Lacasa Turrón de Tiramisú (Home Bargains)

The trouble with being good friends with a chocolate blogger is that she's always finding delicious, tempting treats that get me salivating. Whilst Nat often reviews bars by well known brands from across the globe, she's also excellent at tracking down more unusual companies. Cue Lacasa. I'd certainly never heard of the Spanish chocolatier until she reviewed their 'Turrón de Cookies' bar  a few weeks ago. Boy doesn't it look delicious? She then got her hands on two of the Turróns de Tiramisú, and kindly offered to send me one -knowing how much I love the classic Italian dessert. Perhaps there's no problem with being friends with a temptress after all. Thanks Nat, you're a diamond. 

I'd never heard of a Turron before, but the imported label translated it as 'Tiramisu Praline Nougat'. The ingredients included a delectable mixture of cocoa butter, biscuit (15%), hazelnuts, almonds, and, um, cheese powder. Again! Twice in one week for chocolate bars with cheese powder. Who knew it was such a popular ingredient? I headed to Lacasa's website for a further description of this intriguing bar... 

"Tiramisu NOUGAt"All the flavor of the traditional Italian dessert, in this nougat, made with cheese, coffee, cake and the best cacaos. Format 100g."

Oh. I'm not sure that's any clearer. I tried..

I hope you'll agree that it was a very aesthetically pleasing bar. I loved the dual layers and simple decoration. But what on earth did it taste like?

Well there was a lovely cocoa flavour to it, with a respectable coffee kick and notes of Masala. A wonderful creaminess came from the top layer, which had a slight tanginess to it - in fact Lacasa managed a more convincing cheesecake flavour than KitKat did! 

I loved the combination of textures too; the top was smooth whilst the bottom was crumbly with a slight crunchiness to it. Where the nougat element comes in I'm not sure, as it wasn't remotely chewy. Additionally, there wasn't any large nut or biscuit pieces in the bar, but it wasn't as smooth as a traditional praline either. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much though - because it was utterly different to anything we've got here. 

Interestingly though, Nat experienced something quite shocking with her bar, but you'll have to read her review to find out what went down...  

Thank you to Nat for sending me this beautiful bar. According to Nat they're available in Home Bargains, but Hereford hasn't had any - so I hope you're in luck if you fancy trying it!

8/10

NEW! Tiramisu Con Biscotti Speziatti *Biscoff Tiramisu* (LIDL)

Last week I popped into Lidl for my regular restock of Skyr and picked up their weekly deal brochure on the way out. Ooh Italian week! That sounded good. Normally there's a couple of items that sound rather scrummy, but this time I was positively drooling at the sight of some of the items on offer for the week. That's it, I'd have to go back on Thursday (aka special buy day) to fill up on Italian style treats. The one item that sounded especially good was the speculoos tiramisus. The regular readers amongst you will know that tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts, and that I'm currently obsessed with anything biscoff. At £1.29 for two packs they were slightly dearer than your average supermarket cheesecake, but they still sounded like a reasonably good deal to me. 

"Spiced Biscuit Base Topped with Vanilla Flavour Mousse, Sprinkled with Chocolate Flavoured Powder."

I'm not sure how Lidl have got away with calling them tiramisus really, seeing as they were devoid of Savoiardi or coffee-although they do include a minute amount of alcohol (1.5%) and mascarpone cheese (which comes even lower down the ingredients list). In fact the cocoa dusting and the pots they came in were the only real nods to the classic Italian dessert. Still, they'd reeled me in with the title and I was still looking forward to trying them.

I wasn't expecting the mousse to be marshmallowy. It was still light and airy, but it also had a gooey-ness to it that I haven't experienced with a mousse before. I could faintly taste the liqueur, but it's so mild that I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was.

At the bottom was the 'spiced biscuit' base, which also heralded further surprise. I was expecting it to taste like crushed Lotus biscuits, but instead it had a soft crumb -which was utterly delicious. The cake style base actually worked very well, especially because it had such a fantastic cinnamon flavour. I ended up googling 'speculoos cake recipes' as soon as I'd finished it. 

Now I took a punt and sent Bert to his Night shift with the other pot the same night I had mine. It was a risk because he claims to hate tiramisu, but seeing as it didn't contain coffee I thought it was worth the risk. He loved it. I'm glad he did too, otherwise I'd have been gutted that I'd wasted the other delicious pot. We'll be heading back to Lidl before Thursday (when The Middle Eastern week starts) to stock up and might even pick up a pack of the strawberry tiramisu -which is even less tiramisu-esque! 

