| San Francisco Bread Review | Bakery in a Barn Grain bread |
| Home | Reviews | Hit-Parade | Categories | Bakeries | Links | Forum | Contact |
| Summary | |
| Appearance : | Good |
| Taste : | Good |
| Overall grade : | B |
| Pictures | |
 | |
| The bread | |
| Click on the photo for larger view | |
| Bread name | Grain bread |
| Baker | Bakery in a Barn, Rohnert Park |
| Purchased | Friday, May 9, 2003, 2:00PM |
| From | Downtown Farmer's Market, Oakland |
| Tested | Friday, May 9, 2003, 4:30PM |
| Price | $3.00 |
| Weight | 19 oz. |
| Size (LxWxH) | 7.5" x 6.5" x 3.5" |
Appearance
The bread comes wrapped in cellophane, which I'm certainly not crazy about. Talk about asphyxiating! The loaf is small and round, and has a nice general appearance. The top is dark brown, with good ridges. Grains visible at the surface. The density of the loaf feels perhaps slightly above average. The crust is surprisingly soft, considering its appearance. The loaf is quite solid and is not easily squeezed. The outside smell is strong, very sweet, in fact almost sickeningly so. It reminds me of oatmeal raisin cookies. That is entirely unexpected for this type of bread. The cut is effortless, the crumb is fairly dense so it's easy to carve regular slices. The color of the crumb is attractive, with lots of grains visible. The inside smell is *completely* different from the outside smell. None of that overwhelming sweetness, just a pleasant smell of bread.
Taste
The crust is indeed soft, with a slight sweet hint, the taste is not particularly remarkable. The crumb has a good consistency and mouth feel, with the right amount of moisture. However, the taste is slight, insufficient in my opinion.
Conclusion
I am baffled by the outside smell, which is completely out of line with the bread. Otherwise this is a very decent grain bread, if a bit insipid.