Howard Springs Bakery

2024 🥧 Tour
Review no 49
Howard Springs Bakery
(Howard Springs NT)

With limited 🥧 options between Alice and Darwin, I had a couple of 🥧 free weeks and time to explore areas such at Daly Waters, Mataranka, Katherine Gorge and Litchfield before setting my sights on Darwin. On previous trips to Darwin I had visited most of the bakeries and 🥧 joints the area has to offer except one and that was the
Howard Springs Takeaway (Bakery) .

Howard Springs is located about 25 mins south of Darwin and the bakery itself is located across the road from the Howard Springs Taven. Owners Lee and Scott took over this place 3 years ago plus took control of the bakery in the Coolalinga Shopping Centre.

When this amazing couple took over they had absolutely no baking experience at all. Both worked in NT government jobs for many years, then jumped head first into the baking trade. This is another old school bakery with heaps of products on offer including square 🥧’s which you don’t see that often. Speaking of 🥧’s I was keen to get over to the 🥧 warmer and take a look.

Heaps of options to choose from in fact there is over 15 different flavors and varieties on the 🥧 board. The more I looked the more confused I got, so in the end I just randomly chose one and that ended up being the “mince, tomato and onion” I cannot remember the last time I had one of these floured 🥧’s, so I was looking to seeing how this one shaped up.

🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧

1. Value for Money – $6.50 represented good value for a square pie of this size although the depth wasn’t huge, the diameter was more than acceptable making this 🥧 very affordable. 8/10

2.Meat/Fill Ratio – Whilst only small in depth, it was completely full and nothing more could have been squeezed into this 🥧. 10/10

3. Flavour – Pretty good !!! The mince was perfectly cooked and wasn’t gritty, while the added tomato and onion were the exact amounts and they blended I well. Only negative was it lacked that something ingredient that brings out more flavour, which could have been a touch of seasoning. The overall flavour in this 🥧 was satisfactory. 7/10

4. Pastry – The color of this 🥧 and in fact all the 🥧’s sold here looked terrific. The shape and stability was satisfactory but the top bake had a small amount of shrinkage ever so slight that it had allowed the meat boil over. The top bake and thickness were spot on but the bottom bake was under done and dragged the score down a bit. The overall pastry flavor was nice, with a few things to work on but nothing major. 6.5/10

5. Serving Temperature – Yes it was a fraction on the hot side but nothing outrageous. Had to wait a small time before tucking in. 9/10

Overall Rating
🥧🥧 40.5/50 🥧🥧

Overall, this was a nice product. Nothing fancy just a good old-fashioned mince, tomato and onion 🥧. The price point was more than acceptable, the 🥧 was full and the flavor was great. Only downer was the the bottom bake and thickness, but this can easily be fixed or tweaked in a heartbeat. Trina and the team have done a great job with this one. Would I have another one ? Simple answer YES !!!!
If you’re in and around the Howard Springs area, make sure you pop in say g’day and grab yourself one of the quality products.

A massive thanks to owners Lee and Scott, and bakery manager Trina for having me in and taking the time out of their busy day. With zero baking experience these legends with the help of Trina have worked so hard over the last three years and are doing a terrific job. This is a cracking little Bakery, the locals and passing tourists are so lucky to have a bakery of this quality. Once again thank you and I’ll see you guys next time I’m in Darwin.

I absolutely love Darwin and what it has to offer. The whole area has so much to see and explore. Two of my absolute highlights were the stay at Gunn Point (Free beach camp) and the
Airborne Solutions Helicopter Tours pub crawl. The pub crawl was absolutely sensational. Yes it’s expensive but 100% worth the money and was a stack of fun. Both these places are highly recommended.