{"id":14499,"date":"2016-10-08T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T14:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=14499"},"modified":"2016-10-09T07:10:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T13:10:41","slug":"stellas-bites-the-annex-coffeehouse-and-bakery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/10\/stellas-bites-the-annex-coffeehouse-and-bakery\/","title":{"rendered":"Stella’s BITES: The Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crumpet\"<\/a>

Stella Fong<\/p>

The Annex crumpet: simple perfection.<\/p><\/div>\n

South of the tracks and around the corner from the downtown skate park is the Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery. Ben and Krystal Harman are once again doing a kickflip on the food scene here in Billings, having expanded into the space next to their Fieldhouse caf\u00e9 on Minnesota Avenue.<\/p>\n

With pastry chef Jeffrey Birkholz-Wilkerson in the kitchen baking nearly 30 different items a week, he knows enough tricks to have something on deck for everyone.<\/p>\n

In the renovated exposed-brick building featuring tall windows looking to the train track corridor, urban chic intermixes with Billings\u2019 past.<\/p>\n

My BITES: lemon cayenne glazed doughnut and the crumpet. Yin and yang. One filled with pizzazz and the other exuding rustic comfort. I sank my teeth into a moist and chewy doughnut topped with puckering lemony sweetness. Seconds later, the back of my mouth warmed with the swaddling spice.<\/p>\n

I washed the doughnut down with an espresso made with \u201cThrottle\u201d beans roasted from Revel Coffee, but not before an accompanying tass\u00e9 of sparkling water cleansed my palate.<\/p>\n

Next came the crumpet. Akin to English muffins, only more rustic, Birkholz-Wilkerson developed these for Cody Ringo, owner of the Ember Food Co. food truck, who wanted something he could use for breakfast sandwiches. They concocted a bready muffin\u2014sourdough starter, whole-wheat, rye flour and ground flax seed\u2014molded in a tuna can and cooked on the griddle. Homemade jam would make this a ripper.<\/p>\n

Birkholz-Wilkerson most recently served as the kitchen supervisor at Passages, working with students in the Culinary Arts Program. He brought in Julie DeShazer, a June graduate, who now works as the morning supervisor.<\/p>\n

Production begins at 2 a.m. for the banana sourdough muffins, orange rolls, devil\u2019s food cupcakes, croissants, coconut-tahini-cocoa nibs power bars, ham and cheese hot pockets and much more.<\/p>\n

The deep-colored charcoal sourdough sans smoky flavor made with bamboo charcoal is a popular seller (and happens to be something Ed Kemmick is addicted to).<\/p>\n

The Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery
\n2601 Minnesota Ave., Suite 4
\n406-534-2556<\/p>\n

Next BITE, <\/strong>when I cruise south of downtown again: a cinnamon roll.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South of the tracks and around the corner from the downtown skate park is the Annex Coffeehouse and Bakery. Ben and Krystal Harman are once again doing a kickflip on the food scene here in Billings, having expanded into the space next to their Fieldhouse caf\u00e9 on Minnesota Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":14501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4811,5064,5061,5062,5065,5063,5060],"class_list":["post-14499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","tag-ben-and-krystal-harman","tag-cody-ringo","tag-fieldhouse-cafe","tag-jeffrey-birkholz-wilkerson","tag-julie-deshazer","tag-revel-coffee","tag-the-annex","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}