8/10

NEW! Spirit of Summer Tiramisu Cupcakes (M&S)

Given how successful my first dip into Marks & Spencer's 2018 Spirit of Summer range went, it wasn't long before I was back down the stairs into Hereford's food hall on the hunt for more goodies. Specifically the tiramisu cupcakes. Now I've mentioned before that I much prefer filled muffins to cupcakes, but label anything tiramisu and I'm there. Unfortunately, my wallet might take a bit of a hammering over the coming months considering the amount of tiramisu-esque products that have just arrived in M&S stores. Admittedly the cupcakes weren't extortionate however, at £2 for a box of two.

"Sponge cupcake, with a dark chocolate and intense coffee centre, topped with a delicious mascarpone and chocolate frosting and delicate coffee dusting."

They looked splendiferous! Ok, so the frosting might be slightly off centre, but the double coloured ripples are sheer perfection. The robust coffee scent that emanated from the box the second I unwrapped it heightened my taste-buds in anticipation.

They were a pain to retrieve from their wrappers though, the cake refused to come out without a fight, meaning that I ended up scrapping the case with a knife so as not to waste any. Slicing my first cake in two revealed an off-centre dark core and very dense sponge.

Hmm, I'm sure Mary Bezzer would have something to say about the cake's lack of fluffiness. The sponge was extremely doughy and under-risen, whilst the flavour was simply plain -certainly nothing to shout about. I'm not sure whether I could tell you that the frosting contained marscarpone either to be honest, for it just tasted like a standard mild chocolate buttercream.The lack of flavour is unsurprising considering that I've just read the ingredients and discovered that mascarpone only makes up a measly 1.5% of the ingredients. To add insult to injury the sheer amount of frosting made the cupcake unbearably sweet too, but that's why I'd argue that muffins are superior.

I placed the last of my expectations on the 'intense' flavour hit that M&S promised of within the cake's centre, and yes it tasted of coffee and chocolate, but it wasn't anywhere near as punchy as it could've been. In fact I was sure the cake was almost completely devoid of flavour until I made Bert try a smidgen and he spat it out -he detests coffee. I wondered If it was perhaps because I was drinking a (mild decaf) cup of coffee alongside the cake, so the next evening I tried it with a serving of Jude's Flat White ice cream (review to follow) but it still paled in flavour comparison.

I'm not sure that M&S can really call this a tiramisu cupcake considering the complete lack of Marsala and scarce mascarpone. It certainly doesn't deserve the label. Come on M&S you can do better than this!

6/10

E.Wedel Tiramisu Milk Chocolate Bar (Polski Sklep)

A couple of weeks ago I tried, and reviewed, my first E.Wedel chocolate bar. The Cafe Latte Pawelek didn't impress me, and I was left feeling disappointed by the poor quality chocolate and overwhelming alcoholic after burn. I asked you lovely lot if there was another bar that I might get along better with, and Arkadiusz kindly responded; informing me of the peanut Bajeczny bar.  I've been searching for the Bajeczny in every Eastern European deli that I've passed, but haven't had any luck yet -so the quest continues.

On my hunt however, I did spot a couple of other E.Wedel bars that have already been reviewed by other bloggers, and have received much better feedback than I gave the Caffe Latte bar, so I bit the bullet and bought them. To be fair, the Polish chocolates are never too expensive, I just didn't want to feel left down and hankering after a bar of Galaxy when I've finished it. 

The first one I opened was the Tiramisu flavoured bar, which according to the ingredients (there was no product description) comprised of  milk chocolate (50%), a tiramisu flavoured filling, and amaretto flavoured biscuit granules (1.6%). 

The 5 segment bar had snapped in transit, which allowed me to glance at the creamy coloured filling within. Each section held a little nugget on top, reminding me of the Cadbury Toffee Whole Nut bar.

The first taste to hit me was the chocolate, which at first I thought I didn't like. I then realised that it might be because I'm used to milk chocolate with a lower percentage of cocoa solids (Dairy Milk contains a minimum of 23% & Galaxy 25%, whereas E.Wedel promises a minimum of 29%). The more I ate, the more my palate adjusted, and the more I enjoyed it. 

There was an alcoholic flavour to this bar, which was expected this time seeing as Tiramisu typically contains Marsala Wine. It somehow tasted much less overwhelming this time though, and seemed to work in harmony with the chocolate and amaretto biscuits. Talking of the biscuits -and despite them only making up 1.6% of the bar- they were embedded in the top nugget and were delicious, extra points for E.Wedel as they were evident in each and every nibble. The added crunchiness worked wonders for the harmony of the bar, and I really enjoyed them. Without the biscuits, the E.Wedel Tiramisu would be just another alcoholic, creme filled chocolate bar... but with them it became something rather more special. 

At 40p from my local deli, I'll be sure to pick another one soon -and so should you! I've recently discovered the treasures that reside in the Eastern European shops, and so if you don't venture into any, please give them a go every now and then.

