St. Honoré Boulangerie
While out running errands this morning I stopped at St. Honoré Boulangerie in NW Portland. I took a bunch of photos but it was dark and crowded. These are the only two shots that came out.
The croissant, pain au chocolat, and pain au raisin we split were all good. Nice treats on a rainy day.
In baking news, I just came *this* close to ruining a batch of Wild Rice Onion Bread I'm making. I'm using the formula from Peter Reinhart's new book but changing the rises to fit my schedule. I did a preferment while we were out this morning and once we got back from errands I made the final dough. It was running about half an hour or an hour behind dinner schedule -- I'd love to have the rolls with the pot of split pea soup I'm making, though I also got a ficelle at St. Honoré as backup -- so I put the bulk dough in the oven and turned the light on to try to speed things up a little bit. I also turned the burner on for just 20 or 30 seconds to get some warmth in there, then got distracted and ran upstairs... Next thing I know my dough has been sitting in a 250 degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Happily, aside from the very outer bits that stuck to the metal bowl, I think it is going to be fine. I split the now quite warm dough into two loaves and they appear to be rising fine. Fingers crossed.
Comments
You are a lucky man to have that in the neighborhood! And I have been quilty as charged on almost doing in my dough doing the same thing. Kitchen is cold, and you think I'll just turn it on a second.....and then! Glad you pulled it off. Thanks for sharing the bakery shots! They are top notch! Both in food and photography!
Audra
Thanks!! saves lots of calories!! We are just far enough away that we are saved from temptation!
We do though have a very wonderful Mexican bakery, Miranda's, here in Woodburn. If you get there early enough you can pick up some wonderful Jalapeno Cheese bread. Pillowy soft, filled with spicy jalapenos and I think, Cotija(sp?). Wonderful pastries and cakes, I wish I knew the names of them. Not too sweet, really, really good!
So, tell us, how was your Wild Rice and Onion bread? I love that one.
Betty
Delicious.
This looks very nice. I've been looking at the formula for next week. Are you going to post the crumb? How does it smell?
Eric
The smell is wonderful.
I'll try to post some crumb shots tomorrow.
With boulangeries like that, who needs Montreal? Right Floyd?
Near disaster or not. They look beautiful. The bakery shots remind me of Toronto. Our visit was a while back, and can't begin to remember its name. But the order of the presentation of baked goods is a match. I remember feeling like a kid in a candy store. You know the feeling. I just looked at them again and was transported. Ray
I'm looking at the web site of the bakery/restaurant. That's a remarkable assortment. I'm always surprised at the variety of pastries these places put out every day. Marks Back Home Bakery is the same way. It seems like such a huge work load to produce every day. The sandwiches look great too.
Eric
Floyd,
Did you use dried onions or fresh in this? I like the flavor of the re hydration water in my rye breads but PR specifically says not to rehydrate them. What's your take on this? I have read elsewhere that the onions are strong as is so I'm wondering.
Eric
stay tuned - he's going to do a write up of that bread probably this week - which for us means, "oh goody! he's going to make it again! woohoo!" ;) (the last slice of his previous batch dissapeared from the counter very quickly!)
I used dried onions because that is what I recall using in the bakery.