NEW! Krispy Kreme Pecan Pie Doughnut

The new Krispy Kremes have been a mixed bag thus far. They had so much potential but despite the fact that I bought the new range from a Krispy Kreme store (inside the Birmingham Selfridges) they've not really delivered on the filling. Fortunately the final doughnut in the Taste of America range can't really disappoint in that respect, so I found myself hoping that the new Pecan Pie ring would deliver on the flavour front.

"Hand-dipped in maple icing and sprinkled with pecans and white choc flavoured drizzle."

Having never had pecan pie I can't really comment on this doughnut's likeness to the classic American dessert, although the lack of pastry suggests that it's not particularly pie-y*

It was beautifully soft and covered in Krispy Kreme's classic glaze -which always has and always will be a winner in my book! There was also a strong maple flavour which worked wonderfully well, delivering a rich depth of flavour that I simply adored -but then I do love Maple syrup. A little crunchiness came from the nuts on top, although they were chopped up so small that you'd be hard pressed to distinguish exactly what kind of nuts they were. As per the New York Cheeseake Krispy Kreme, the white chocolate drizzle wasn't white chocolate at all; instead made from "Sugar, Palm Oil, Whey Powder (Milk), & Emulsifer: Soya Lecithin." Pssht.

Then it dawned on me. This wasn't a new doughnut at all. This was just the Maple Crunch with some pecans scattered on top and some fake white chocolate sauce. What a cop out Krispy Kreme! It was scrummy, and my favourite of the 'new' doughnuts, but really Krispy Kreme? Can't we have some of these exciting flavours from across the world....

(Krispy Kreme India)

(Krispy Kreme America)

(Cappuccino & Pear Doughnut: Krispy Kreme Russia)

(Krispy Kreme Phillippines) 

Just maybe not this one.... 

(Krispy Kreme Japan)

Pecan Pie Krispy Kreme Doughnut: 8/10

 

*another new word, I'm on a roll this week! 

NEW! Krispy Kreme Reese's Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnut

Without a shadow of a doubt, the best Krispy Kreme I've ever had was one of their Reese's peanut butter doughnuts. The best doughnut I've ever had? The Tandem Bakery's PB&J. Therefore it should come as no surprise that I was super excited to see that Krispy Kreme have re-released their Reese's Peanut Butter & Jelly doughnuts as part of their new American range, though this time it has a new raspberry gloss. In fact I'd have been tempted to make the 46 mile round trip purely to get my grubby mits on the pb&j Krispy Kreme last Monday (when the range was released) had it not been for the fact that my vehicle is still off the road and that I'd already planned a trip to Birmingham on the Saturday to meet the lovely Sian. 

"Filled with Reese's Peanut Butter & Raspberry filling, hand-dipped in a sparkling raspberry flavoured gloss and topped with peanut butter chips and peanut butter drizzle."

It was even glittery! I've heard that glittery food tastes on average 1467&9x better than non-shimmery food, so I felt it was worth the hefty £2.20 price tag. Feel free to gulp if you like. 

The best thing about the Reese's Krispy Kreme was the ample peanut butter filling. Sweet with a slight salinity, it hit the spot and made me grin from ear to ear (after I'd finished smacking my lips of course). 

FFS. It was only yesterday that I mentioned Krispy Kreme's infamously unreliable filling skills. This had got to be a joke right? Surely I'd just cut into it wonkily*.

Apparently not. There had got to be a maximum of half a teaspoon of peanut butter and half a teaspoon jam in that off centre nugget. I could've cried. It's a huge shame because the single mouthful that contained the filling was delicious. In the end I retrieved my jar of Skippy from the cupboard and made my own Krispy Kreme - something you shouldn't have to resort to when spending £2.20 on a doughnut (the equivalent of 11 supermarket jam doughnuts).

On the plus side, the glittery topping was full of flavour. The raspberry worked really well, but be warned, it's very sticky and therefore only advisable to eat when you're near a sink to wash your hands after. I'd have liked to have seen a few more of the peanut butter chips too. Hell, it would've been nice to have some kind of pb in the doughnut. 

