Yesterday was one of those soul crushingly awful days. You know the ones I mean? When nothing seems to go your way? I managed to mess up my referencing on my assignment that was due in (queue panic), develop impetigo on the inside of my nose (TMI I know), explode a can of Pepsi in a newsagent (massive apologies to the staff members left with that mess), burst into tears for no apparent reason in my night lecture (how embarrassing), and then faced extensive train delays at 9pm (no surprise there with the British rail network). The one redeeming factor, the light at the end of my tunnel in all of this drama was, of course, food: an apple crumble doughnut I'd got stashed in my handbag for the journey home.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how long these apple crumble doughnuts are going to be sold for as they were reduced to clear (despite being well in date) at just 37p for the double pack -but I thought I'd review them anyway.
"Doughnuts filled with apple sauce and topped with a custard flavoured icing and butter crumble pieces."
Sounds good right? Apple crumble is the ultimate British dessert; a classic that can't be beaten-especially if it's made by my mum-in-law-to-be. How well could it be recreated in doughnut form ? I thought back to the traditional dessert inspired Rhubarb & Custard doughnut that Greggs sold this summer which I enjoyed -but complained that the only flavour came from the icing. This version was filled though, resulting in my high doughy hopes.
The doughnut had an ample covering of icing, and a fair amount of crumble on top too. Slicing it in half however left me utterly baffled. Where was the apple? Seriously, had the Co-Op forgotten to fill this one entirely? I could just about see the tiniest smidgen of sauce, hiding between the dough. Hopefully it was just off centre...
Nope. With no exaggeration, there could only be a teaspoonful of apple in the entire doughnut. What was there was sweet and pleasant, but it's scarcity meant that the sauce was completely overshadowed by the fairly dense dough. Pah, at least Greggs didn't promise to fill their doughnut.
The custard icing was sweet, but to be honest I was so disgruntled by the lack of fruit that I didn't notice whether it tasted of custard or not. The best part came from the crumble topping, which was crisp and biscuity, but again I only really acknowledged it when I'd finished the doughnut and was greedily hoovering up the crumbs with my fingers.
A pants (almost*) end to a pants day. Thankfully today was much better. Have a good weekend you lovely lot!
4/10
*luckily the peanut butter twix and choco-nut malt wheats somewhat helped at 11pm.
A couple of months ago I received a lovely parcel full of goodies from the team at Reflex Nutrition. Inside the box was the protein coffee (which I loved and am now addicted to, check out my review if you want to find out more) and a box of each flavour of the new R Bar Flapjacks. I have to admit that I was super excited by the flavours, all of which appealed to me.
I was informed at the time that Reflex's primary drive with the flapjacks was to produce a quality product in terms of being nutritionally sound. It was never intended to be a confectionary type bar, instead Reflex say that their "protein flapjacks offer unrivalled quality, incorporating nutritionally uncompromised ingredients. Each bar contains 18g protein, 7g fibre, 21g low GI carbohydrates, and just 2g sugar to keep you sustained before and after your training." If you want any more information on the thought process behind the flapjack bars, please pop over to their blog.
The first thing I noticed when I unwrapped the bars, was just how little they looked like traditional flapjacks. I had a horrible flashback to the PhD peanut butter bar at the beginning of the year, and hoped I could stomach them better.
Fortunately, all of the bars are soft, although they taste much more like traditional protein bars than traditional flapjacks. I much prefer them once warmed through in the microwave for 20 seconds -the same way I like my Quests & Carb Killas. My biggest issue is that the flavours in the Cherry Almond and Apple & Blackberry bars aren't very strong at all, meaning that they disappear somewhat against the more prominent taste of the milk protein. I appreciated that the fruit flavour comes from real freeze dried fruit, but it accounts for only 1% of the ingredients, so it's unsurprising that it lags behind. The Cherry Almond bar is also slightly oily to the touch, but it didn't taste greasy in the slightest.
My absolute favourite bar by a country mile is the maple syrup, which was far bolder in taste. I love this bar warm, and it's one that I really look forward to. As far as macros go, the R Bar Protein Flapjacks are a winner, and as a bonus they're 'clean' and very filling after a good work out. You can buy them from any reputable sports retailer, my favourite being Cardiff Sports Nutrition (where you can buy them for just £1.49 per bar).
Maple Syrup: 8/10
Cherry Almond: 6/10
Apple & Blackberry Crumble: 5/10
*A huge thank you to Reflex for sending me the samples to review.
