NEW! DohPro Double Chocolate Chip Instant Cookie Dough (Online)

My cookie phase doesn't seem to stop. Yesterday we had the bells and whistles creme filled giant American cookies, so why not pull it back today with a healthier version? Cue DohPro. Haven't heard of DohPro? I'll let them fill you in...

"For years, millions of people have had to compromise. Either you choose the healthy option, or the tasty option. But compromise no longer, because we have created Doh-Pro.Doh-Pro is a delicious Cookie Dough which is high in protein, lower in sugar, has reduced fat, and is a great source of fibre."Unlike other Cookie Dough products, Doh-Pro can be kept in your cupboard and eaten straight from the tub. Fancy an even tastier treat? Just 20 seconds in the microwave will turn Doh-Pro into a deliciously indulgent cookie.If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can experiment with baking times to give yourself a gooey cookie dough treat."

Sound good? Or too good to be true? Let's find out...

DohPro contacted me last month to offer me a tub to review. The dough is currently available in both chocolate chip and double chocolate chip in two varieties: 30% protein or 50% protein. DohPro asked me which one I would like to try, but I'm always keen for a surprise and so left it up to them...

It was a tub of the 50% protein double chocolate chip DoughPro that turned up a few days later. They're large tubs at 367g -meaning that each contains a whopping 180g of protein! The serving size is not the whole tub however, it's 30g. The dough was a dark colour, much the same as a Quest chocolate brownie -and it smelt similar too. 

The packet suggests that you can eat the dough straight from the tub, microwave it for 20 seconds or oven cook for 10 minutes. Of course I tried all three..

Ambient

I have to be honest, I wasn't overly keen on the raw cookie dough. Whilst I found it excruciatingly difficult to resist the FlapJacked protein cookie dough, this was dry and a little tough. 

Microwave

After microwaving, I found the cookies had a slight greasiness to them. I mentioned that they reminded me of Quest bars, and that's what they tasted like once microwaved: heated chocolate brownie Questies. Now if you're a die-hard Quest fan I have some good news of you: to get 20g protein (the equivalent in a Quest bar) from the DohPro you'll need 40g of dough. Considering each tub of DohPro contains roughly 9 40g servings and costs £9.99 (or two tubs for £13.99) then you'd get a much better value for money by buying DohPro. 

I filled mine with a Reese's cup before cooking -of course!

Oven Cooking

It was hard to tell when the DoughPro was cooked. The packet suggests 10 minutes in a 160 oven or until golden, but given the colour of the dough that was rather difficult to ascertain! There was also a warning not to overbake them. I took mine out of the oven when they were still completely soft and didn't really set. I must have undercooked them. Oops. Back to the microwave for me - much less hassle. 

I like the idea of the DoughPro, however it tasted too much of protein bars of days gone by to me. I wonder if the 30% protein would be more cookie-like. 

Thank you to DohPro for the sample pot. If you fancy trying a tub or two, please head over to their website where you can enjoy 10% off with the code: AMY10.

Macros per 100g unbaked: kCal421 P49/C25/F13.2

Cookie Dough Gourmet Edible Cookie Dough: Red Velvet, Chocolate Chip, Triple Chocolate Fudge & Funfetti Cake Batter (Online)

Have you ever made cookies and considered just not baking them? Just sitting and eating the entire bowl with a spoon? Please tell me that you have. Raw cookie dough is a wondrous creation, and must be on par with -if not even better than- warm cookies straight from the oven. We're not meant to eat it though are we?  I mean, the dough contains raw egg, but I also guess if that if our aim is to make cookies, we probably shouldn't fall at the first hurdle and eat the dough. 

Cue Gookie Dough: the love-child of Olly and Anja, who say that they came up with the idea of creating tubs of gourmet edible cookie dough from their life long obsession with Willy Wonka. The tubs are available in four drool inducing flavours: red velvet, gooey chocolate chip, triple chocolate fudge and funfetti cake batter. They're designed to be kept refrigerated (with a shelf life of about a month) but can also be frozen. That's if your self restraint allows, of course. I was utterly excited when I received an email from Olly asking if I'd like to review their products and immediately accepted, starting to think up ways to serve up the Gookie Dough (that's if I wasn't to eat it straight from the jar). I love a good food brainstorm, but if you're feeling less creative there's plenty of ideas on their Instagram page.