In the aftermath of reeses-pb&j-donut-gate I sent an email to KK, including the above images, who replied and said... 

46 miles for a replacement? You've got to be kidding...

The doughnut I had: 2/10

What I imagine a properly filled pb&j KK would score: 10/10.

Is it worth the gamble though? You decide.


 *new word alert!

NEW! Krispy Kreme New York Cheesecake Doughnut

Day two of the Doughnut week brings you a review of the NY Cheesecake inspired Krispy Kreme. Now if you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know just how much I love a good cheesecake, but NY cheesecake? Not so much. Give me lemon, chocolate, chocolate orange, dulce de leche, strawberry donut, or speculoos cheesecakes (to name just a few) any day; but vanilla and sour cream? Nah, you're alright. That said, I'd heard good things about this new doughnut from the American chain, so looked forward to trying it.

'Filled with Kreme Cheese, hand-dipped in vanilla icing and sprinkled with biscuit crumb and white choc flavoured drizzle.'

Now the white chocolate topping didn't taste of white chocolate, and taking a look at the ingredients (Sugar, Palm Oil, Whey Powder (Milk), Emulsifer: Soya Lecithin) that's unsurprising. Why don't you use real white chocolate Krispy Kreme? Especially when you're charging a small fortune for each doughnut? 

Krispy Kreme's are renowned for being unpredictable when it comes to the amount of filling they contain, but this particular doughnut contained a respectable amount of 'Kreme Cheese'.

There was a slight tang to the flavour, and it was certainly different to their standard Kreme, but it wasn't 'shut-the-front-door' amazing. I did however enjoy it, and the sour edge helped to combat the resounding sweetness. 

As usual, the dough was beautifully soft and fluffy. The biscuit crumbs were also a welcome touch, helping to deliver the cheesecake element, however I have a bone to pick with Krispy Kreme.

That, ladies and gents, is the American Krispy Kreme NY cheesecake doughnut! Why can't ours look like that? Even the PR photo of the British version doesn't look as promising, although at least my doughnut did pose similarities to the picture below!

7/10

 

NEW! Krispy Kreme Rocky Road Doughnut

Doughnut lovers, this week of reviews is for you! Not a fan? See you next Monday...

This week I'll be reviewing a different doughnut everyday, and today's post kicks off with one of the brand new 'Taste of America' Krispy Kremes. In the past couple of weeks the American company has released teasers on social media about the possible new flavours, and I guessed correctly with two of them (pb&j and pecan pie) but failed to think that Krispy Kreme would release a rocky road. Surely Mississippi Mud Pie would be more apt?

Anyway, I present to you the new Rocky Road Doughnut...

"Filled with toffee & mallow filling, hand-dipped in chocolate icing and topped with biscuit crumb, chocolate drops & toffee drizzle."

The doughnut was as soft as I hoped it would be, although two chocolate drops was a pretty poor effort Krispy Kreme. Slicing the ball in half revealed a fairly generous pocket of toffee sauce... but I thought it was meant to be toffee and mallow?

The toffee sauce was quite good, tasting like a slightly thicker toffee ice cream sauce. It was of course extremely sweet though, and combined with the chocolate icing made for a sickly doughnut. I found that the little bit of Mallow offered very little in the way of flavour, and ended up being a little redundant. The biscuit crumb was also good, but again there wasn't much of it. As expected, the chocolate icing wasn't the best quality, but at least it did deliver a chocolatey element.

My biggest bug bear was that this wasn't really a rocky road doughnut. I mean, the appeal of rocky road is surely the combination of textures? Seeing as there can't have been more than a teaspoonful of biscuit crumbs on the top there wasn't the contrast that I'd hoped for going on here. Really, it was a chocolate and toffee doughnut with a little bit of biscuit... perhaps Krispy Kreme should rename it the Millionaire's doughnut. Actually, that sounds rather good.

