Chocolate Crumb Pastry

Purchased at:
Panera Bread Cafe, 590 Amherst St., Nashua, NH

Acquired by: Retail Purchase at Panera

Price: 1.99

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5

I had an opportunity last night to try yet another of Panera’s new “Artisan Pastries” - Chocolate Crumb. I wanted very badly to like this one more than I did.

The Panera website describes the Chocolate Crumb as “reminiscent of crumb cake with its combination of butter, chocolate, pastry cream & a crumb topping.” The pastry that sat on my tray was a rectangular shell of flaky, crispy pastry layers, topped with some rolled oats, some crumb-like bits, and two piped-on ropes of chocolate. Confectioner’s sugar was dusted liberally over the top. Visually, it was very appealing.

I wish the taste had matched up to appearance. The pastry portion was clearly the same type used in the Pecan Braid I had reviewed before, and that was good. The toppings, however, which are supposed to give the unique flavor to the Chocolate Crumb, were unevenly distributed, and I didn’t care for their flavor.

There were bits of rolled oat visible, and possibly some of the “crumb topping” mentioned in the product description, but I didn’t find that either of these components contributed to the taste or texture of the overall pastry.

The chocolate ropes had a soft, fudgy texture, but with a grainy component as if sugar had been stirred into the mixture. Semi-sweet chocolate is what was used, and you can tell - the flavor overwhelms everything else in bites containing chocolate.

And that was part of the problem - the chocolate was so unevenly placed that at least half of the pastry had no chocolate at all - the ends and sides - and the rest had far too much, with hardly any pastry. The experience of eating a Chocolate Crumb is not even remotely consistent from one end to the other.

I could accept this if the different experiences were all good, but I really didn’t like the chocolate portion. Maybe it’s just that it was semi-sweet, and that much semi-sweet chocolate all in one bite never tastes good to me. I wonder if I’d have liked this better in a nice milk chocolate - or with the semi-sweet piped in smaller lines over more of the pastry?

Bottom Line: The Chocolate Crumb pastry wasn’t run-away-screaming horrible. If one were placed in front of me at a party, with no other options available, I’d probably eat it. But I certainly won’t be doing so any time there’s a choice. I give the Chocolate Crumb pastry a 2 out of 5.

Related Links

• Panera Bread
• Panera’s Pastry Menu (Click on individual pastries to see nutritional information.)

Posted: September 21st, 2007 under Menu Items.
Comments: none

Pecan Braid

Purchased at:
Panera Bread Cafe, 590 Amherst St., Nashua, NH

Acquired by: Retail Purchase

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Just as with their dining menu, Panera frequently introduces new products in the bakery. The current newcomers are in a class they’re calling “Artisan Pastries” - a deliberate analogy to their “Artisan Breads.”

The four Artisan Pastries include: Caramel Apple, Fresh Strawberry Citrus, Chocolate Crumb, and Pecan Braid. When Gryphon and I left after our lunch on Saturday, we stopped by the bakery. One lone Pecan Braid called to me from the display case, and I succumbed.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the cashier was able to hand me a fresh from the oven, still warm, sample-size Pecan Braid that had just been put out for people to try. Which at that moment could have been a potentially dangerous thing - there was only that one Pecan Braid in the case. And I got there first. After tasting the sample, anyone else was going to have a fight on their hands if they wanted it.

The samples were served warm. I saved my full-size Pecan Braid for a late night snack, and ate it at room temperature. Either way, this pastry offering turned out to be an absolute delight.

The form of the Pecan Braid is based on a layered, puff pastry-like dough. The dough is cut in three strips that are, as per the name, braided together, revealing a filling of ground pecans, sweetened and buttery, which runs like a stripe down each section.

The Pecan Braid is tender, crispy, and flaky, yet doesn’t completely fall apart in your hand or mouth like so many flaky pastries do. A rich flavor of butter permeates the braid. The filling brings the pecan flavor throughout, with a slightly creamy texture that makes an excellent counterpoint to the flakiness of the pastry.

