Banoffee Cheesecake Slices (M&S)

My sister and I were talking about how good the banoffee digestives are again the other day when she asked me why no-one does banoffee cheesecake. I then reminded her of the M&S banoffee cheesecakes that used to be part of the dine in meal deal. "You know, the ones that were designed for two that you used to munch by yourself." "Ah... yes, I remember." 

This jogged my memory back to a conversation I had with a lady called Zoe following the Sicilian Lemon & Ricotta cheesecake slice review. I remember Zoe asking me if I had got the M&S Banoffee cheesecakes to review, but I hadn't - thinking that they had been out for years, and that I'd had them many times before. What I hadn't realised (until Zoe informed me) was that they've been re-imagined. I put them on my mental list of items to review... and then promptly forgot all about them. The banoffee chat with my sister prompted me to pop into Marks & Spencer on my way home from the train station on Sunday afternoon, where I found a packet with a yellow reduced sticker on. It was fate!

"A baked banana and muscovado sugar cheesecake topped with a Belgian chocolate ganache and toffee mousse on a digestive biscuit base."

One of the cheesecakes looked a little worse for wear, which was unusual for M&S, who are normally very thoughtful with their packaging.

First up, I sampled the mousse, which was beautifully light, with a sweet toffee flavour to it. I still think that a mousse topping is an odd (and unnecessary) choice, but admittedly it worked better here than in Waitrose's new mocha cheesecakes.

Underneath this layer was the chocolate ganache, but I'd be hard pressed to comment on the flavour of it as it was so thin. In fact, I hadn't properly read the product description until I came to type this, and until a few moments ago I thought it was another toffee layer. This may sound like a complaint, but actually it's not. You see, I can see why M&S would want to provide a barrier between mousse and cheesecake (and it served that purpose well) yet I'm glad it didn't overpower either of the more traditional banoffee elements that the ganache was sandwiched by.  

As for that banana and muscovado mousse... well. It was a work of art. It was fluffy like their chocolate orange cheesecake, lacking the stodginess that 90%+ of supermarket cheesecakes suffer from. The banana flavour was authentic and omnipresent (as it had been with the Banoffee Semifreddos), shining through the toffee mousse layer to take centre stage. A delicious caramel undertone followed the banana; which was every bit as delightful as you can imagine. 

As for that biscuit base, it was thick, buttery and utterly scrumptious. You'd think that would be an aspect that is easy to perfect, when actually so many cheesecakes fall (and fail) on that final hurdle. 

There is very little, if anything, that I'd change about this dessert. It's the best banoffee cheesecake* I've ever had, and one of the best cheesecakes I've had in a long time. Bravo M&S, and thanks Zoe for giving me the nudge to try this new formula! They're worth every penny, full price** of not!

10/10

*I'm sure that will change when I get to try this one day.... (fingers crossed!).

**I can't remember the exact price, but it was less than £3.

Efectiv Pro & Oats High Protein Flapjacks (Online)

There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t eat oats in some form or another. In fact, it was the food I missed most when in Malaysia earlier this year. Almost every morning is kick-started with a bowl of protein oats (proats if you will), but I also love granola and flapjacks too. Protein flapjacks however are often disappointing, and tend to be so far removed from real flapjacks that I’d rather have a real flapjack and get my protein elsewhere. I’m not averse to trying new products though and so when Efectiv contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I’d like to try their new protein flapjacks and Dual bars, I accepted their kind invitation. After all, the protein bar market is rapidly evolving. Gone are the days of chewy bricks, thank goodness! 

Their flapjack range currently consists of three flavours: Chocolate Orange, Toffee Oat & Cherry Bakewell. Each 70g bar is less than 270 cals and contains 14g of protein (check the bottom of the review for the full macros). They’re made with gluten free oats and whey, with no palm oil or gelatine. Efectiv have also used natural flavours and sweeteners, and the flapjacks are GMO free and certified Halal. One massive bonus for me is that they contain no soya protein or polyols, making them much kinder on your stomach. This makes them higher in carbs, but also the perfect post-workout treat. I say treat, but that’s only right if they taste good… 

Cherry Bakewell

I’d normally save the flavour I’d anticipate would taste the best until last, but my preconceptions on what these bars would taste like wasn’t especially high and so I thought I’d give Efectiv the best chance possible. 