7/10

NEW! Krispy Kreme Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Filled & Ring Doughnuts (Welcome Break)

I'm not going to lie. Despite still being narked at Krispy Kreme for their ridiculous pre-April Fools stunt I was excited by the release of their new Hershey's doughnuts. As a lover of Hershey's Cookies'n'Creme bar I just hoped that they'd be more successful than the last Cookies & Cream inspired doughnut I tried; remember that disappointing Oreo ring? 

Of course I had to wait until I was in Cardiff to get hold of the Krispy Kremes, and indeed I sent my poor Dad on a goose chase on the way home from visiting my sister's new home, purely in pursuit of these new doughnuts. In the end I ended up paying an extortionate £5.45 for three doughnuts (I bought the Nutty Chocolatta too) from a Welcome Break -they'd better be worth it! 

Ring Doughnut
I don't usually buy KK's ring doughnuts as I figure that the filled versions represent much better value for money, but I wanted to compare the two (for reviewing purposes, obviously! 😉)

"Filled with Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Kreme, topped with white chocolate flavoured coating and Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme pieces."

It wasn't the prettiest ring doughnut I'd ever seen, but at least it did have a plentiful supply of Hershey's cookies 'n' creme chocolate atop! Biting into the ring I tasted Krispy Kreme's classic glaze, which of course works gloriously well with the sweet dough. I did find that the white chocolate coating became somewhat lost in all the sugariness though. The pieces too didn't stand out, and I ended up feeling very underwhelmed by this doughnut. Lets hope the filled version would impress!

7/10

Filled Doughnut

"Our signature ring, topped with white chocolate flavoured coating and Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme pieces".

Well that's not much of a topping in comparison is it Krispy Kreme? The doughnut also felt much staler than I'm used to (I usually buy their doughnuts from their shop in the St David's centre). Humf. I kept my fingers crossed that it was adequately filled.

Whilst the filling was off centre, I was just pleased that there was a decent amount to be found. Whilst I was worried that the doughnut felt stale, the innards had remained light and fluffy, with plenty of big air pockets. Taste wise the dough was just as delicious as always, but it was the filling I forked out my pennies for!

Oh. It just tasted of fondant. As a disliker of Creme Eggs, and fondant filled chocolate in general, this simply wasn't my cup of tea. How Krispy Kreme can call this Cookies 'n' Creme I'll never know. It was just flavourless sugar. As with the ring the chocolate coating was a let down too. White chocolate? If you say so. 

5/10

The new Krispy Kreme don't deliver. Greggs' new caramel cookie doughnut is far better and cheaper. I shan't bother with either again. 

NEW! Chocolate Orange Doughnut (Greggs)

I've moaned time and time again on this blog about the fact that I can't get my hands on a Krispy Kreme unless I travel an hour to either Cardiff, Gloucester or Birmingham. So when their Chocolate Orange and Tiramisu doughnuts were released in January, I once again turned an unattractive shade of green as the #foodporn pictures appeared on instagram. As you know by now I have to rely on Greggs to bring home the goods instead, and whilst they're pretty good at bringing out (fairly disappointing) new ring doughnuts, they don't tend to update their filled versions as often. Imagine then my surprise/glee/envy when I was on holiday and saw @Macrodad's photo of the new Greggs chocolate orange filled doughnut! Fortunately I was eating a Malaysian Krispy Kreme* at the time, so my skin-tone remained a lovely tanned shade and didn't even start to change colour. I could wait, it was ok.

Now some may accuse Greggs of ripping off Krispy Kreme but- as I mentioned in my hot cross bun post- Chocolate Orange seems to be the flavour combination of the season, and there's some stark difference between the two. 

Wheras KK's doughnut is filled with an "orange flavour chocolate kreme" and "topped with orange flavour gloss, dark chocolate shavings and decoration" 

Greggs'  contains "Orange flavoured filling topped with milk chocolate and orange flavour icing."

It's also just £1, compared to Krispy Kreme's £1.90.

