Pain au Chocolat adviser

[Adrian Essex]

Following the success of last week's Pain aux raisins assessment (well the tasting panel enjoyed it) this week we turn our attention to the pain au chocolat. The panel is extended this week to include in-laws so 7 opinions are included.

We bought 6 p au c from:

Dunn's              £1.05  0.83p per gram

Coffee Cake      £1.20  1p per gram

Sable d'Or         £1      1.25p per gram

Belgique            £1.20  1.67p per gram

Gail's                £1.60  1.6p per gram

Honeycomb      £1.40   2.12p per gram

 

  So Dunn's gives the greatest weight per penny, with Honeycomb far and away the most expensive.

Appearance:  Of the 7 votes for appearance 4 went to Coffee Cake, 2 to Sable d'Or and 1 to Gail's.

 

Taste: very scientific this. 6 tasters each rated each of the pastries on tast and gave marks out of 10. These were then averaged giving the following results:

Belgique            7

Coffee Cake      6.833

Sable d'Or         6

Honeycomb       5.33

Dunn's              4.833

Gail's                4.167

So no absolutely clear winner on all counts. The thing about these pastries is their very wide variability. Coffee Cake and Dunn's go for a croissant with chocolate filling, and Coffee Cake smothers the outside in chocolate too. Honeycomb and Sable d'Or produce a very light fluffy pastry. Gail's and Belgique are very traditional in appearance and form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CrouchEnd Cupcake]

I'm a little concerned that you didn't heat these up.  I can only enjoy a pain au chocolate when they're warm.  I'm very much enjoying your pastry surveys and look forward to one on the almond croissant - I had one the other day filled with custard and was not pleased. It was quite possibly from my sainted Dunn's...

[Adrian Essex]

There are others who share your warmist philosophy. If ever I repeat the exercise I will follow your advice.

I had thought of moving on to sushi for the next survey, taking in Nakama, Fuji Foods, Waitrose and Wow (which I now know to be on Crouch End Hill)  . I'd be happy to outsource further pastry surveys (hint).

The hagiography of Saint Dunn is quite unaccountably missing from The True History of Crouch End. Saint Dunn was canonised for the miracle of the Hot Cross Bun, and is typically represented in icons and altarpieces lightly dusted in wholemeal flour, carrying a sliced dunnary in his left hand and a pumpkin seed cob in his right. This biography, now begun, deserves completion.