Pain Au Lait

The package says, “ ‘Pain Au Lait’ translates to MILK BREAD, a humble name for these slight sweet and elegant rolls.  Moist and straight forward, they pair well with butter and jam and are perfect for dunking in coffee, tea, or hot chocolate for a classic French breakfast or a pick me up.”

This is the bag you are looking for

These are produced in France and I bought them at the Trader Joe’s near Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.  They looked great in the bag and I was excited to try them.  The shape is fun – they are a tiny bit smaller than a hotdog bun and sort of similar in shape (from what I remember) to TJ’s pretzel bread. 

First let’s hear what David, a person who has consumed more than his share of French bakery products, thinks of them:

See?  It may have been past noon, but we were still in our robes and
messy morning hair, so this is BREAKFAST!

“I think these are delicious.  I used to see these things in Parisian bakeries and wonder why a person would get THAT when sweet cakes were available (i.e. pain au chocolate).  But now that I taste this it is delightful!  It is soft and sweet in a gentle way, and is a good carrier of this lovely jam and butter.  Without the jam and butter, it might be a little bit bland, but still pleasant.  As a carrier for butter and jam this can’t be beat.  It might even be better than challah.  (The editor stepped in here to ask if the ones in France were the same shape as the ones Trader Joe’s is selling.)  Yes – little hot dog buns.  I give these a 4.5.”

I thought the shape of these were funny and I presumed maybe Trader Joe’s had “Americanized” the shape to the familiar hot dog bun, but the expert says this is normal, so there ya go!  I think these are really good!

New!  Pain Au Lait

When I bought these pain au lait they were a bit cold and there was some condensation in the package.  This leads me to believe that, like many TJ’s bread products, each store probably gets them frozen and keeps them that way until they put them out on the shelves.  We ate them the morning after I bought them because I wanted to make sure they were fresh.  I topped mine with Kerrygold butter (our go to butter, reviewed here:  Kerrygold Butter link) and an amazing thing we got on a road trip that took us through Georgia.  We stopped at PEACH WORLD (for the love of peaches!) and bought a little jar of Praline Pecan Honey Butter.  The stuff is to die for!  You can bet on our next drive through Georgia we will be picking up some more.  If you do not plan on making a road trip in that direction soon, you can find it online here: Georgia Peach World .

Hey!  Georgia Peach World also has these fun face-cut-out things you can snap your photo in!  Only,
I didn't know I was going to use the photo in a review, so we didn't take any pictures of US, only of our
travel companion (never before seen in this blog...) SPICEY ON A STICK!  Anyway, he thought Peach World
was the bomb, too!

I served the pain au lait with Trader Joe’s coffee, TJ’s half and half, TJ’s clementine, and TJ’s blueberries 😊 .   We warmed the pain au lait in the oven (I had seen a comment online that someone did that and loved it, they were right). 

A delightful way to start the day

These are easy to split down the middle (like a hot dog bun) to put your butter or honey or whatever inside.  I think these make a great breakfast!!  We ate ours on a weekend, meaning we slept in so this “breakfast” was served at 12:15 pm (does that make it lunch?  Philosophical question…).  We call the first meal of the day breakfast, regardless of the time we eat it.

These would be great for kids to eat for breakfast, and would be fun to pack in a kid’s lunch, too.  They are a little bit sweet but not “dessert sweet”.  When we ate one with just butter, David identified that they taste very similar to Parker House rolls.  We prefer this pain au lait with both butter AND jam. 

This is the Praline Pecan Honey Butter.  Trust me, you need it...
I wish Trader Joe's sold it!  Alas, you can order at the link above.

TJ’s bread does not have preservatives so it goes bad (moldy) faster than breads you would buy at other grocery stores.  If you are prepared to eat them quickly after you purchase them you will avoid that issue.  I give these puppies a 4.5. 

Price:  $2.99

Rating:  4.5