It smelt like Terry's Chocolate Orange! Where was this bad boy at Christmas? Cutting into it revealed a generous (hurrah) pool of florescent, oozy sauce that refused to stay put. So far so good Greggs.

The joy continued when I took my first bite; many a time have I commented on the fact that Greggs' dough is more bready than KK's, but this was certainly much softer than the doughnut I had in Malaysia. Helping matters was the flavoursome topping, which ticked the boxes by managing to be both chocolatey and orangey -scrumdiddlyumptious. 

As for the saucy centre, it was zingy and sweet. If I was being picky I'd admit that I found it to be a little on the runny side -a more jelly-like centre would have been easier to eat- but it was rather good. I often hear complaints about KK's lack of filling, and Greggs certainly delivered here. If you've not got a sweet tooth you may find it a tad too sickly, but I really enjoyed it. 

Greggs really have recreated the traditional Jaffa Cake in doughnut form, and have done a cracking job to boot. It's certainly a treat I'll be buying again.

9/10


* Krispy Kreme's in Kuala Lumpur cost a maximum of 80p for the premium varieties. Although tempted by the KitKat doughnut, instead I opted for the Chocolate Mud Pie. Check out the varieties available below!

Chocolate Mud Pie

"Chopped Cadbury chunks and crushed Oreo crumbs sprinkled on a luxurious bed of chocolate, filled with Chocolate Kreme. Now that’s a Chocolate Creation that you won’t want to miss!"














Which one would you have chosen?

NEW! Santa Belly & Melting Snowman Doughnuts (Krispy Kreme)

Apologies for the lack of Sunday review, I was just too busy having lots of fun in London with my best friends*. The journey back yesterday however was less than enjoyable, and yet another example of the British rail network at it's best. My Virgin train from Euston was cancelled, as were the three previous services, which meant that I missed my connection and had to wait for two hours in Birmingham for my last leg back to Hereford (making the journey 6 hours in total).

Still, I found a silver lining -which strangely didn't include being in the Bullring exactly a week before Christmas Day. My close proximity to a Krispy Kreme certainly made me happier though. If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know from my many previous moans that I have no access to the iconic doughnut chain's goodies; the nearest store is over an hour away, and none of the Tesco's stock it within that radii. This means that I normally make the most of trips to Birmingham and come home with a doughnut or two. My other half almost jumped for joy when I rang and asked him if he'd like a KK collected. 

Even better, the hold-up had given me the time to visit the actual store and make use of my 20% student discount -which I imagine is rather dangerous if you're at a university city with local Krispy Kreme. I opted for the filled Christmas doughnuts of course, and asked the friendly assistant to find me some pretty ones. The trouble was, my bags were pretty full and very heavy, so by the time they arrived in my kitchen the doughnuts looked decidedly less attractive than they had in Birmingham, oops.


Melting Snowman
"Hand dipped in white chocolate flavour coating, filled with caramelised biscuit kreme hand decorated with chocolate iced buttons and a scarf."

I've seen plenty of complaints online about the lack of ingenuity when it comes to the fillings of Krispy Kreme's doughnuts this Christmas. For my birthday back in March -in lieu of a traditional cake- I tried their Lotus Caramelised Biscoff doughnut, so I imagined the Melting Snowman to taste rather similar (and therefore delicious). 

I sliced it in two and found the pocket of biscoff flavoured filling in the middle, which was slightly off centre and not particularly generous. I also noted how dense the doughnut felt. 

The situation didn't improve when I bit into it either, for the biscoff and white chocolate topping didn't impart much flavour other than a resounding sweetness. Where had the spice that speculoos (aka Biscoff) is known for? The icing didn't even hint towards tasting of white chocolate either. Now, you must know by now just how sweet-toothed I am, but just one half was enough for me. If I'd have paid the full £1.90 I'd have been even more royally resentful towards the doughnut chain. Gah. 

5/10

Santa Belly
"Hand dipped in raspberry flavoured red icing, filled with chocolate truffle Kreme, hand decorated with chocolate iced buttons and belt, then finished with a buckle."