Gooey Chocolate Chip

"Is there anything better than fresh golden chocolate chip cookie dough? With a generous portion of luxury Belgian dark chocolate chunks swirled in a silky, buttery Madagascan vanilla dough, the original handcrafted Gookie dough recipe is to die for!" 

The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of chocolate chips that were embedded within the dough. The batter was quite loose too, a similar sort of consistency to peanut butter or chocolate spread. A serving size is 75g (half a mini jar) and I chose to use it to top a protein cake in one of my late night snack bowls. 

The dough was tacky, and melted fairly quickly on top of the warm cake. As you can imagine it was very sweet, but it was also comforting too. The consistency of the dough is smooth, lacking the graininess of the cookie dough chunks that are commonplace in ice creams. I thought the serving size was a little generous as I found it quite sickly towards the end, but that just meant that there's more servings per tub. Bonus.

8/10

Funfetti Cake Batter

"Sprinkles make everything more fun and better right? Taking inspiration from the ultimate American childhood birthday cake flavour, this decadent and rich Madagascan vanilla dough is layered with handfuls of luxury Belgian white chocolate chunks. Just to make it ultra special, this party favourite is loaded full of rainbow crystal sugar sprinkles!"

If you've been reading this blog for some time you'll know that misleading names are a personal bug bear -despite being a marketing and advertising student. So let's get this straight, this flavour Gookie Dough was in fact a white chocolate version of the chocolate chip, there's not really any cake about it. I'll step down off my high horse now.

This time I sandwiched the batter between two Oatmeal & raisin flapjacked cookies, and I'm salivating just thinking about the combination. I used just 50g this time and loved the flavour and textural combination of the Gookie dough with the cooked cookie. If you decide to treat yourself to some Gookie Dough, I highly recommend that you try the pairing for yourself. 

9/10

Red Velvet

"Have you ever tried the world’s most famous & elegant cake flavour? Intertwining super moist, luscious red Belgian cocoa dough, and heavenly, creamy, melt in your mouth Madagascan vanilla frosting, this dough doesn’t disappoint when it comes to providing that signature light chocolaty flavour. It’s most certainly red velvet by name and red velvet by nature!"

There's no doubt about the flavour of this cookie dough given the colour of it. Red velvet is notoriously difficult to nail from both a colour and flavour point of view, so I was pleased to see that Gookie Dough had achieved at lest one of the objectives.

This time I decided to top my ice cream with some frozen Gookie Dough. However, I'm not sure if I didn't put it in the freezer for long enough (just an hour) but the batter didn't really solidify. I also didn't find that it had a particularly strong chocolate flavour, and although the swirls of vanilla frosting were evident in the appearance, they were lost in the resounding sweetness. It was tasty, but not the best flavour by a long shot.

6/10 

Triple Chocolate Fudge 

"Simply put, this is a choc-a-holic’s dream! Using not one, not two, but 3 different chocolate varieties, this fudgey 100% cocoa dough is heaped full of divine dark cocoa, Belgian milk chocolate fudge and white chocolate chunks. Prepare yourself for a chocolate coma!"

Coma me up. I needed a chocolate hit and decided to enjoy this flavour straight from the jar. Yes it was chocolatey, yes it was extremely sweet, yes it was sticky, and yes it was the ultimate in indulgence. It was a chocolate bomb and I felt it should be for reserved for really bad Monday evenings (or Sunday night blues).

Gookie Dough isn't for the faint hearted. It's made especially for us sugar addict. It's unique (as far as I'm aware) and I applaud Olly and Anja for their ingenuity. Gookie Dough is available in 150g mini tubs and 450g monster tubs. Prices start at £7.50 for two mini tubs and can be purchased directly from Gookie Dough's website. I really hope they consider creating peanut butter and snickerdoodle flavours in future....

Thank you for the samples Olly! 

NEW! FlapJacked Protein Cookie & Baking Mix: Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip & Double Chocolate (Online)

If you follow me on Instagram or have indeed read the reviews on here you'll know I'm a big fan of the FlapJacked range. I often have their pancakes for lunch -just yesterday I enjoyed banana flavoured ones and mashed fresh banana into the batter, which I highly recommend!- and regularly treat myself to a Mighty Muffin before bed.