The first thought that struck me was how much closer to a real flapjack this bar looked. It was also a decent size too. The second realisation was just how soft the bar was - often protein flapjacks are either super dry or gluey, but this was neither. 

The texture was spot on. Soft and gooey, with a pleasant chew that wasn’t hard work. The cherry flavour however was milder than I’d have liked and I couldn’t help but think that either a layer of jam or chunks of dried cherries would improve the taste. It was still the best protein flapjack I’d tried to date though. 

8/10

Chocolate Orange

Unlike the Bakewell bar, this flapjack was dark in colour. Texturally it was very similar though. 

As for the flavour, this time it was much punchier, although I’d describe it more as cocoa orange as it lacked the milkiness that I’d associate with eating a bar of orange flavoured chocolate. In fact, the flavour kind of reminded me of something that Trek might make, but it was much tastier than Trek’s protein flapjacks. 

8/10

Toffee Oat

I saved this bar until last and found myself really looking forward to it. 

I wasn’t disappointed either. The bar tasted like a proper flapjack! It was gooey, sweet, soft and chewy with a lovely toffee undertone. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that I’d happily eat the Efectiv toffee & oats pro&pats flapjack instead of a normal flapjack and I’ll be hunting down more to try in the future!

9/10

All in all, I was mightily impressed with these protein flapjacks from Efectiv. I do feel like the flavour of the Cherry Bakewell bar could be improved slightly, but that’s just a mini moan! Thank you to Efectiv for sending me the samples. The flapjacks (and the new Dual bars, watch out for the review) are available from their website.

*as promised, here's the Macro breakdown:

Honeycomb & Caramel Dairy Ice Cream (Sainsbury's)

A few weeks ago I discovered the peanut buttery tub of joy that Sainsbury's surreptitously keep in their freezers, and so I couldn't help but return to my local store to find out what else I was missing...

Cookie dough and honeycomb & caramel are the other two flavours in Sainsbury's own dairy ice cream range. It was a fairly easy choice between these two tubs for me; cookie dough is fairly widespread and never as good as Ben & Jerry's, whereas there's a distinct lack of luxury extras-added honeycomb ice cream -especially since the sad loss of Morrisons' Shortbread Millionaire's mash up. 

"Caramel flavoured dairy ice cream swirled with toffee sauce, honeycomb pieces and chocolate coated shortcake pieces."

I swear the caramel ice cream was softer in this tub than in the peanut version, but I must have imagined that because there appears to be similar ingredients in both: skimmed milk, double cream, sugar, skimmed cows' milk concentrate, glucose Syrup - AKA the good stuff. Perhaps it was the sauce that made it seem looser. As well as the textural issues this toffee ripple provided, it was also problematic on the flavour front. You see, the peanut tub worked well because it had the nut brittle to counteract and cut through the sweetness, but this toffee sauce just tipped the ice cream into sickly territory. Not great.

So what would make a caramel ice cream and toffee sauce even more cloying? Oh yes, that's right, honeycomb pieces. There was an abundance of them, and they were light and crunchy... but this tub really didn't need any more sugar, and remember, this is coming from an out & proud sugar addict. Ok, ok, yes I've also recently acknowledged that I can't hack a great deal of honeycomb, so maybe if you're a Cadbury Crunchie fan this might be up your street. It's just not in my neighbourhood. 

Thankfully, redemption reared its head when it came to the chocolate coated shortcake pieces, which were both buttery and crisp. The biggest issue with biscuit in ice cream is the fact that it often goes soggy, but the coating prevented this nicely. The chocolate wasn't anything of note, but it wasn't awful either. Which reminds me, I must try the McVities nibbles soon. 

Meh. As you might've gathered, I wasn't overly fussed on this tub. Bert however really enjoyed it, and said that he'd happily have it instead of Ben & Jerry's. If we were talking about the Sainsbury's peanut tub I'd agree with him, but this one? I'd rather pay the extra 50p and have B&J's any day. 

