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 352 - Soycutash AND Artistan Everything Bagels (TWO REVIEWS ON ONE DAY!)

Soycatash is another of Ttrockwood’s recommendations.  You see, when I go shopping with someone, I listen up to what they suggest!!!

Only, this suggestion didn’t go over quite as well as some of her others…  Not that it BOMBED, but it didn’t “wow” either.

Here we have exhibit A:  Soycutash 

Soycatash is a bagged vegetable blend that you find in the TJ’s frozen food section.  It is a mix of soy beans (edamame), red pepper, and corn.  I microwaved it. 

To me, the edamame was the strongest taste in the blend, which was a plus since I really like edamame.  What was also cool is that this edamame, unlike the other kind we eat, was already out of the shell so there was no work involved to consume it.  J 

I like that this is an alternative veggie to our “normal choices” for dinner.  It is simple to prepare.  I think it would be better to use to make a SOUP instead of just to heat and eat like we did.  I prefer the taste of just plain edamame to this blend, truth be told.

The soycutash adds pretty colors to your plate, that's for sure

David says he thinks it would be nicer with a sauce of some kind.  He says that the problem is, when you microwave it as long as the package says to, or even less (like we did), the corn gets “deflated”.  And can’t we all agree – deflated corn is sorta sad.  We served it with several other items on the plate and David said he couldn’t get a real “isolated taste” of this dish.  He gives it a 3.

Blurry photo of pricing sign, sorry.

 We only cooked a bit of the bag.  We will try again and use it to put in a recipe instead of just as a side dish.  I think it would be less boring that way. I really thought if we didn't like this product I would get to do the juvenille thing and call it SUCKatash in this review, but it doesn't suck so I can't.

Price – $2.29

Rating – 3

But  look, since there are only a few more days left in the “365” that are the scope of this project, I am going to give you a GIFT WITH PURCHASE today!!!  Yes, it is TWO FOR ONE today, folks!  Buy one, get one freeeee!  (I refuse to use the currently popular retail acronym “BOGO” cuz I hate it, so you will not be betting a “BOGO” here…)

Here’s the deal:  with so few reviews left to write, I feel guilty writing about products that the majority of readers won’t be able to get because they are LOCAL things.  But I really wanna tell you about the BAGELS we got in New York City, cuz I loved ‘em.  Plus, I want you to see the funny photo of David with them.  So I will do a bonus review today (first time ever I think) and tell you about them!

Artisan Bagels (with Everything)

THESE

The package states that these bagels are baked fresh daily, hand shaped, and kettle boiled.  Ttrockwood told us about how the regular TJ’s bagels, the ones we all find in our stores, don’t sell much in New York City.  That’s because there are these amazzzzing “Artisan” local bagels on the shelves.  So I grabbed a bag (they contain 3 large bagels).  I chose “everything” bagels because those are normally David’s favorites. 

I LOVED THEM!  I recorded my comments about them and when I listen to the recording now, my voice sounds different – huskier, sexier, it is as if I not only LOVED those bagels, but I was also IN LOVE with them. 

Ready to be devoured

Before cutting

Oh man – thank you for pointing those out to us Ttrockwood!  Thank you for steering us to the outside lane of the Chelsea store so we could pick up bread products!  They are the best store bought bagels I have eaten in my entire life.   They do not taste ‘store bought” at all.  Rather, they taste like you are in a noisy deli or café on a Sunday morning and people are talking and laughing around you.  Then the waitress brings you a fresh squeezed OJ and a bagel just like this on a plate.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh….

Atttractive, eh??  Morning bagel.  Ahhh.  Notes about this photo:  see MY new glasses?  The wine glasses on the table were NOT from breakfast - they were from dinner the night before and had been washed and cleaned but not put away yet. 

I do not typically choose “everything” bagels for myself.  They are too outta control for me.  I like my bagels ORGANIZED, thank you very much.  But the thing is: these bagels ARE organized!  They are not “over the top” everyhing like other store bought bagels are.  They are just the right amount of “bits” on them.

Now here is the weird part:  David, who I specifically bought these for, didn’t like them as much as I did!  What a loser!!!!  Here is what he said:  “These bagels have a great texture.  A nice taste.  But they are a little bit dense for my taste.  They have a LOT of bread, so you need to put something sharp on the topping rather than just bland cream cheese.  I went with olives and onion, yet I still wished I had some smoked salmon to throw on top as well.  These are probably better than other bagels at TJ’s but I do not remember the other ones.  I give these a 4.25.”

David and the infamous NYC bagels - this is one of my favorite photos of him for this project.  

So David calls these bagels DENSE??  Well, my friend, I call you dense (I call you that with love in my voice) for not giving these a 5.

If you live in NYC and you are buying the regular bagels at TJ and not THESE BAGELS, please re-examine your shopping list. 

Cheaper than a deli but just as delicious

David’s score is rejected in this review and these bagels get a 5.  J

Price – $1.99

Rating – 5 (so there!)

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)

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

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 215- British Crumpets

Crumpets, for those Americans who have not had them, are AMAZING.  They are a breakfast bread, like an English muffin, but so much better (in my opinion).  They are less hard, and somehow tastier.  The HOLES in them are the very best part!  All bread products should have holes!  Holes are perfect for filling with good butter (try Kerrygold, reviewed on day 49 of this blog).  Holes are good for filling with Sunflower Seed Butter (look at day 96 of this blog)!  Holes are good for filling with jelly or jam (if you like those things, I do not).  And holes are good for filling with Dulche de Leche (check out day 182 of this blog).