With this in mind you can just imagine how excited I was when I saw that FlapJacked had released packets of cookie mixes and single serving smoothie mixes in the USA (where the company is based). Ok, so I might've been a tad more excited about the cookies than the smoothies, but I hoped that FlapJacked UK would soon start stocking both products. At BodyPower on Sunday I thought I'd take the opportunity to say hello to the FlapJacked gang and grill them about when I might be able to get my greedy mix on the cookies...

But I didn't need to. There, sat on their table was all of the goodies. The Mighty Muffin line-up, the pancake mixes I know so well, as well as the new cookie packs and smoothie sachets! Fortunately for me, the lovely team at FlapJacked  gave me some samples to review, hurrah! 

"FlapJacked Protein Cookie & Baking Mixes are a delicious, nutritionally balanced alternative to traditional cookie mixes. Made with non-GMO, gluten-free and artificial-free ingredients, these delectable cookies taste like a homemade treat but without the guilt. Each power-packed serving (2 cookies) contains 10 grams of protein to keep you feeling fuller longer, but with less carbs and less sugar than traditional cookies."

I was looking forward to seeing how the FlapJacked cookies compared to the existing products on the market. Most of the protein cookies I've tried to date have been very dry and crumbly (Oatein and Dr Zaks I'm looking at you) or thick and cakey (Lenny & Larrys and Buff Bake). None have come close to fresh or homemade cookies.

Each FlapJacked cookie pack makes up 12 cookies, and the suggested serving size is two cookies (none of this 1/2 a cookie nonsense that so many of the protein companies seem to cheekily suggest). To make up the pack you use the entire mix, 6 tbsp of butter and two eggs. I awkwardly made up just a single serving of each mix using 15g of butter and 1/3 of an egg -my dog had the rest on his kibble -it's great for his coat! Each portion of the mix is between 160-170kcals, but I'll include the macros of the mix when made up (including the egg and butter).

Oatmeal

Of all the things I've baked over the years (and I used to bake a lot, I'm a trained chef) oat & raisin cookies are Bert's favourite. I love a good oat cookie too, but I'd probably choose something chocolatey over something fruity as a favourite. But I digress.

The mix smelt wonderful, and I couldn't help but add a few raisins as per the serving suggestion. Despite my cinnamon addiction I refrained from any adding extra, just to see how it would fare without my meddling. The method suggested beating the eggs and butter together before adding the cookie mix -which I couldn't really understand as butter and eggs curdle together. Instead I mixed the whole lot at once. Damn they looked good, and I couldn't help but lick the spoon as I popped them in the oven to cook. Errmegoodgod. I could've just eaten the bowlful of raw dough, it was so damn tasty. I actually couldn't taste the difference between this dough and and the normal non-protein stuff. 

The method tells me to remove the cookies once the edges had set, and after about 8 minutes they were done. They had expanded slightly but hadn't turned into monsters (I once made side plate sized cookies by accident). I chose to sandwich them around some chocolate chip gourmet edible Cookie Dough*.

I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. They tasted like normal cookies! Now the macros may not be as good as some of the protein cookies on the market, but the mix does deliver 10g of protein per serving -and to be honest, I'd rather have something that tasted delicious. The cookies were well spiced with a lovely oaty texture; soft with a slight chewiness. Honestly, I could've eaten them all day, everyday. Seriously impressive stuff FlapJacked! 

10/10
Macros per 2 cookie serving made with butter, eggs & 15g of sultanas: P:13/C36.5/F:15.6

Double Chocolate 
Like chocolate cake, I'm never too trusting of double chocolate cookies. I was pleased to see a plentiful supply of chocolate chips in the mix. Again the dough was easy to make up and tempting to eat raw. 

I served this flavour with mint chocolate Oppo. The chocolate flavour was good: rich, dark and sweet -what more could a girl ask for? I found this flavour to be soft and cakier than the oatmeal mix -they're certainly not chewy like supermarket bakery cookies- but they're moist and utterly moreish. 

9/10
Macros per 2 cookie serving made with butter and eggs: 307kcal P:12.6/C:25.1 F:18.5

Chocolate Chip
As with the double chocolate, this mix was chock full of chocolate chips. Unfortunately they sunk to the bottom of the cookies whilst baking, but that's only an aesthetic issue.