7/10

NEW! Banoffee Doughnut (Greggs)

Doughnut week is very much down to one of you lot. Dan, if you're reading this, I'm not sure whether to thank you or cuss you. You see, Dan brought the release of Greggs' new range to my attention last week...not long after I had realised that I would soon be in the proximity of a Krispy Kreme store (and would be making the most of the opportunity to stock up). His prompt also fell after a conversation with the talented Heather (at The Tandem Bakery) about a very exciting doughnut that she was going to make this Wednesday (just gone) and I just knew I couldn't resist that one either. That brought the running total to 5, so why not go utterly doughnut doolally and get the two new Greggs offerings too? Especially as one of them was banoffee.

The new sweet menu was released yesterday and features lemon shortbread, toffee apple cookies, as well as the duo of doughnuts. 

"Soft ball doughnut topped with caramel icing with a banana flavoured filling."

The new filled doughnuts come in at 90p each, a damn site cheaper than Krispy Kremes, but more expensive than standard jammy doughnuts. They looked as pretty, if not more attractive, than Krispy Kremes too.

Slicing mine in half revealed an abundant pocket of pale mousse. Perhaps Greggs should offer Krispy Kreme some training on how to adequately fill a doughnut. 

However, having had so many Krispy Kremes this week, it was extremely evident to me who reigns supreme when it comes to the dough. Even after freezing and defrosting the KKs they were much fluffier in texture than the Greggs doughnuts, with a sweeter flavour throughout. In contrast, Greggs dough felt heavy and breadlike, though it was still admittedly enjoyable. 

The banana mousse was entirely artificial in flavour, and although it was reminiscent of foam banana sweets, the aftertaste was slightly chemically. I wish Greggs had thought to inject a little toffee sauce into the centre too, because although the icing was caramel flavoured, the synthetic banana was the far more prominent of the two flavours and so to me it wasn't really true to the classic dessert. 

I did however enjoy the little crunchy balls on top, which reminded me of the Muller Crunch Corners. Sure it would have been nice to have some digestive crumbs (as per a banoffee pie) but I guess they'd have gone soggy and so I think Greggs might have made a wise choice. 

To be honest, I probably won't bother with this doughnut again. Hats off to Greggs thought for constantly innovating their range (as opposed to KKs barely veiled attempts to disguise their rereleases as new products). 

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

Marabou Daim Milk Chocolate Rolls (IKEA)

Please reassure me that I'm not the only weirdo out there that gets more excited by the food hall in IKEA than the furniture? It's surely the treasure at the end of the trail, the reward for getting through the market hall without murdering a dawdler (or five). No trip is complete without picking up a pack of my beloved Kanelbullar. This time I pushed the boat out and decided to treat myself to two bags, before spotting the chocolate and biscuit samples. Oops. That'll be two bags of Kanelbullar, some ginger and almond biscuits and some Daim chocolate then. After indulging in the Lindt shop a couple of hours earlier. And I'd promised to not buy anymore chocolate. I'll say it again, oops. 

To be fair, having sampled both the chocolate and the biscuits, I knew I'd regret not buying either. I think the Daim chocolates were £1.50 for the two-pack but I can't be 100% sure, so don't shoot the messenger. For those of you who don't know, Marabou is owned by Mondelez (owners *read ruiners* of Cadbury) and is the equivalent brand in Sweden. Like Cadbury, Marabou has lengthy roots and was founded 101 years ago. 

One of the most appealing features of this chocolate was the design. Instead of your usual chunky bars, the chocolate came in rolo shaped morsels. I love being able to savour my chocolate, and often wish we had more single serving bags of bite sized chocolate, so the Marabou Daims suited me down to the ground. At 70g, they're on the generous size for an individual portion, but I'm a chocoholic so once again I found Marabou scoring brownie points -or should that be chocolate points? 

