La Farine Challenge

This story is a little bit haphazard, but bear with me.

A few weeks ago, I attempted to bake muffins. Instead I ended up setting off the smoke alarm, spilling burnt butter all over the oven floor, and throwing out perfectly good cranberries. Not a good start to our first apartment.

To remedy the situation, and bolster my spirits, Dan purchased a T-shirt from my favorite bakery--La Farine. My next baking adventure, wearing the T-shirt, was much more successful--the banana bread disappeared within 24 hours.

The success was clearly due to the good graces of the La Farine fairy. To ensure future baking success, Dan went on a search to find a La Farine apron, also sold in their stores. 

Unfortunately, there was only one left--an apron that had graced the mannequin of their Fruitvale location. Having only frequented their Solano, Piedmont and College Avenue stores, we immediately jumped on the opportunity to visit a new location, and sample the goods.

The apron is awesome--I made brownies from Alice Medrich's cookie book last night. There are very few brownies remaining. (Oops.)

We also determined that it's impossible to compare La Farine products from different stores without side-by-side comparisons. Over the next few months, we plan to acquire the follow baked goods from various La Farine's for comparison:

- sour baguette

- sour batard

- an assortment of cookies (bisous, chocolate pecan, peanut butter, etc.)

- chocolatine

- frangipane

Of course, the closest La Farine is approximately 4 miles from our apartment.. a journey that must be accomplished by bicycle. (This is our attempt to neutralize the calories of french pastries. Not sure that's possible.)

We'll keep you posted on our progress! And the apron should make an appearance in some upcoming photos.


Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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