Madison, WIBakeries

Isthmus's bakeries guide follows this Willy Street bakery from its move off Mineral Point Road to a bigger room with a cafe, run by a baker who apprenticed in France and studied with a third-generation Paris baker before buying the business. Naturally leavened loaves are milled from Wisconsin-grown grain. Order the viennoiserie, the leavened pastry the guide singles out, made with Wisconsin eggs and milk from Sassy Cow Creamery, and take a loaf of the rye home with you.

Kosher means quality is the slogan at this near-west, near-campus bakery, which worked with Madison's Jewish community in 1998 to obtain a kosher certification Isthmus calls unique in the city. The guide rates the doughnuts especially good and warns that students clear the cases early, so go first thing on a football Saturday or go home empty handed. Order a sour cream old fashioned and a cake doughnut from the encyclopedic list.

Baguettes and artisanal loaves are baked fresh daily at this Williamson Street bakehouse, and Isthmus calls the baguettes the bedrock: regular, demi size, and epi de ble cut to look like a sheaf of wheat. Go deeper into the case for challah, cheese ficelle, ciabatta and a caraway rye baked with whole seeds on Sundays only. The focaccia, painted with olive oil and rosemary and dusted with salt, is the other thing to carry out.

Brothers Rolf and Ernst Clasen arrived from Cologne in 1959 and opened this Middleton bakery, and Isthmus reports the breads are still made from scratch every day in the Old World manner, with no preservatives. If you can count to five you can count the ingredients in most of the loaves. Order the kalamata olive artisan bread or the Alpine six grain, and add a croissant from the pastry case on the way out.

Annemarie Maitri built Bloom around ingredients from nearby farmers, with cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, cupcakes, bars, brownies and cookies among its baked goods. The bakery also makes treats for vegans and people with allergies or gluten intolerance. Order a cinnamon roll or doughnut from the Monroe Street shop.