The chocolate was delicious. It's smooth and rich with an easy melt. There's a striking similarity between the Marabou and Dairy Milk of days gone by. The little studs of Daim were a wonderful, if not a slightly sickly, addition. The combination of toffee and chocolate was delicious though, and utterly moreish -especially given the sunken dome shapes. I'd devoured my first pack before really acknowledging it, and I'm grateful that I've got the other in my fridge to look forward to. It's better than the Cadbury Daim bar, and the rolls are well worth tracking down.

That's another IKEA staple added to the shopping list!

9/10 

NEW! McVities Trio Toffee Cake Crunchers (Tesco)

Apologies for the infrequency of posts this week. I've been super busy with a few projects (mainly work) and am experiencing a number of technical issues (both my Mac and phone aren't working properly) so please bear with me. Anyway... 

It appears that McVities are treating us to a whole host of new products at the moment. Not only have they released the scrummy new Banoffee Caramel Digestives, and the elusive Coffee Caramel Digestives (pleeeeeease shout me if you find them!) but they've also launched two new individually wrapped cakes based on two of their successful lunchbox biscuits. The first I'm reviewing today, but please stay tuned for my thoughts on their new a penguin Cookies & Cream Cake Cruncher bars. 

"Toffee Flavour Cream and Crunchy Biscuit Pieces Covered in Milk Chocolate."

The apparently iconic* Trio bars were reintroduced as a limited edition last summer, but it seems they're here to stay. Not that I'm complaining. I found packs of this new cake version of the toffee biscuit bars in ASDA for £1.78, balked at the price, then found them on offer in Tesco a week later at the far more reasonable sum of £1.00. 

Both the cake and chocolate were indifferent to those used McVities Jaffa Cake Bars. That's to say that the chocolate was reasonable, although there wasn't enough of it to really distinguish it's quality. The cake was fairly light and fluffy for a long-life cake, but again it was pretty bland. 

The toffee cream however was scrummy, with a butterscotch flavour that hit the spot in a truly nostalgic fashion. It was very sweet, but that's what I expected -especially as each 24g cake contains 9.9g of sugar! As for the biscuit pieces, blink and you miss them. There's nowhere near enough of them (they only constitute 3.5% of the bars) which I can't help but think is a shame -not to mention a huge marketing ploy. Cake crunchers my arse. 

Give these new cakes a go if you're after either an intense sugar hit and/or a little nostalgia. Don't expect anything groundbreaking and you won't be disappointed. 

7/10.

*Despite being an 80s baby and junk food addicted child (and adult) I can't actually remember them. 

NEW! Banoffee Brownies (Co-Op)

I'd vowed not to by any more baked goods. My cupboards are brimming with all kinds of biscuits, and I've recently started baking again (which I'm thoroughly enjoying). I thought I was doing well with my oath, even not giving in to my doughnut cravings (largely caused by The Tandem Bakery's Instagram feed).  My self-restraint caved completely though this week when I saw a story by the lovely Emma (@EmmasFood) which featured banoffee brownies. I hope you agree this constituted a cake emergency, although I did manage to abstain from heading to the Co-Op in my pyjamas that evening, and indeed managed to wait until I was on my way home from the gym the next day. 

"Banana and toffee flavour chocolate brownies topped with salted fudge pieces."

The pack cost £1 and included 8 square brownie chunks. Despite them being sat with the fresh cakes they had a reasonably long shelf life of about a month. Upon opening the bag I was greeted with a rich cocoa aroma, followed by a lingering artificial banana scent.  Uh oh. I hope that wasn't a precursor for a chemical taste. 

Unfortunately it was. On the positive side the brownies were soft in the middle, with a decent squidge and deep cocoa flavour.  Sounds great, right? Except for that damn banana. It wasn't even a pleasant foam banana sweet or milkshake kind of flavour; it was nasty and synthetic. I can't even see banana mentioned in the ingredients list. How can some companies get it so wrong? At least McVities got it right. 

What a shame! If only the Co-Op had chosen to use real banana instead of some artificial flavourings to make these brownies. They had so much potential. I guess I'll just have to make my own....