Again the texture was soft and fluffy. I was concerned that the whey protein flavour might be more evident in a less flavoured mix, but I still couldn't taste any difference to a normal cookie batter. Nom nom nom.

9/10
Macros per 2 cookie serving made with butter and eggs: 307kcal P:12.6/C:25.1 F:18.5

Summary
As you can probably tell, I'm super impressed with FlapJack's new cookie mixes. Yes, they're not the most macro friendly of the protein cookies on the market, but I really don't care when they taste so good. I love the fact that I can whip up some freshly baked tasty cookies in less than 15 minutes. They're perfect for anyone on a gluten free diet, those looking to top-up their protein intake, as well as  any fellow lazy bakers! I do hope that FlapJacked bring out a peanut butter flavour soon too, they would be marvellous! 

If you fancy giving them a try, please pop on over to FlapJack's website where you can get 10% off at checkout by entering the code: AMY10.

*made by Gookie Dough, review of which will be coming soon!

NEW! Half & Half: Cookie Dough And Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream (Tesco)

I can't believe that I succumbed to the final new Tesco ice cream. If you remember, there were four new 'luxury' tubs released in March: Red Velvet, Jammy Ring, Jaffa Cake and this Half & Half. I almost gave up on the new ice creams after the disappointment of the Red Velvet and Jammy Ring flavours, but then I took a punt on the Jaffa Cake and was pleasantly surprised. The half & half didn't sound all that interesting, and I thought to myself: why buy Tesco when Ben & Jerry's core tubs are bound to be so much better? Last week Tesco had 20% off all of their new tubs though and at £1.60 it was worth a go. 

"Chocolate and vanilla ice creams swirled with a chocolate sauce, chocolate brownie pieces and chocolate chip cookie dough chunks."

As with all of Tesco's tubs, the ice cream was very soft and easy to scoop straight from the tub (there's no Haagen-Dazs luxury here I'm afraid). As promised the pint was split between vanilla and chocolate ice creams, which continued through the tub.

What I wasn't expecting however was the sheer abundance of massive cookie dough chunks and brownie pieces. Halle-flipping-lujah! After the Jammy Ring tub this was a sight for sore eyes.

As I'd imagined, the quality of the ice cream wasn't great. It's pretty bog-standard supermarket stuff, and doesn't come anywhere near the likes of B&Js or H-D. It's palatable though, just don't dig in anticipating it to blow your mind. I can't say the chocolate sauce was particularly special either, but it was pleasant enough.

The brownie was soft and fluffy with a respectable chocolate flavour. In fact I would say that it was almost as good as the cake pieces in Ben & Jerry's. Wait. Say what? I bet you weren't expecting that. 

Lets not stop there though, because get this: the cookie dough was better than chunk-gods B&J's. It's almost blasphemous. Yes, they're squidgier and big enough to taste by themselves. Yum yum yum. 

Argh! I'll say it again. Tesco please improve the base of your ice cream. They could really be something rather special if you followed these fabulous ideas through. I'd definitely suggest buying a tub of this Half & Half if you buy Ben & Jerry's for the extra additions -especially if you spot it on special offer.

8/10

NEW! Red Velvet, S'mores, Salted Caramel & Cookie Dough Cheesecakes (ASDA)

I walked into ASDA the other night to pick up some bread rolls and came away with four cheesecakes. How did that happen?! Please tell me I'm not the only one. Believe it or not, that was me holding back, there were many more new ones (take a look at the bottom of this post for photos of just some of the others I spotted). Anyway, I bought 4 of the 5 new individual ones for £1 each -key lime pie didn't appeal I'm afraid, even enough to take a photo. 

Cookie Dough
I really hoped this would be better than the last ASDA cookie dough cheesecake I reviewed just over a year ago. It certainly looked appealing, with a more substantial base this time around.

"Chocolate biscuit base with chocolate chip and chocolate cheesecake batters, with cookie dough, topped with chocolate sauce, milk chocolate chips and white chocolate buttons."

The cheesecake itself was pretty pants. It had that wobbly jelly like consistency that I find so off-putting in most supermarket cheesecakes. Flavour-wise neither the chocolate or chocolate chip batter cut the mustard either. The paler of the two didn't have many chocolate chips, neither did it taste of vanilla, or soured cream, just plain. Humf. The chocolate cheesecake wasn't much better either. 
As for the cookie dough, that was a bit lost too. In fact I only realised when I finished my slice that I hadn't even tasted it! Oops. Fortunately the chocolate bottom was ok, although a little on the dry and crumbly side.

