Banoffee pie is absolutely up there as one of my all time favourite desserts (with tiramisu and my mum-in-law-to-be's apple crumble). The trouble is, most of the supermarket versions are pretty poor, and most of them come in large sized pies (I can't deal with that amount of temptation in the house, the same reason I don't make it very often). Cue M&S. Thank the lord. Their frozen dessert collection now contains a double pack of banoffee semifreddos. But there's a catch -they're £4 a time, yes, ouch. I struggle with spending £3 on a couple of cheesecake slices, but then I reconsidered...
1) I'd heard resoundingly positive feedback on the semifreddos from fellow dessert fanatics Nat and Sian.
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2) I'd pay more than that for a single dessert at a restaurant.
But then I had a brainwave anyway. The dine in for £10 meal deal. That says it includes selected ice creams. It usually contains some of M&S' dessert collection free desserts. I wonder... would the banoffee semifreddos be secretly part of the fortnightly deal? There was no offer ticket to suggest it was, but I did used to work at the Hereford branch and so I cheekily asked the lovely Maria to check it through the till...
BINGO!
It worked. I managed to buy two rump steaks, 4 potato rostis, a bottle of wine and the semifreddos for just a tenner. Bargain.
"Banana and vanilla custard cream with Dulce De Leche caramel sauce on a digestive biscuit crumb base, finished with cocoa powder and a dark chocolate plaque."
Chuffed with myself, I got them home and opened them up, to find that M&S had done a rather marvellous job of packaging them carefully in separate little brown boxes. First brownie point awarded to Marks, they were impeccable, despite my persistent clumsiness; anyone remember this doughnut pancake?
The topping was well flavoured with an authentic flavour (M&S have used real bananas - 6% of the ingredients) and it was creamy whilst remaining fairly light. I couldn't get my head around the consistency though; after the 20 minutes suggested defrosting time I had a soft moussey outer edge and a frozen inside. I get that's what its meant to be, but it made me think that I hadn't left it out of the freezer for long enough.
The biscuit bottom was a lovely digestive affair, and although it was on the crumbly, fall-apart end of the cheesecake base spectrum, it was delicious nonetheless.
It was the caramel centre that I was most excited about, and as I started to dig in, I thought M&S had been fairly stingy. In reality, it simply turned out that it was mostly pooled down one end, and the golden treasure was worth the wait. It was thick, gooey, and sweet with the buttery richness that I had hoped for.
M&S Banoffee Semifreddos will never beat a fresh, homemade banoffee pie -especially as they understandably* lack the slices of fresh banana. At £4 for two, they're expensive too, but are well worth picking up as part of the Dine in Offer. As such, I'd happily have them again.
8/10
*no-one wants slimy, black defrosted bananas gracing their dessert after all!
I'm not happy with ASDA. They've pulled their amazing peanut butter millionaire's desserts from shelves. What's a girl to do? Fortunately they've replaced it with something that sounded almost as good: a Chocolate and Almond Dessert. The pots are £1.50 each or two for £2 (mix and match with the Strawberry Senga Trifle and Triple Chocolate Dessert.
"Layers of almond flavoured sauce, brownie slices, dulce de leche and dark chocolate ganache."
Chocolate and almond is vastly under appreciated in the U.K., in fact the only time I usually have the combination is when I make chocolate truffles at Christmas time (and even then they tend to be heavy on the rum). It's a gorgeous pairing though and so I hoped ASDA had done it justice.
It was hard to tell which layers were which from the container, but I rightly guessed that the topping was the ganache. As to be expected it was rich and silken; perhaps a touch too sweet for those with a preference for bitter dark chocolate -i.e it was perfect for me.
Next up was a golden sauce which I presumed was the dulce de leche, however it had a very strong almond flavouring. I ended up confused, was this the almond sauce? I couldn't see anything else that remotely looked like caramel, so I guess the almond flavours had leeched out and overpowered the leche. This wasn't necessarily a problem, it just wouldn't have passed Ronseal's mark of approval.
Underneath the golden layer was a couple of mixture of brownie pieces and darker sauce. Now this, ladies and gents, was where the magic happened; a recurrence of the peanut butter millionaire's dessert pleasure groans. The combination of soft but squidgy chocolate cake pieces strongly flavoured with what I can only describe almost amaretto made my tastebuds dance with glee. It was sheer heaven. Fortunately there was an ample supply of this final tier. I eeked out every last mouthful, not wanting it to end, and thereby making the small 105g pot last a full ten minutes.
Well done ASDA, another full mark dessert!
10/10
Is cheesecake a summer dessert? I'm not so sure. Every year I make a cheesecake for Christmas, normally flavoured with chocolate and a liqueur of some description. M&S must think it is seasonal though as they've branded it as part of their new Spirit of Summer range. I don't know why I'm moaning really, cheesecake (like ice cream) is eaten in my house year-round, and I always welcome the opportunity to try a new one.