Here is what they look like in the package, before you start loading them up with stuff.....

Crumpets are a nice base to build on if you have time to make a real breakfast.  Try this configuration:

a.        Crumpet

b.      Butter

c.       Cheddar cheese

d.      Thinly sliced avocado

e.      Fried egg (with salt and pepper)

See??  Doesn’t that sound great? 

This isn't the recipe above, but doesn't it look great?  Crumpet, butter, cheese, garden tomato, egg, and a side of mustard.

Or how about:

a.        Crumpet

b.      Butter

c.       Wasabi Mayo (reviewed on day 187 of this blog)

d.      Pieces of a nice lettuce

e.      Fresh slices of garden tomato

See???  Another good combo!  It’s easy!

Here is one more:

a.        Crumpet

b.      Butter

c.       Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce (5 star review on day 132 of this blog)

d.      Thin slices of banana

e.      Pieces of sliced almonds

DELICIOUS!

May I present - crumpet, butter, and Dulce de Leche!

 The package of Trader Joe’s crumpets holds 6 pieces and it is basically split into two groups of 3.  So you can open the package and only have 3 exposed to air and starting to go bad, the other 3 can stay sealed.  I like that packaging. 

TADA - just crumpet and butter.  See the big HOLES I was talking about???  They rock.

The worst part about Trader Joe’s Crumpets is that sometimes they are out of the original ones and all they have left are cinnamon flavored.  Maybe it is just me, but if I am going to have a bread for breakfast, I want it to be plain, then I will add whatever flavor I am in the mood for ON TOP of said bread, thank you very much!

Price – $2.99

Rating – 4.5

Day 206 - Butter Croissants

As mentioned in an earlier review on this blog, we have never found the “perfect bread” for us at TJ’s.  By that I mean bread as in LOAF of bread.  We do have a couple of bread products that we like – mostly the plain crumpets (which I THOUGHT I had reviewed earlier in the year but I just checked and they have not been reviewed – shame on me!).

Recently we made our RETURN TO TRADER JOE’S after being away a long time in a non-TJ’s city.   One of the new (to us) items we picked up was this package of butter croissants.   

Look at the letter "C" in "croissants" - "c" what they did there?

I cut one in half this morning and had it for breakfast.  One half number one I slathered Dulce de Leche (which got a glowing review on day 182, the half way point of the year for this blog).  On half number two I put butter, which sadly was hard from being in the fridge as opposed to soft and spread-y because I forgot to take it out of the fridge when we got back to town.  My bad. 

Dang it, I forgot to let the butter warm up overnight...  But I DO get to each a fresh peach from our tree!  HAPPY SUMMER!

Half number one was decidedly tastier than half number two.  I attribute this to the yum factor of the Dulce de Leche.  The main issue I had with the croissant was the lack of flakiness.  It tasted more BREAD and less CROISSANT.  Does that make sense?  It didn’t taste bad, per se, but the texture was not croissant-y enough for me.

David also had a croissant for breakfast (there are three in a package).  He cut his in half and toasted it in the oven and reported that his, though not FLAKY, was apparently MORE flaky than mine.  He used butter and jam on his and said it was a tasty breakfast.

Overall, I prefer a more flaky croissant.  I guess I like my croissants like I like my men, nice and flaky J.  I think because these are not freshly baked it is difficult for TJ’s to get the flake factor just right.  At .90 cents per croissant they are a fine price, but I would prefer to pay a little bit more and get a fresher one somewhere else.

Look - the sign specifically says "Rich and FLAKY!" - hmmmm...  

Price – $2.69

Rating – 3.25

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

Day 54 - Whole Wheat British Muffins

If I am going to buy a “breakfast bread” at Trader Joe’s, I normally go for the plain crumpets.  Apparently other people do, too, because sometimes they are out of stock.  So one night when there were no crumpets, we went for these Whole Wheat British Muffins. 

Whole Wheat British Muffins

While they were not BAD, they were not GREAT.  The first thing you are confronted with is the fact that the muffins are not pre-split.  I guess I am spoiled by other brands, but when I pull an English (or in this case British) muffin out of the bag, I expect it to be split.  The second minor issue is the size – they are a wee bit too small to POP UP from our toaster, so when they are done you have to fish them out with a wooden skewer.  The third not so big issue is the lack of nooks and crannies for your butter to settle down into.  There are really no “holes” so the butter just sits on top.

And the fourth issue, which is the TASTE issue so most important, is that they are a bit GRAINY.  I guess it is a texture thing more than taste, but they are just too GRAINY for me.

I hope they have my crumpets in stock next time I shop, because I much prefer those.

Price – $1.69

Rating – 2.75

Day 14 - The Bagel Spinoza

This blog is all about honest, real customer reviews.  So in all honesty, we have not found a loaf of bread at Trader Joe’s that suits us.  None of them have ever been fluffy enough, or tasty enough, or lasted long enough without going stale.  So for that reason, we hesitated buying the bagels.

We should not have been scared.  They are great!!  They are a terrific texture and taste fabulous.  Top them with butter, hummus, cream cheese, peanut butter – the sky is the limit!  J  They did not go stale quickly which is a plus for us with only two people in the house to eat them.

It Bagels the Mind

The price is really good, too, it works out to only .38 cents a bagel!  That seems much cheaper than bagel packages at other stores and CERTAINLY cheaper than the “buy one at a time” bagels at other store’s bakeries.  Go for it.

Yum - bagels!

And really, with a tag line like, "It Bagels the Mind", how can you NOT try these??

Price - $2.29

Stars – 4.25