DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — At first look, Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery is the type of small store you would discover alongside a stretch of Predominant Road in most rural cities in Maine.
Look nearer and the unassuming white brick constructing has options that make all of it its personal, like the intense blue picnic tables exterior. The entrance home windows learn “Welcome to our bakery” in English on one facet and Icelandic on the opposite, and little plush gnomes, sunflowers and toadstools fill the show. Inside, flags and nature images of Maine and the Nordic island nation adorn the partitions.
The photographs are totems of baker Iris Oskarsdottir-Vail’s homeland, the place she was gaining publicity within the culinary world when she met her now husband, Joel Vail, on-line in 2016. She immigrated to Dover-Foxcroft the next 12 months.
Oskarsdottir-Vail’s in-laws, Charlie and Jen Vail, took a large threat opening a bakery throughout the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, however the enterprise is prospering in Piscataquis, a county with restricted inhabitants and monetary wherewithal. Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery celebrated its first 12 months of enterprise final month.
Open 4 days every week from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., there are days the store sells out of well-liked objects earlier than closing time. The bakery has charmed loads of regulars, some touring from so far as Belfast and Lincoln for buttery croissants, recent breads and delicacies like raspberry crumble danishes.
Clockwise, from left: A cake created by Iris Oskarsdottir-Vail of Vail’s Customized Desserts; Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery at 83 E. Predominant St. in Dover-Foxcroft; Contemporary baguettes at Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery, pictured Friday. Credit score: Iris Oskarsdottir-Vail and Valerie Royzman / BDN
Oskarsdottir-Vail fulfilled slightly below 800 customized orders within the first 12 months, she stated.
“It’s been overwhelming seeing folks’s response,” she stated. “All people is so comfortable and grateful that we’re right here. We see most of the similar faces day by day or week, or each different day. It provides us lots of hope.”
At her core, Oskarsdottir-Vail is an artist whose medium is muffins and pastries, her father-in-law stated. The baker begins most days at 2:30 or 3 a.m. and works within the store’s tiny kitchen with no dishwasher, whipping up Icelandic doughnuts, honey-pecan baklava and delights that appear like they’re from a aggressive baking present on TV — one thing completely different each week.
Oskarsdottir-Vail, 32, grew up on a dairy farm in Skíðadalur, a valley in northern Iceland. Her father is from Iceland, and her artist mom moved there from Norway within the Nineteen Eighties. After graduating from an artwork program in higher secondary faculty, Oskarsdottir-Vail enrolled at a superb arts faculty. A couple of 12 months in, she craved a brand new expertise, so she crossed the nation to the capital, Reykjavík.
Oskarsdottir-Vail spent 4 years on the Hospitality and Culinary College of Iceland, and dealing as an intern at completely different bakeries and buying a number of prestigious honors. In 2014, she was the primary girl to win the Cake of the Yr award from the Nationwide Affiliation of Bakers; retailers used her recipe to bake and promote the cake for Girls’s Day.
Someday throughout her education, a classmate satisfied Oskarsdottir-Vail to enroll in an internet site the place language learners go to satisfy potential pen friends. “I made a joke profile that stated, ‘I dwell in Iceland, and I’ve a pet polar bear’,” she stated, smiling. Finally she linked with Joel Vail, and inside just a few months of courting on-line and a visit to america, they had been engaged.
Dover-Foxcroft reminded Oskarsdottir-Vail of her homeland in some methods. The winter climate isn’t so completely different, and other people listed here are down-to-earth and pleasant, she stated. The couple has a 2-year-old son, Kineo (sure, like Mount Kineo close to Moosehead Lake).
Though she acknowledged job alternatives for a baker can be sparse, Oskarsdottir-Vail discovered her place at Spruce Mill Farm & Kitchen — till it shuttered in March 2021 throughout the pandemic.
Charlie and Jen Vail had been hesitant about opening a brand new enterprise at first, however Charlie Vail reminisced about working as a young person at his sister’s pizzeria. He liked cooking for folks, and through the years he contemplated opening a spot. He was additionally positive of his daughter-in-law’s abilities, and he needed her to have a job that she genuinely loved.
So the Vails discovered a location, traveled across the state to purchase baking gear and opened the store on Might 1, 2021, Oskarsdottir-Vail stated.
Many treats well-liked in Iceland resonate with clients right here, so Oskarsdottir-Vail bakes croissants — plain, chocolate and ham and Swiss cheese variations — danishes, scones and an ample number of cookies. She makes cinnamon rolls the Icelandic means, with cinnamon sugar and cardamom, then drizzled with powdered sugar or chocolate icing.
Meat twists are one other recipe from residence, which she’s needed to adapt as a result of the spreadable cheese historically used will not be accessible right here. She fixes a model with cream cheese and diced ham, garnished with sesame and poppy seeds.
“I just like the number of it,” stated Oskarsdottir-Vail, who makes use of the metric system to measure elements. “You go from muffins and teeny tiny particulars to lugging round flour and mixing dough and extra rugged stuff.”
One of many best muffins that Oskarsdottir-Vail, who was topped Maine’s Greatest Baker in 2019 by the Hemophilia Alliance of Maine, ever made was for a pair that had ditched town for rural residing and requested a cake in celebration of their cows getting pregnant.
Operating the store is a household effort, and it has a big following on social media, which Joel Vail manages, Charlie Vail stated. He and his spouse work different full-time jobs, however they arrive into the store early to organize and normally cowl Saturdays. When the bakery first opened, Charlie Vail’s brother labored half time, and generally the Vails’ daughter Hannah helps out. The store additionally employs two different ladies.
The bakery affords sandwiches, soups and chowders, lasagna and different meals relying on what Charlie Vail makes that week. He needs to broaden the menu, however cooking and baking area is restricted, as is Oskarsdottir-Vail’s capability. The household is contemplating a bigger area sometime, however it wants to stay seen to clients and embrace an enough kitchen for Oskarsdottir-Vail and maybe an assistant.
Clockwise, from left: A cake created by Iris Oskarsdottir-Vail of Vail’s Customized Desserts; Cupcakes and honey-pecan baklava at Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery, pictured Friday; Combined berry slices with powdered sugar and cinnamon rolls at Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery, pictured Friday. Credit score: Iris Oskarsdottir-Vail and Valerie Royzman / BDN
Subsequent month, the bakery will compete for the primary time in Dover-Foxcroft’s annual Whoopie Pie Competition. Oskarsdottir-Vail is experimenting with choices and needs to maintain them a shock, however she stated attendees can count on basic and distinctive flavors — a philosophy that guides her creations on the bakery.
“It was clear from the start that we needed to have a fusion, like Iceland meets America, as a result of it’s so completely different,” she stated. “We attempt to stand out somewhat bit.”
Go to Vail’s Customized Desserts & Icelandic Bakery at 83 E. Predominant St., Dover-Foxcroft. For data, name 207-802-8063, verify the bakery’s Fb web page or go to the web site — vailscustomcakes.com.