4/10

Wheyhey Banoffee Protein Ice Cream Review (Tesco)

Everyone seems to be finding ice cream bargains in their local Tesco recently. Apart from me. The only thing I've discovered reduced in the freezer section (until today) is a packet of McCain Smiles for 84p. Now I appreciate I can't grumble at a bag of happy potatoes but I'd rather find a pint of B&Js for less than a squid (as per the many rightfully boastful Instagram photos I've spotted). Today however I found a healthy supply of Wheyhey Banoffee individual ice cream tubs adorning yellow stickers. Now I can only presume that they'd been reduced because they'd been sent to a store that doesn't usually stock them as Tesco have only recently started stocking Wheyhey. At £2 per 150ml tub I usually wouldn't bother buying them, but seeing as they were reduced, new, and banoffee flavoured, I bought a couple to try.

Haven't heard of Wheyhey yet? Well according to their website "Wheyhey is the world's first and best selling protein ice cream." The company was founded in 2012 by two best friends, one of which was a GB basketball coach, the other a fitness model. They created Wheyhey with the intention of creating an ice cream that does you good.* In fact their tagline is: The ice cream that loves you back. Aww. 

Anyway, I've moaned before about the lack of banana ice creams on the market (thank heavens for B&J!*) so I was happy to see Wheyhey's choice of flavour. The ice cream is made from whey isolate and contains 20.1g of protein per 150ml tub (Kcals: 149 F:4.3g C:11.8g). It contains no added sugar, artificial sweeteners (wheyhey use xylitol instead) and is gluten free. Sounds good, but is it too good to be true?

What a flipping odd consistency. I've never attempted to scoop a gluey ice cream before. It stretched and stuck to the scoop whilst melting before my eyes. I'd have to be quick with this one. 

Or just grab a bowl as it really wasn't going to hold.

Psssht. That's not ice cream. It's not even as good as the protein 'fluff' I make with Reflex's protein powder. It's just a semi-frozen shake. What the badger? I'll give it one credit: the flavour was clearly banoffee, and I could taste both the banana and toffee. This was all well and good until the nasty whey flavour hung around in the background. Not good. I can bear the taste of whey in a bar, but not in my ice cream -where it really doesn't belong.

I actually felt liked I'd wasted my calories and my money. I mean for IIFYM the macros are decent, but the Wheyhey tubs are expensive if I was out and about (and desperate for a protein fix) I'd rather have a shake -especially as they tend to be cheaper. 

I can't say I'll bother with these again. 

4/10


*...Sounds familiar... 
**Good lord, I'm utterly obsessed. Is B&J-aholics anonymous a thing yet?

NEW! Trek Chunks: Cranberry Kick & Toffee Triumph

Last week I received a box of treats from Natural Balance Foods including all of their new Trek chunk range as well as the new lemon drizzle nakd bar (which I'll review another day). Thanks NBF! I was quite impressed with the cocoa peanut peaks so was looking forward to trying the other new chunks. 

As with the cocoa & peanut flavour, each bag contains at least 12g of protein, and one of your five a day. the chunks are also gluten free and vegan friendly.

Cranberry Kick

In all honesty this was the flavour that appealed least, and I probably wouldn't have bought a bag.

"TREK Cranberry Kick Protein Energy Chunks are aptly named due to their immense and intense fruity flavour which leaps out in the company of soft moreish almond."

NBF's products never look that pretty do they? Looks aren't everything though, especially if they taste good.

...And they really do! I'm not sure that they're particularly Cranberry-y but they do taste of almond with a fruity edge. As an avid Bakewell lover the flavour really appealed, and I also liked the softer chewiness to the chunks. I'd happily buy them again.

9/10

Toffee Triumph

"TREK Toffee Triumph Protein Energy Chunks wave the flag for the traditional sweet shop flavour using simple, wholesome ingredients."

Hmm. This flavour was nice enough, but I couldn't really tell that it was meant to be toffee. It's more apple and raisin than sticky toffee, and its purely for that reason these chunks didn't hit the mark for me. They're enjoyable, but the worst of a great bunch.

7/10

Thank you Natural Balance Foods for the samples!

