Ain au raison?

[Lowren710]

Can anyone recommend somewhere to get a tasty pain au raison?

[joebelt]

Iggy's bakery on fawcett street in Fresh Pond.

And by the way it's called a pain aux raisins.

[bella_sarda]

otherwise it means "bread with reason" or "the correct bread"? Nice play on words!!

I may get killed for this, but I like the Pain aux raisins at Cafe Vanille in Beacon Hill. Probably not the best ever, but I like it still.

[finlero]

I've had Vanille's, and like it too. For me, it's not anywhere near the same league as Spotted Apron's, but it's a good textbook example of the pastry for Boston.

Vanille's "sunburns" are nothing to scoff at either.

[joebelt]

Iggy's is better.

[finlero]

Wow, the man likes his Iggy's. But yes, they also make a very respectable textbook pain au raisins.

The trick with Iggy's is that their quality sometimes drops precipitously outside of their actual bakery. I've had my share of stale croissants, francese loaves, etc when buying at Whole Foods, Shaws, and the like. But from the Fawcett Street location, I've seldom gone wrong.

For my money, both Iggy's and Vanille's pains aux raisins are a distant second to the Spotted Apron's, but the SA's is a little unconventional, using a brioche dough, currants instead of raisins, and a frangipane center. But conventional or not, darned if it ain't tasty.

[joebelt]

I don't thing the quality of Iggy's product is to blame when purchased at Whole Foods, it's the storage practices that ruin the product. Those plastic bags are terrible for bread. I also suspect that they sell products a day old.

The bakery is always on the mark and I can't imagine they make their products any differently for distribution than they do for their store since it's all made in the same place...

[bella_sarda]

I need to check out Spotted Apron's pain raisin (another rendition of the name that is common out there).

[finlero]

The good news:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/440917

The possible bad news:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/484074

[Allstonian]

Clear Flour has a great pain au raisin, but they don't make them every day and I don't think it's on any set schedule when they do. You could give them a call and find out.

I absolutely love Flour's version, though it's too substantial to be authentic.

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Clear Flour Bread Bakery
178 Thorndike St, Brookline, MA 02446

Flour Bakery + Cafe
1595 Washington St, Boston, MA