5/10 

Salted Caramel 

"Digestive biscuit base topped with caramel cheesecake batter and salted caramel sauce, topped with milk chocolate malt balls and chocolate crispies."

At least the cheesecake itself was actually flavoured. Whilst it still wobbled, I enjoyed the treacly flavour (although I'm not sure how salted it truly was). 
The honeycomb balls on top were crisp, although admittedly they weren't up to Malteser standards.

I also enjoyed the base of this one. Sometimes you can't beat the original, and I greedily hoovered up every last crumb of digestive biscuit. 

7/10

Red Velvet Secret Centre 

"Red velvet base with vanilla cheesecake batter and a chocolate sauce centre, with red velvet topping."

Boy this was messy to retrieve from its pot, the cake crumb scattered everywhere! Also, can you call a cheesecake a cheesecake without a biscuit bottom? 

Another sub-standard cheesecake. I think ASDA must've used the same batter in this and the cookie dough flavour, for it had a similar a similar taste and consistency. The cake crumb was ok, but there wasn't much of it, and without the crunchy base there was a distinct lack of textural contrast. Not good. The 'secret centre' constituted a measly teaspoonful of runny chocolate sauce, the sort of stuff you'd use to top ice cream -again it wasn't particularly enjoyable. 

I'd give this one a miss if I were you.

4/10  

S'mores 
I really hoped that this cheesecake would fare better than the other new ASDA cheesecakes and the Tesco freezer burnt S'mores cheesecake I reviewed last year.

"Chocolate biscuit base with chocolate cheesecake batter topped and a chocolate sauce centre topped with a chocolate sauce and marshmallows."

This cheesecake was at least easier to remove from its case, revealing three distinct layers beneath the marshmallow topping.

The top layer was meant to be chocolate sauce, but it was set and tasted a bit like the odd wobbly chocolate puddings you find in all inclusive hotels on the continent -please tell me you know what I mean? I really wish that ASDA had used ganache instead.

The chocolate cheesecake was far from the best I've had; it was gelatinous and mild in flavour. As for the secret centre, I uncovered the same sorry state of affairs as I found in the Red Velvet. Gah, ASDA, you can do so much better than this.

I was grateful that the base was crunchy and actually made from biscuits! The chocolate flavour was rather good too, with a dark bourbon-esque element. C'mon guys, I'm looking for the silver lining here. 

6/10

Summary
What a disappointment ASDA, especially having bought and thoroughly enjoyed your outstanding White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecakes the weekend before. 

Just some of the other new cheesecakes spotted at ASDA..

I like the sound of the Banana Bonanza, but I fear it'll be just as bad as their other new cheesecakes. Please let me know what you think if you try any of ASDA's new dessert range!

NEW! Ben & Jerry's Topped: Salted Caramel Brownie, Chocolate Caramel Cookie Dough & Strawberry Swirled (ASDA)

The news hit two days before I went away: Ben & Jerry's were treating us (once again) with three brand spanking new flavours, and in a different style too. The new Topped tubs have a chocolatey layer above the ice cream and all three flavours sounded insanely good. As always, ice cream princess Ms One Treat was straight off the mark and I eagerly awaited her reviews from the other side of the world. Whilst she praised the new flavours she wasn't blown away, but I'm afraid to admit that it didn't hinder my excitement to try them for myself. Frustratingly Ocado has been the only place to purchase them from until this week, and seeing as the online supermarkets refuses to deliver to us country bumpkins, I had to wait it out. Monday was the day! Instagram filled with pictures of the Topped tubs in ASDA, and so I made a beeline on the way home.

£4.80 a tub. Ouch. Fortunately for me, Ben & Jerry's kindly invited me to a launch event a few months ago, and when I told them that I couldn't make it they sent me a couple of vouchers for free tubs and I've saved them for new tubs that aren't on promotion.

So which to choose? I'm embarrassed to admit that I dawdled for a good few minutes, pondering between the three before phoning a friend (I.e calling Bert) and asking his opinion. He chose the chocolate and strawberry tubs, but then I remembered that One Treat recommended the cookie dough as the best of the bunch and once again I was baffled. It was like choosing between my children.