NEW! Sticky Toffee Hot Cross Buns (Morrisons)

I've reviewed many of the supermarket 2017 hot cross bun creations this year, but there's one last variety that I'd been requested to review. I promised I would do so if I could find them, but they kept escaping me. In all honesty I was quite content in the knowledge that I've stocked up on the M&S carrot cake buns, which are stashed in my freezer so that I can continue to fuel my addiction post-Easter. Then, today, the sticky toffee buns finally appeared in my local Morrisons, and although I wasn't filled with the innate desire to try them, a promise is a promise and so they ended up in my basket -swiftly followed by my belly.

“Sticky toffee flavoured spiced buns made with sultanas, date and fudge pieces.” 

The buns are priced at £1 for four and fall under Morrisons' 'The Best' range. They were reasonably soft to the touch, with a rather dainty cross on top.

Slicing my bun in two revealed a dark coloured dough, not too dissimilar in hue to Lyle’s golden syrup cake*. I didn’t even bother tasting it at room temperature, my instincts told me that it would be much so much better warmed up -much like sticky toffee pudding. 

The bun halves were slim enough to fit into my toaster without getting stuck, and I just popped them in for a minute or so until they were just about warm, before slathering them in butter. 

Blow me down. They were really rather good. The texture was much better than I’d anticipated, well proven and with ample moistness coming from the plentitude of dried fruit pieces. The sultanas and date pieces were squidgy at that, injecting little bursts of fruitiness.

Flavour-wise Morrisons have done extremely well too; a strong syrupy flavour permeates the dough, which precedes the lovely warming spices that follow. It’s certainly one for those with a sweet inclination, but I thought that they were delicious.

I’m thoroughly pleased that I made that initial promise now, otherwise I’d have never bothered trying Morrison’s sticky toffee pudding-humble hot cross bun hybrid. They're right up there with M&S' buns and they're cheaper too, so if you find them, buy them! 

9/10

*now added to the shopping list of items I don’t need but am craving.

Fresh Cream Toffee Doughnuts (Tesco)

I'm sure you're bored of me moaning about the lack of decent doughnuts in my little city. Sure there's a couple of Greggs, but it's just not the same, and I feel particularly hard done by this month thanks to Krisy Kreme's new tiramisu and chocolate orange doughnuts -as well as the return of the Kruller. 

Come on Krispy Kreme! Please at least deliver to the Tesco's in Hereford or Worcester if you're not going to open a store? Tiramisu sounds right up my alley, and the food porn on instagram is driving me crazy. Anyway, all of the doughnut pics brought on cravings that needed to be satisfied, and that's where these fresh cream toffee doughnuts from Tesco come in. 

"2 Doughnut fingers filled with a layer of toffee sauce and toffee cream decorated with salted caramel butterscotch pieces."

I'm not sure if they're new countrywide or just new to Hereford, but they looked damn good and at £1.40  (or two packs for £2) they weren't bad value. 

As you can see, one had a generous covering of butterscotch pieces, whereas the other had next to none. Both were amply filled with the toffee cream in an attractive swirl pattern though, which oozed out of the ends (lets pretend I didn't scoop it up and eat it with my finger, eh?). 

Picking my doughnut up, I realised that the dough wasn't as soft and light at is its freshly baked counterparts -but isn't that always the way with the refrigerated versions? 

The cream had a lovely toffee undertone to it, like a very mild angel delight mousse. Unfortunately the toffee sauce wasn't as abundant as it needed to be to counteract the rather bland and stale almost bread-y dough. As for the crispy butterscotch pieces, they were a bit non-committal and I can't remember actually tasting them in amongst the cream. 

Meh. I'm still craving that Tiramisu KK, maybe even more so now!

5/10

NEW! Specially Selected Gingerbread Ice Cream (ALDI)

Earlier this week I reviewed ALDI's Specially Selected Mince Pie ice cream, and mentioned that I'd also picked up the gingerbread tub, so here's your second (and final) instalment in their Christmassy ice cream specials...

