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

Day 244 - Petite Pain Pauline (100% Whole Wheat Bread)

This is another one of those Trader Joe’s products where I reallllly wanted to like it.  We have tried several Trader Joe’s breads and they always fall short of my expectations.  Is it too much to want a bread this is not dry, tastes good, and lasts more than 2 days?  Maybe my standards are too high…

It is a cute boule of bread

 I hoped that this lovely little petite pain would be the one.  Alas, I fear instead of Petite Pain Pauline, they should have named it the even MORE alliterative Petite Poopy Pain Pauline…

First the good stuff: 

1.       It is a perfect size for our household of 2 people. 

2.       It is a pretty color. 

3.       It is cheap.

Now the not so good stuff: 

1.        It is HARD.  If you toast it, be warned, you will not be able to bite through the toast with any ease at all. 

2.       It goes stale very quickly, and by stale I mean EVEN HARDER than it was the first time you opened it, which, if you have been paying attention, was really quite hard.

3.       It is really DRY.

David's piece, toasted with bread and jelly

My piece, toasted with Sunflower Butter (reviewed on day 96 )

So even though there are an even number of “good stuff”s vs. “bad stuff”s, to me the bad stuffs outweigh the good stuffs in this instance.

Petite Poopy Pain Pauline is not perfect.  Not even close.

Note – David liked it better than me.  He says it is a particular French bread taste in a small package.

Price - $1.29

Rating – 2.25

Day 177 - French Baguette (bread)

I like baguettes.  We lived in Paris for a while, and there is NOTHING like a Parisian baguette.  I used to pick one up at the bakery and I NEVER got a whole baguette home – always had to break off some bits and chomp them on the walk back.

But GOOD baguettes are hard to find in America.  And reasonably priced ones are difficult to come by, too.  Baguettes are not BIG but they are expensive. 

French Baquette in a bag!

David and I have some Guests staying with us (I capitalize the word Guest because it is a proper noun, their last name is GUEST!  So technically we have some Guest guests!).  Last night we made dinner for them and all ate out on our front porch.  One thing we served was baguette with butter (of course the tastiest butter, which got a glorious review on day 49 of this blog) and cheese (cheddar (not from TJ’s), brie (reviewed previously I think), and Creamy Toscano) (to be reviewed soon). 

This review will focus on the BAGUETTE.  Unlike Parisian baguettes, which normally come in paper sleeves with the tops sticking out, making them so tempting to pick at, this one came in a plastic bag.  I have had baguettes from other American stores in plastic bags that taste like they have been in said bags for weeks. 

But this one was pretty good!  It was not the world’s BEST baguette, but it was not the world’s worst, either.  It was easy to cut into pretty little slices.  It was not too hard, and not too soft.  The crust did not threaten to chip your teeth when you bit into it.  Overall, I will say PRETTY GOOD BAGUETTE.  And at a very good (for a baguette anyway) price - $1.59.  Some American stores charge an arm and a leg for them!

Day 2 of the bagquette - this time served with brie and olives. 

We gave everyone a piece of paper and the chance to review a few items, this bread being one of them.  I will include those reviews here:

-          4 – “It is very tasty and soft in the middle but the crust is too hard.”  (Andrew, I think age10)

-          4.1 – “Dry, but good with butter or cheese.” (Lucas, I think age 12)

-          5 – “Love it.”  (Bella, I think age 8)

-          3.75 “I didn’t notice it that much.  I didn’t have any at the evening dinner (he ate some the next day as a sandwich).  I would say it seems okay, not fabulous.  It doesn’t get as hard as a regular baguette.”  (David, age 62 J )

If I gave it a review number myself, it would be 3.5.  But since this was a team one, I will average all the numbers above to come up with the final score.

Price - $1.59

Rating - 4