have been from coming out of the oven only recently. I preferred it to the Turris bread.
I liked the fact that they did not sell much in the way of pastries, allowing them to focus on breads. Their standard breads, available every day, include Fogassa, Hogaza, Pa de Kilo: 1Kg 5,20€; 1/2Kg 3,00€. They offer different specialty breads on different days of the week including rye and brioche.
Near Mercat Ninot, a small shop with ancient ovens in the back; I noticed a Cook's Illustrated Baking Book on the shelf, in English. There were ancient oven doors in the back, but we couldn't tell if they were still in use.
A "Pages" loaf of nominal 500g weighed in at 463g, for 2,98€, or about 6€/Kg. The crust was a bit lighter than I like. Crumb structure looked good, but with fairly fine crumb and few large gelatenized holes. I didn't notice sourdough in the aroma.
The crust did not have a crunch, but perhaps it's because we got it at 14:00 instead of early in the morning. It's medium in the sourness. There's definitely some whole wheat in here (it was not labelled Pagés Català). Texture of the crust is loose, so it doesn't feel wet, even though it's slightly damp.
This one isn't bad but it's not making my socks go up and down: others have more flavor and better texture. It'd be fine for a sandwich, and it was in fact sliced more thinly than most, so it might be great for sandwiches, but I can get better bread closer to home.
There are many Forn Baluard Barcelonatas around town, I'm just listing two that are the closest to me. This one is near Rambla Catalunya above Arago. We walked by and the bread looked good, and we noticed that they sold their own flour.
We were in the neighborhood and picked up a Pages Baluard, nominal 1/2 Kg was 550g, for 2,55€, so 5,10€/Kg -- but a nominal Kg loaf is a bargain at 3,60€!
The crust color looks good, as does the crumb -- uneven, but not with giant "baker sleeping" holes.
Taste was quite tart, maybe too sourdough-y for Irene. Crumb had some definite strength. Worth getting again.
We visited this shop again a few weeks later and got a fairly plain bread but with some seeds. It was quite good, the seeds gave it a bit more interest than the plain, without being so Earth-dog-like that I'd have to wear Birkenstocks. I'd get this one again.
Another outpost a couple blocks above Mercat Ninot, where we frequently shop; we assume the quality is the same as the one above.
We got there just before closing at 14:00 and they were nearly out of bread, and I got one of the last large rounds. I'm afraid I wasn't as thorough with this as the others, as we spent the day walking around town, carrying the loaf with us, and nibbled a couple slices on the way.
The crust was excellent, a good crunch; crumb was also good, nice texture, good chew and taste. It held up OK the next day.
Don't tell anyone, but we froze some of this to prevent staling: wrapped tightly in plastic film, then inside a large ziptop bag. It revived surprisingly well, much better than if we'd let it sit in our plastic bread box.
I think this was my favorite of all the breads; I kept thinking about it days after the last slice was gone. If the bakery were a little closer, I'd probably seek it out all the time, but I've got so many other good choices
We arrived shortly before closing time and got the last of the plain white boules. Irene said this was her favorite so far (very early in our visits), as it had the least sour dough tang. Chris found it a bit dull, and craved a darker crust. It, like the others, was slightly damp inside. The crust lost its crunch overnight. I think it was about 2€ for about a 350g loaf.
Personally, I wouldn't make the trek for this loaf, especially when Pa Serra is in the same neighborhood.
Places we didn't try
We didn't try the following places, mostly because of their distance. We've found so many good places closer to us that we're satisfied.
They were a finalist in 2022 Ruta de Española de buen Pan.
Coush Armo (multiple)
Our friend Peter recommended the branch in Gracia, and the bread he brought to our flat was quite good.
Gracia: Carrer de Sant Marc, 19, 08012 Barcelona, 35 minutes
2021 Rute de Español de buen Pan finalist.
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