"Muscovado baked cheesecake with a smooth dulce de leche caramel sauce & chocolate coated honeycomb"
I love the way Marks and Sparks serve these cheesecakes as a mini version of the standard size ones. Fortunately it was easy to remove the dessert from its protective sleeve -thanks to the thoughtful packaging. The chocolate balls on top weren't evenly distributed but I used that to my advantage, and chose the slice with the most -in the name of the blog, obviously.
The honeycomb balls on top were, in fact, mostly chocolate. They melted away in the mouth with the slightest hint of crunch, and were good quality, tasty little morsels.
I'm not entirely sure whether the caramel sauce (which supposedly accounted for 9% of the dessert) referred to the slightly darker top layer, or if it was supposed to be rippled through the cheesecake -but either way I couldn't find it. Unlike ASDA's new millionaires cheesecake, there was no pool of it lurking in the centre, so I was left a bit puzzled.
Luckily, the cheesecake itself saved the day; packed full of rich, sweet, caramel flavour and simply delicious. The texture lacked the gelatinous wobble that is commonplace amongst supermarket cheesecakes, and instead was the right balance between light and stodge.
I found the base of this exotic sounding dessert to be somewhat underwhelming. Instead of opting for something unusual (as I have come to expect from M&S puds) the company chose to use traditional digestive biscuits. I mean, as far as standard biscuit bases go it was pleasant, but perhaps using Biscoff-style caramelised biscuits would've elevated this cheesecake onto the next level.
The new dulce Le leche & honeycomb cheesecake from Marks & Sparks is tasty, and at £2.20 (on offer) it's not badly priced either. The trouble is, I don't think it's the best of its kind on the market, and to be honest the Sainsbury's chocolate and honeycomb cheesecake is yummier.
7/10
Do you remember me telling you that M&S' have just started selling some exciting new products as part of their 'Spirit of Summer' range? The packaging of the Banana & Dulce De Leche slices pulled me in, partly because of their title, partly because of their brightly coloured box, but mainly because they currently advertise a 'save 25%' banner. At £2.66 they are still rather dear but it's Marks and Sparks, what else should I expect? I thought I'd take the opportunity to try them before they increase in price, because lets be honest: a banana mousse, vanilla mousse, dulche de leche, and brown sugar cookie dough dessert sounds rather delicious!
The title on the front doesn't give a true indication as to just how many components are in M&S' new Banana & Dulce de Leche slices. The product description informed me that they are in fact:
"Cinnamon flavoured biscuit base topped with Dulche de Leche caramel, banana mousse, chocolate sponge soaked with banana liqueur and rum, dark chocolate and vanilla flavoured mousse with a decorative glaze finish."
Uh oh. Alarm bells started to ring because (unlike me) my other half hates rum and isn't keen on cinnamon, so I thought he'd take one bite and refuse the rest of his expensive dessert. I thought I'd just not tell him and find out...
The desserts looked absolutely beautiful, and whilst they were rather fiddly to get out of their case, they retained their shape and distinct layers.
The top layer consisted of the vanilla mousse and glaze, and I have to admit that it was rather nondescript. It lacked any punchy flavour, and the texture was gelatinous -reminding me of the dodgy desserts you might find on an all inclusive holiday abroad. Not good.
Next up was the chocolate components. The dark chocolate came in the form of a single, thin layer, which had retained the crispness of tempered chocolate -simply delicious. The sponge was also very thin, and had a strong chocolate flavour with the faintest hint of rum, and no banana liqueur. The alcohol was so mild that my fiance couldn't taste it (thankfully) and I'm not sure I would have if I hadn't read the product name beforehand. It was tasty, but because it was so meagre it didn't offer much to the dessert. So far, so disappointing.
On to the star of the show: the banana mousse and Dulce de Leche layer. Now we're talking! The banana mousse was simply divine. It packed a strong natural, fruity flavour that was seriously moreish. Studding the mousse were pockets of rich caramel, and the pairing was expectantly perfect together. My only complaint was that I could've done with more of the Dulce de Leche, so would've preferred there to have been a whole layer of the gooey yumminess.
The cookie dough base is not to be overlooked. It was very cinnamon-y which meant that I loved it but my other half hated it. If you've ever baked cinnamon cookies and munched on the cookie dough scrapings you'll have an indication of what the bottom of the dessert tastes like. It wasn't soft but it wasn't crisp either, my idea of heaven.
The new Banana & Dulce De Leche slices from M&S are a bit of an oddity. The top half didn't do much for me, but the bottom half was scrumptious. I think that M&S have tried to amalgamate too many ideas into one product, and that the banana & caramel layer would've been better off topped with a simple chocolate ganache. I also believe that the product description is also a bit misleading because if you're not a cinnamon lover, it's likely that you won't like these desserts.
Will I buy them again? Probably not, but I have got my beady eyes on Sparks' new Banana liqueur and Dulce de Leche cheesecake...
7/10
