Tying up loose ends...(or What Do You Mean I Have Too Much Time On My Hands?)

I really thought I was done with posting to this blog but I realised something was missing.

In the last month or more of my holiday, my thoughts turned increasingly to all of the aspects of life in Melbourne that I was missing. So many things. The last few days has been about satisfying those wants. I've been to JB Hi-Fi and bought CD's (like a kid in a candy store!), I've made some great porridge (don't start me on that topic), I've watched a game of footy with my mates, I've had a vegemite sandwich, I've drunk Aussie beer...etc, etc. Today I knocked off one of the items right near the top of my list: Eat a coffee scroll.

How is it possible that this humble baked good cannot be found overseas? Are the great bakers of Europe, China and America(North, Central AND South) ignorant? That's the only conclusion I can draw. Ignoramuses, every single one of them!!! And really, if they can make a cinnamon roll, it's not too much of a stretch to make a coffee scroll. So I'll throw in "incompetent" as well then.
I headed out to Bayswater shops today to pick one up. "Ahh yeah, there's Lee Lee Bakery, I've bought a scroll or two from them in my time." I park, I enter the shop, we exchange greetings, the woman behind the counter greets me slightly distractedly because she's checking on some bread or something, my greeting too is distracted because I'm scanning the shelving in front of me for the elusive scroll... "hang on, where is it?" I think. "Do you sell coffee scrolls?" I ask. "No, sorry." is the reply. I'm gobsmacked. Codswalloped. "Oh, never mind then." is all I can get out as I stumble from the store. Has the world turned it's back on coffee scrolls while I've been away? Did a news report in the Herald Sun claim they contribute more to global warming than a donut or something? Perhaps the smaller bakeries of Bayswater have given up on making them, driven out of the coffee scroll market by the big chain bakeries of Brumbies and Bakers Delight (who I recall do quite a good job).

I had to try another bakery. That was the answer.

Over the other side of Mountain Highway, I found a bakery whose front window claims it is the winner of the best Vanilla Slice in Victoria for 2007. Ok, that's all very well and good for you but how about your coffee scroll skills matey? I walk in, scan the shelves (no time for a hello this time)...EUREKA!!!, there it is! The world shifts back onto it's axis again. I pay my $1.50 and rush it home.
Back at home I cut it in half horizontally and layer it with margarine. You can't be stingy on your margarine/butter application when it comes to the coffee scroll. It's key. And how was the eating you ask (possibly with a slightly bemused expression on your face)? Yeah, real good!!! The makers of this scroll didn't try anything fancy like some people. (Note: I'm not knocking fancy - a sprinkling of cinnamon on top of the icing for instance, works a treat.) It was basically a bog-standard coffee scroll. Just what I wanted. Very bready, with raisins mixed in, a glazed sheen on top and of course, white icing in a circle on top of that. I tried to savour the taste, I really did. I got sweetness, I got the margarine greasiness, I got the bite from the raisins...but mainly I wolfed the thing down like a Labrador who hasn't eaten for a whole hour or so. Then I had that satisfied feeling in my stomach that you get from eating such a large amount of bread. It was all I had remembered and more. If I was a smoker I would probably have lit one up at that point.

So that's my story about my first coffee scroll. I'll try some others over the next few weeks. There are definitely better out there but this one was a fine start. I can now say I am well and truly back from holidays!