Picking up this doughnut felt a damn site more promising because the dough felt so much lighter. I also thought that the design was rather clever too. I've not had the opportunity to try any of the previous raspberry and chocolate Krispy Kremes before, so I cut into Santa with fresh (albeit slightly squinty) eyes -cutting Father Christmas open is never going to feel right. sorry Santa.

The dichotomized doughnut looked even more delicious, because it was packed full of a light chocolate mousse. This was what I was hoping for Krispy Kreme! Flavour-wise it was drastically better too. The sweet raspberry icing worked wonderfully well with the fluffy chocolate innards and soft dough surround. Chocolate and raspberry is a heaven-made match, and this only improves when combined with one of Krispy Kreme's fresh doughnuts. Mmm.

9/10.

Conclusion
Of the two, Santa is the surprising winner! I definitely thought that the Biscoff Krispy Kreme would be my firm favourite, but my doughnut was too sweet, underfilled and lacking in flavour. I do wish that KK had thought to include a traditional Christmas flavour though such as a filled mince pie doughnut (yep, STILL obsessed even after all of the ones I've reviewed this year) or a filled gingerbread with chocolate coating (lebkuchen-style). Fingers crossed for next year!

*On a side note: The family Carol Service in St Paul's Cathedral is one of the most beautiful festive activities I've ever had the privilege of experiencing (but get there early to ensure seats) whilst Dirty Dancing at the Pheonix Theatre is incredible fun. On a food point the Maitre'D in Prezzo on New Oxford St is one of the rudest men I have ever met, but the little family run Italian run restaurant Giotto (just a few doors down) serves excellent pasta and pizza at reasonable prices. 

NEW! Maple Crunch Doughnut (Krispy Kreme)

There's many benefits to living in one of the most rural counties in the country. For example there's the quietness, the greenness, the generally slower pace of life and low crime levels. Then there's the downsides; the tractors that cause many a fit of road rage, the failing infrastructure (there's one bridge across the river that splits the city and no bypass) and of course the lack of Krispy Kreme & Hotel Chocolat within an hours drive.

Now the last point could in fact be viewed as a positive one, for it means that I'm not often tempted to spend vast amounts of money on the new & delicious looking seasonal treats in either store.

Still, a work trip to Birmingham yesterday on the train left enough time between connections to pop into Krispy Kreme and treat myself to one of their new doughnuts. I love a good Krispy Kreme, and indeed the last one I had was in place of my birthday cake back in March. Certainly a long enough wait!

You might be surprised that I didn't opt for the Reese's PB&J or Nutella filled doughnuts, and that it was the gold flecked Maple Crunch that called to me instead. Let me explain for why. I adore maple syrup, more so than the golden variety or honey, and it just about pips caramel too (unless we're talking about the core in Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra -nothing beats that). Its deep, woody flavour balances out its sweetness, and I'm forever wishing that the UK would embrace the Canadian syrup more.

"Hand-dipped in maple icing and sprinkled with maple flavour crunch and a sparkle of gold dust."

I can assure you that the doughnut looked even more impressive lined up on the shelves in the Krispy Kreme. Before it underwent a slight (but unavoidable) battering on the journey home, the icing was smooth and proudly displayed a generous dusting of golden flecks.

I won't be moving home soon as. I've decided that I'm glad there's no KKs  or Tesco with doughnut cabinets closer to home. The doughnut was soft, fluffy and light despite the characteristic deep fried flavour penetrating the sweet dough. As for the maple icing, it was every bit as flavourful as I'd hoped, and was thick enough to coat the ring without making it too sickly*.There was a slight crunchiness to it, and admittedly a tad more would've made the texture slightly more interesting. Even so it was pretty damn fabulous. 

If you need further convincing, check out Nib's review of the Maple crunch and S'mores doughnut here. 

9/10

*I would still suggest that the doughnut is best enjoyed with a big mug of coffee -which is why I trekked it home & resisted munching it on the train home.