Showing posts with label Whole Wheat Bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whole Wheat Bread. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Day 266 - Tuscan Pane Bread

WHYYYYY don’t I listen to my gut and just STOP.  BUYING.  BREAD.  AT.  TRADER.  JOE’S.

We have not found a loaf we like.  We have tried a few (some prior to beginning this blog project so they have not been reviewed here) and have not been satisfied with any of them.  I really like the British Crumpets that they sell, and we were surprised how good the Bagel Spinozas were.  Those are both BREAD PRODUCTS, but  not loaves of bread.  All of the loaves of bread we have bought at Trader Joe’s have been bad (in my humble opinion).

So recently I reviewed one of the yucky ones, Whole Wheat Bread, and an avid reader and one of the few people who takes time to comment on this blog, the lovely TTrockwood, commented and recommended that we try Tuscan Pane bread.  Well TTrockwood, we took your advice.  We bought it.  We tried it.  Bleck!  J  (I am not blaming you!  We have free will here, haha! )

WHO is buying this stuff?  :)
Check it out – the sign above Tuscan Pane says that this bread is the BEST SELLER.  I am not sure if that is nationwide over-all best seller or that store.  But if it is just the best seller for that store all I can say is oh man, either TTrockwood lives near us and is going to the same TJ’s as us and buying tons of this crap, or other people like it better than we do. 

David's slice - see how there is not much honey?
That is cuz it all OOZED THROUGH THE BIG CRACKS and is hiding under the bread in this photo.  
I made David a slice of this bread with nice butter and Turkish Honey (which rocks).  Here is what he thought of it – “Good taste.  Nice texture.  It has a hard crust, so if you are looking for a bread with no crust this is not your baby.  But it does have good taste and, at least the first day, is not too hard.  It does have huge crater-like holes in it and the honey (and everything else you put on it) falls through.”

Looks ok on the shelf
Here is what the package looks like
As for me, sadly, this still is not my favorite breads in the world.  It is VERY DRY.  It needed a ton of butter.  I think the HONEY on David’s made his a little more moist (and a lot more delicious).  Mine had butter with cheddar cheese. We also have had 2 sandwiches made with it and that made a big mess, because by the second sandwich I refused to eat most of the bread so I got mayo and tomato juice all over…

A TJ’s employee told us that they didn’t understand why this bread sells so well and recommended yet ANOTHER different loaf.  However, I am now scared of all Trader Joe’s breads…  Not, like, “Monster under the bed” scared, but “Oh man is this gonna be gross??” scared.  Know what I mean?

Here is mine - cheddar cheese on top.  The cheese and the pomegranate seeds in the green bowl were the best part!
Maybe TJ’s breads are healthier than the breads I enjoy and have, like, zero preservatives or something, I do not know.  But if I could use a sports metaphor here (which I never do cuz I am not into sports) – this bread was not a home run for me. 

David thinks the reason this bread is the best seller is because people like to picture themselves sitting in a café in Italy eating fancy bread.  That makes no sense to me, cuz if I was in an Italian café and they served me THIS BREAD I would gag.  Well, who orders BREAD in an Italian café anyway, David?

This is a HARD, DRY BREAD.  I like the crusts better than the actual bread.  The crust I expect to be hard, but the bread needs to have at least a smidgeon of “give” to it. 

The first day was really the only day this loaf was edible to me.  And even then it wasn’t great.

Price – $2.49

Rating – 2.75 (note – David rated it a 3, but I am overruling his on this one and rating it myself to save you the heartbreak of buying it)

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Day 255 - Whole Wheat Bread

In our continued quest to find a decent bread at Trader Joe’s, we got this loaf – WHOLE WHEAT 
bread.
I'm not gonna lie - we have been burned by Trader Joe's bread before, and I was nervous to try again...
Fail.

I mean, not like a TOTAL UTTER DISGUSTING MAKES ME WANT TO THROW THE WHOLE LOAF AWAY fail, but a NAH, THIS ONE IS NOT GOOD EITHER AND I DO NOT WANT TO BUY IT AGAIN fail.


Good for a "bread transition" - huh?
 Dings again this bread:
·         It is dry. 
·         It is hard. 
·         It is boring. 
·         It doesn’t taste much. 
·         It tastes (and sort of looks) like cardboard.
·         It is bland.

Things in support of this bread:
·         It holds together well so your sandwich doesn’t fall apart as you eat it.
·         It doesn’t get worse as it gets older (which kinda sorta isn’t really a “support” item, in that it just kind of means it was bad in the beginning and keeps being bad…).


The bread DID hold sandwiches together quite well, I will give it that much.
I really like whole wheat bread if it is tasty.  This version is not.

Price – $2.49
Rating – 2.5


Tuesday, September 1, 2015

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