8/10

There's also a dark chocolate version of the bar, which One Treat At A Time reviewed here. 

NEW! Pizza Express Artisana Tiramisu Gelato (Iceland)

Out of sheer nosiness I popped into Iceland after work one evening this week to see if they had the new Ben & Jerry's Empower Mint ice cream*. There wasn't any to be found (although there was space set aside) however I did spot a whole freezer dedicated to a new Pizza Express range which is exclusive to the frozen food supermarket. Whilst the pizzas and ready meals looked good, it was the Tiramisu Gelato that really piqued my interest. There's two other new ice creams in the new range too -a Sicilian lemon & chocolate fudge cake flavour- all priced at £3 per pint tub. All of the new Pizza Express products are currently part of a 2 for £5 mix & match deal, but seeing as I have a freezer full of chocolatey ice cream and wasn't feeling the lemon, I ended up picking up a pizza to go with my Gelato. 

"Tiramisu flavour gelato swirled with coffee sauce and crumb pieces, garnished with a fat reduced cocoa."

Seeing as I didn't actually read the product description before I opened the tub, I was aghast by the sheer amount of cocoa plonked on top of the ice cream.

So thick was it that when I started the scoop the extremely soft gelato, an almighty cloud of cocoa immediately emitted from the tub -making a horrendous mess of my surfaces. The cocoa sort of confused me. Yes I appreciate that no tiramisu is complete without a cocoa crown, however it seemed very much like an afterthought. After all, the person who gets the last portion won't receive any whilst the person with the first scoop will end up with a very cocoa-heavy ice cream. The other surprising factor was the colour of the gelato itself; I was expecting a pale cream, or perhaps light beige coloured affair (much like the Lidl version) but instead was greeted with something more akin to the sunny yellow of Wall's soft scoop. 

Now, fortunately, the situated vastly improved when I tasted the Tiramisu Gelato. Yes, it was super sweet & soft -which did nothing to convince me that it wasn't Walls in disguise- but that made it strangely comforting. There was a lovely Marsala wine undertone throughout, and although I couldn't see the 'coffee sauce', I could taste it. The soft crumb pieces added to the tiramisu experience, offering a welcome textural contrast.

The new Pizza Express Artisana Gelato is far from the most genuine of italian desserts, however it is pretty damn tasty. Compared to the Lidl version it is more expensive and tastes less slightly luxurious. I'm still pleased I've tried it though, and will certainly enjoy every last mouthful! 

8/10

*I'm sorry but Empower Mint doesn't actually appeal to me, so if you want to read a review please do read One Treat's thoughts on the new flavour. I'm desperate to try the new One Sweet Love however, so if any of you spot it anywhere other than Ocado (who don't deliver out here in the sticks) please do let me know ASAP! 

Gelatelli Tiramisu & Cream Ice Cream (LIDL)

The south Wales coastline boasts some of the most incredibly beautiful beaches I have ever seen. If you've never been to -or indeed heard of- the Gower Peninsula, I really suggest you put it on your bucket list. Rhossili bay ranks number 9 in the world by Trip Advisor, and even has it's own shipwreck. If you pay a visit, may I suggest that you also head down to Mumbles and pop into Verdi's for a spot of lunch? It's a family run Italian Gelateria and Cafe with the most exquisite views of the Swansea bay -and the perfect spot from which to people watch. Verdi's make their ice cream fresh every day, and it is hands down the best I've had in the UK. My favourite flavour is Tiramisu, and I'd happily make the 154 mile round trip just for a cone of sheer heaven. 

It was with this thought in mind that I paused for a moment, lost in contemplation, when I found this 750ml tub of Tiramisu and Cream ice cream in LIDL. Would I be bitterly disappointed by it, unavoidably comparing it to the wonderful Verdi's? 

Well, I decided at £1.75 it was worth the gamble - but I'd already decided it was the poor man's version. 

I was surprised when I lifted the lid and discovered these perfect beige and cream coloured peaks. My scoop delved into the tub effortlessly, the ice cream was that soft. 

Wow. wow. WOW. The flavour was incredible. Undeniably Tiramisu, the coffee and cream came through in equal measures, deliciously backed with the resounding sweetness of the ice cream. So smooth was it, that I'd liken it to silk. What made it even more special was the addition of real tiramisu that was flecked throughout. These little extras injected further flavour into the already gorgeous gelato: sheer perfection.

I can't put into words how exquisite LIDL's tiramisu and cream ice cream is. Absolutely delightful, and a bargain to boot. If you're a fellow lover of tiramisu, I highly recommend -nay, I order- you to head to LIDL at your very next opportunity and pick yourself up a tub. Or six. 

10/10