Then I was struck by a brainwave! I remembered it was the 13th of February, and I could have bet your bottom dollar that Bert hadn't bought me a valentine present. All three made their way to the till, thanks Bert!

Salted Caramel Brownie

"Vanilla ice cream with a salted caramel swirl (11%), chocolate brownie pieces (3%), chocolatey chunks (3%) and chocolatey topping (9%)

The thick layer on top had a ganache-like density and shine to it, with plenty of dark coloured chocolate ampersands dotted about. Digging into it was fairly easy though, and I found the ice cream beneath to be one of Ben & Jerry's softer styles (much like the Sofa So Good). There was noticeably less chunks in it than I've become accustomed too of late, and the sauce was almost infused within the ice cream.

The taste was good though, and whilst I'd ordinarily never buy Ben & Jerry's for their vanilla flavours, it was yummy and allowed the caramel sauce to shine through. The brownies that I found, although far and few between (there's just 3% brownie in this compared to 7% in Sofa So Good) were up to scratch -moist and chewy as they reliably always are in B&J's tubs. The topping was the star of the show though, for it is in fact a chocolate and hazelnut paste and tastes rather like a nutella inspired ganache. It's thick and silken and complements the ice cream wonderfully. I only wish there were layers of it as opposed to just a topping! 

8/10

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Dough
Despite being a blatant chocoholic, I'm very fussy when it comes to chocolate ice creams. It's a fine line on when they become just too sickly and I didn't particularly enjoy my last pint of Ben & Jerry's Blondie Brownie. That said I'm utterly addicted to their Chocolate Fudge Brownie Wich's and couldn't be more pleased to see that they've made a come back in multi-pack form this year.

"Chocolate ice cream with a caramel swirl (10%), chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough (3%), chocolatey chunks (3%) and chocolatey topping (9%)."

The uppermost layer used in this tub is the same as used in the Salted Caramel Brownie Topped, a thick chocolate hazelnut paste with chocolate ampersands -which all stuck themselves to one side of my tub.

(Yep I was greedy and had both the Chocolate Caramel cookie Dough & Salted Caramel Brownie at the same time. The brownie is on the left and the cookie dough on the right).

The chocolate ice cream didn't disappoint, and I loved the addition of the caramel swirl. I recently tried Baskin Robbins' chocolate peanut butter ice cream (one of the best ice creams I've ever had!) and this reminded me of it. It's almost like a Rolo in ice cream form. Even better was the cookie dough pieces which broke up the texture and added a gritty biscuit flavour, nom nom nom. Again the amount of 'extras' was lower than usual, but I didn't seem to mind so much thanks to my state of chocoholic bliss. 

9/10

Strawberry Swirl

Why we can't get Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake in pint size tubs I'll never know. It's the only reason I buy the multi-packs of 100ml tubs (and only when they're on offer for £2.50 in Tesco). Ben & Jerry's seem to forget that a fruity ice cream is delicious when done right, although they seem to be rectifying this having brought back One Sweet World, and now this Strawberry Swirl, hurrah. 

"Cream ice cream with strawberry (13%) and marshmallow (7%) swirls, shortbread chunks (3%), with a white chocolate flavour topping (9%) and white chocolatey chunks (1.5%)."

Oooh, the white chocolate topping looked extremely inviting, and once dug into revealed a pale creamy coloured ice cream beneath. The topping was firmer than the hazelnut based one, shattering into shards upon impact. A pretty pink swirl pervaded throughout the ice cream, although the marshmallow was less obvious.

Mmmm. Delicious! I'm a huge fan of white chocolate and raspberry and/or strawberry in any form, so using it in Ben & Jerry's luxuriously creamy ice cream was always going to be a winner for me. The white chocolate was just as creamy and sweet as I'd hoped and melted in the mouth easily. Perhaps there could have been more strawberry sauce, or indeed it could have done with being a strawberry ice cream to bring the flavours into a better harmony, but I still absolutely loved this tub. The shortbread chunks were buttery and crumbly, and should make any Scot proud. 

I really really miss the Baked Alaska tubs, but Strawberry Swirled is a very good compromise!

