Epic Fail

In cruising the food blogs (something I seem to have less and less time to do these days), I kept running across references to ‘cinnamon chips’, which sounded like a brilliant idea to me.  I had never actually run across any in the markets I frequent, though.

During a trip through the bulk section of Market of Choice recently, I happened across a jar labeled cinnamon chips.  At last!  They were pretty little oval-shaped pieces, just perfect in size for scones.  So I put together a batch and added some chocolate chips as well (yum!).

The smell coming from the oven was intoxicating, and I could hardly wait to try them out.  I made my morning espresso, and almost as soon as I pulled these beautiful scones from the oven, I plopped one on a plate, slathered a little butter on top, and sat down to enjoy.

I pulled a piece off, popped it in my mouth, and bit down... on a chunk of cinnamon the consistency of tree bark.  Turns out that the cinnamon chips I bought, although they looked nothing like pieces from a cinnamon stick, were just that.  And try as I might to salvage the situation, there was just no getting around the ‘ick’ factor of having to pull little rock-hard pieces of cinnamon out of my teeth.  I ended up tossing the entire batch.

All is not lost, however.  I figure these are a terrific size for the spice grinder the next time I’m making some mole.

Live and learn, I guess.