Topped overall with a light sugar glaze, and decorated with a single pecan half (which in my braid teetered precariously on the edge), I found the Pecan Braid to be delicious, not overly sweet, and yet sweet enough that you knew for sure you’d had a dessert.

At $1.99, this is not their least expensive pastry, but it’s far from their most expensive, too. The size is good - enough to satisfy, not quite enough to overfill. I was left wanting for more. I’m planning to check the bakery case the instant I get to Panera for my weekly knitting group, and scoring whatever Pecan Braids I can.

My final rating: 5 out of 5. Especially if you can catch them still warm from the oven!

Related Links

• Panera Bread
• Panera’s Pastry Menu (Click on individual pastries to see nutritional information.)

Posted: September 4th, 2007 under Menu Items.
Comments: 2

Orchard Harvest Salad

Ordered at:
Panera Bread Cafe, 590 Amherst St., Nashua, NH

Acquired by: Retail Purchase

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Gryphon and I had occasion to go to Panera Bread on Saturday afternoon. Panera is one of our favorite restaurants - casual dining, but generally very good food.

Their menu contains many staple items that remain throughout the year, but they also rotate in a number of seasonal specialties. Sometimes those catch on well enough to become a regular menu item. Sometimes they are merely fondly remembered until they’re brought back to great fanfare at a later date. (I’m still waiting for the return of a spring soup from over a year ago, the Spring Pea With Asparagus. Magnificent!)

Having just turned a new month, there were a few new items worth trying out. You’ll hear about the others soon - this review is about the salad I had this weekend.

The Orchard Harvest Salad begins, as many Panera salads do, with a bed of mixed field greens and romaine lettuce. To this, they add dried cherries, fresh pears, Gorgonzola, toasted pecans and a cherry balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I was offered an option at ordering of adding a serving of Bell & Evans chicken to my salad. I declined, wanting to taste the salad as designed.

The salads at Panera always come in large portions, and the Orchard Harvest Salad is no exception. My plate presented a huge mound of food. Visually, not all components were present at first glance - it took some digging to find the pears and dried cherries. But they were there near the bottom of the plate, along with more of the Gorgonzola than had been apparent.

I dug in, as best I could. The ingredients in Panera salads tend to be large and chunky, making it difficult to get much variety in a single forkful. Eventually, though, I managed a number of combinations of flavors and textures, and could form an overall sense of the meal.

The pecans were fresh and rich tasting, with a satisfying crunch. The greens, crispy and flavorful. The Gorgonzola cheese added a nice, pungent note, though there was no blue-veining visible in any of the chunks in my salad.

The cherry balsamic vinaigrette had a nice, fruity flavor, though I remembered after I began eating why I usually get my dressing on the side at Panera - they tend to drown the salad a bit. In this case, the flavor of the vinaigrette, though good, somewhat overwhelmed the flavor of the chunks of pear. The larger pieces of pear were able to fight through the dressing, and were clearly as fresh as all the other ingredients.

The one really odd note to me was the dried cherries. Their flavor went well with the rest of the ingredients in the salad. But when I came to the first one, my tongue was very confused by a sudden texture that was more like a soft gummi candy than a fruit. A look at the nutritional information (click on Orchard Harvest Salad at this page) reveals that the dried cherries are made with “cherries, high fructose corn syrup, and/or sugar, sunflower oil.” To me, that sounds more like a candy than a salad component.

My overall impression of the salad was that it lacked a little umph. Though dinner salad sized, the particular combination of ingredients made it a very light meal. Adding the chicken option, while it would have added a little to the price of the salad, would also have made it a fully satisfying dinner.

Ultimately, the real test of any restaurant’s menu items is “Will the customer order it again?” In the case of the Orchard Harvest Salad, I might - with some modifications. First, I’ll consider adding the chicken. Then, of course, I’ll remember to have the dressing on the side, so that I can dispense it more moderately on the salad.

My final rating - 3 out of 5. I’d rate it higher if it were more of a meal as is, and if the dried cherries didn’t add such an odd textural note to the dish as a whole.

Related Links

• Panera Bread
• Panera’s Salad Menu (Click on individual salads to see nutritional information.)

Posted: September 4th, 2007 under Menu Items.
Comments: none