Category Archives: Bakery rolls

French Meadow Bakery cinnamon roll

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Jeff| 41 Comments

The short:

Yum! Unfortunately, a bit stale by the time it was sold to me. Overall good, especially because of the frosting. 7/10

The long:

The French Meadow Bakery bills their cinnamon rolls as “giant,” and they aren’t kidding: one of these monsters fills an entire plate and weighs in at close to a pound.  And boy oh boy, is it good.

French Meadow Bakery cinnamon roll

French Meadow Bakery cinnamon roll

The texture of the bread is soft and tender.  It yields to a fork quite nicely, and you’ll want to use one: cramming one of these rolls in your mouth is a recipe for both a sore jaw and a frosted nose.

Oh, the frosting.  Wonderful.  A nice cream cheese base, heavy on the butter.  Sweet, but not too sweet.  Lots of structure.  It’s even strong enough to hold up a fork!

Frosting so dense, it will hold up a fork

Frosting so dense, it will hold up a fork

The downsides to this otherwise excellent example of a cinnamon roll are that they start going stale by mid-afternoon, and they are ungodly unhealthy.  I’m not sure about the exact calorie count, but a rough estimate puts it somewhere around 2000 calories per roll.

Enjoy the roll, then go for a run.  A long, long run.

Key stats:

  • $3.95 + tax
  • 440 g mass (almost a pound!)
  • Cream cheese frosting (very good)
  • Time since baked when eaten: most of the day(?)
  • Temperature when eaten: ambient

Where to get it:

The French Meadow Bakery Cafe

2610 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN

Posted in Bakery rolls

Byerly’s Bakery Cinnamon Roll with Icing

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Jeff| 39 Comments

The short:

Good frosting, a bit dry overall.  Worth trying. 6/10

The long:

Byerly’s is an upscale supermarket chain in the Twin Cities area, and they are a great place to find all sorts of tasty and obscure things.  For example, if you’re ever in near Minneapolis and think, “Wow, I could really go for some Daisy brand cottage cheese right now,” — which you would be if you’ve ever compared Daisy to the other brands on the market — you’d probably have to go to Byerly’s to get it.

Of course, they sell a lot more than just great cottage cheese.  They also sell cinnamon rolls!  Hooray!

Cinnamon roll from the Byerly's bakery

Cinnamon roll from the Byerly's bakery

I left the office a bit early today and stopped by the Byerly’s in Golden Valley.  Conveniently, that store has a built-in Caribou Coffee, so I was able to get caffeinated and add to my midsection all in one go.  I’m a sucker for convenience.

As you can see from the photos, the frosting got a bit disheveled during its ride from the store to my home.  No matter; it went into my mouth all the same.

It was a relatively soft roll, if disappointingly dry.  Tight crumb, moderately tough. Nice golden color. Subdued cinnamon flavor.  The roll itself wasn’t particularly sweet, but the frosting balanced that nicely.

Cinnamon roll from the Byerly's bakery, with bite

Cinnamon roll from the Byerly's bakery, with bite

The frosting had good structure with a nice cream cheese taste.  Ingredients were not checked, but it seemed to have a real cream cheese base.  A reasonable amount was applied to the roll. No chemical aftertastes were noted.

Overall, a decent cinnamon roll experience, far better than cinnamon-rolls-in-a-tube.  High marks for value, too, given the low price ($1.69).  Worth trying if you happen to be in the store, but not something I’d drive out of my way for.

Key stats:

  • $1.69 + tax
  • 150 g weight
  • Cream cheese frosting
  • Time since baked when eaten: half a day(?)
  • Temperature of roll when eaten: ambient

Where to get it:

Any Byerly’s or Lunds (no apostrophe) store near Minneapolis or St. Paul.  This particular roll came from the Byerly’s at Duluth Street and Highway 100 in Golden Valley.

 

 

Posted in Bakery rolls

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