Olsen's Danish Village Bakery

An Ærø baking line, transplanted to Solvang

The counter at Olsen's Danish Village Bakery is Danish end to end: kringle, wienerbrød, fruit strips, butter cookies, kransekage and rye bread, made the way they are made on the island the baker came from. Bent Olsen grew up in his family's bakery in Ærøskøbing, on Ærø, where his grandfather and father ran a shop founded in 1890. He trained with them, studied baking and confectionery in Sweden, came to the United States in 1965, and bought the Solvang bakery in 1970.

That lineage is the whole proposition. Solvang is a town built on Danish identity and several Danish bakeries, and this is the one with the apprenticeship behind it. Beyond the counter, the bakery makes celebration cakes and ships Danish baked goods across the continental United States.

A case that runs the full Danish repertoire

The range is broader than a single pastry case. It covers fruit strips, butter cookies, coffee cake, breads and specialty breads, hard rolls, pastries and fancy pastries, holiday items, kransekage, jams, kringle and puff pastry, which is close to the whole Danish repertoire in one room.

Named items give the case its shape: Danish Kringle and Danish Luxury Kringle, the Seven Sisters butter ring, Danish butter cookies, the Danish Delight cookie tray and wienerbrød pastries. Fruit strips come in raspberry, apricot and cherry. The bread side runs from rugbrød, the Danish rye pumpernickel, to cinnamon swirl bread with icing, Scandinavian cardamom bread, raisin bread, whole wheat rolls and sesame or poppy seed hard rolls. Kransekage, the almond ring cake, comes in several ring sizes, and special-order cakes cover birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations and christenings.

Order the kringle first

Start with the kringle, particularly the almond custard version, since it is the pastry the bakery's name rests on: laminated, glazed and built for sharing rather than for one person standing at the counter.

After that, order for contrast. Cinnamon crisps or Danish waffles give something crisp, apple strudel covers fruit, and butter cookies or the Danish Delight tray are what to take away. For a bread-led order, rugbrød, cardamom bread, raisin bread and hard rolls show the savoury and breakfast-table side of the same repertoire. Kransekage is the most ceremonial thing on the counter, and coffee cake and fruit strips are what make the stop feel like a classic Solvang bakery visit rather than a narrow dessert run.