9/10

Cookie Dough Pie Milk Chocolate Bar (The Pudding Parlour)

I feel very lucky to have met some wonderful bloggers in the last year (albeit through the web and not in the flesh). For the most part it's a very supportive community of people who go out of their way to help each other. One of the more recent friendships I have struck up as a result of our shared love of food is Nat (from lot-o-choc blog) and in the past few weeks I have been utterly spoiled by her with not one but two parcels of chocolatey goodies. The first contained the most fascinating sounding bar I have ever caught sight of, made by a company who I have been dying to try for months. Nat informs me that the Cookie Dough Pie is made for The Pudding Parlour by The Chocolate Smiths. The Chocolate Smiths are a company I had never heard of pre-blog, but they make the most extraordinary bars -anyone for Bacon, Cheese 'n' Crackers or Bubblegum flavoured chocolate? By comparison the Cookie Dough Pie sounds more tame but far more delicious than their other offerings. 

"A handmade Belgian milk chocolate bar with fudge chunks and cookie dough biscuit pieces. This chocolate bar simulates the flavours of our best selling and much loved Cookie Dough Pie."

I couldn't wait to dig in, and that very evening the bar was open. The first thing I noticed was the visible fudge chunks that were dotted about the place, looking far more appealing than the ones in the Cadbury Medley bar. Then, I spotted the dreaded white spoilage bubbles on the corners of some of the squares, despite a best before date of July 2017. 

Luckily the chocolate itself tasted silky and smooth for the most part, melting in the mouth with a luxurious creaminess. The fudge pieces were oddly tough however, and almost toffee-like in consistency. I really enjoyed the biscuit pieces, which were unexpectedly crunchy, and lacked the softness that makes the cookie dough in Ben & Jerry's so devilishly moreish. It was such a shame that some of the chocolate was stale, ruining the star aspect of the bar.  

I'm shocked that such a bar warrants such a high price point of £3.50. The novelty is attractive, and it's so frustrating that it's not executed as well as it could. I know that I sound so ungrateful, but Nat also tried the bar and thought similarly to me. Please do check out her review here. Thanks for sending me the Cookie Dough Pie Bar Nat!

6/10

NEW! KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough (ASDA)

It was only last week that I was wondering when a new chocolate bar would come out, and what it could possibly be. 2016 has already heralded some fantastic new entries to the market (Cadbury Tiffin and M&S' The Nutty One get in my belly!), some pretty damn good contenders (Galaxy Duet Toffee & Popcorn I'm looking at you), and others best relegated to the bargain bin (never again Cadbury Dairy Milk Fudge Medley). 

Of course there were also two new KitKats released in January too -the extra chocolatey chunky and vanilla stirred four finger- but, I was so uninspired by them that I still haven't bothered with them. The trouble with KitKats you see, as I've pointed out before, is that there's just not enough chocolate. Even the extra chocolatey seemed too wafery to me. Still, when I saw OneTreat's photo* pop up on instagram of this new cookie dough edition chunky, I just knew would have to track one down. Two trips to ASDA later, and I finally found them nestled in front of the tobacco kiosk -where else?!

 "Crisp wafer with a creamed cookie dough topping, covered with milk chocolate"

As usual, the chunky was split into two separate sections. I sliced one of the halves in two to have a good peek at the cookie dough filling. There it was: a creamy coloured paste with darker flecks. So far so good.

I realised that I had fallen into my usual pattern of  nibbling off the thicker chocolate round the edges -anyone else do this? Of course, we all know that Nestle doesn't make the best quality chocolate, but it wasn't bad by any means. The wafers were as crisp as usual, but that's not what you want to know is it? Oh. The cookie dough. How did that taste? Well, despite my efforts to dissect the KitKat, the cookie dough was a let down. I couldn't really taste it against the chocolate and wafer -probably because it made up less than a fifth of the bar. 

Indeed I was so disgruntled that I let my other half take a bite (just in case my taste buds had gone into hiding) but he couldn't tell the difference between the cookie dough and standard KitKat chunky. Perhaps if Nestle had used a white chocolate casing then it would have stood out more? Who knows. I'll be sticking to peanut butter and double caramel KitKat chunkys when my (rare) cravings arise in future. If neither of those flavours are your bag, then I suggest you buy the cookies & cream KitKat 2 fingers instead, they're far more noteworthy. 

6/10

*Please pop along to One Treat's blog and see what she has to say about the new KitKat!