I don't know why, but gingerbread flavoured ice cream appealed to me much less than mince pie. I love gingerbread, but gingerbread flavoured foodstuffs have less appeal. Take M&S' teacakes (the toaster kind) for example; it took me a while to make the purchasing plunge -and now I stock up whenever I spot them reduced at the end of the day. ASDA are selling a frozen gingerbread cheesecake at the moment, yet that doesn't really appeal either. It's the one flavour I need convincing. Gingerbread Lattes? Absolutely! Lebkuchen? Addicted! Ice cream? Mmm, not so sure. After dillydallying for a while I decided to buy it anyway.

"Gingerbread flavour ice cream, swirled with toffee sauce, gingerbread biscuit pieces and fudge pieces."

This ice cream was noticeably firmer than the mince pie flavour, but was still easy to scoop straight from the freezer. I was pleased to spot so many fudge and biscuit pieces embedded within, even at the very top. The sauce was far less abundant, but could still be seen in subtle swirls.

There was no mistaking the flavour of this ice cream given the warming ginger that came through in every mouthful; offering the perfect juxtaposition against the creamy coolness. The heat wasn't unbearable either, but was bold enough to be true to it's namesake. As for the abundant gingery biscuit pieces, they reminded me of lebkuchen. As you know, I love the traditional German Christmas treat, but in this case the softness was a bit of an antilclimax as the additional texture (from something akin to a gingernut) would have been welcome. There were plenty of fudge cubes to mix up the consistency though, but they were more chewy and toffee like than expected, and I found that they stuck to my teeth. Gah ALDI, I don't have the patience to faff when eating my ice cream! The toffee sauce seemed to have gone AWOL in my tub too, and I really hope that it hadn't missed out entirely. Hopefully I'll find a pool of it at the bottom. 

It's fair to assume that this was my least favourite of ALDI's two festive ice creams, although admittedly it's still a pretty damn good, and not one I'll shun when selecting my nightly dessert.

7/10

NEW! "The Best" Gingerbread Muffins (Morrisons)

When you think of gingerbread do you think of Bonfire Night, Christmas or neither? Either way, the warming spice definitely comes out to play during the latter months of the year, and these Gingerbread Muffins have graced Morrisons' stores since the end of October. I'm still going to include them as a Christmas review though due to their very festive decoration!

I had a very hard job in Morrisons trying to find a pack of muffins without broken (and therefore sad looking) men on top. In fact there wasn't any and I even asked the department manager if there was any intact muffins out the back, but unfortunately I wasn't in luck. He said that they might have a delivery in the next couple of days, but I was too impatient to wait. At £1.50 for 2 muffins they're at the more expensive end of the supermarket muffin range, and I was a bit reticent about forking out for them given my previous experience with Morrisons "Signature" lemon & raspberry and marbled chocolate muffins in the summer. I knew they'd play on my mind if I didn't buy them though, and I refuse to have a snacks I wish I'd tried last Christmas list next year.  

"2 Ginger flavoured muffins with a gingerbread flavour filling, topped with toffee icing and a chocolate decoration."

The muffins weren't particularly light but neither were they notable heavy. They were however a beautiful dark golden colour, and smelt very gingery, which I took as a good sign. Slicing the first in two (for photographic reasons) bared the injection of sauce that ran through the middle. It wasn't particularly obvious, especially given that it was a translucent affair, but there didn't seem to be a huge amount of it. I wondered if it was going to be a similar experience to Tesco's Toffee Apple muffins where the sauce had oozed into the cake itself. I sure hoped so. 

I was expecting the muffin to taste like McVites Jaminger (sorry Jamaican Ginger) cake, but it was less sticky and more fluffy. Unlike Morrisons' previous muffins, this was jam packed full of flavour too, offering warmth in every mouthful. The sauce was disappointing though, it didn't really shout gingerbread, but was more of a super-strength spicy drizzle. Such a shame really because the icing was superb, and complemented the flavour of the muffin well with it's buttery sweetness. If Morrisons had only filled the Gingerbread Muffins with the toffee icing, or a custard instead, I'm sure they'd have been on to a sure fire winner. 

7/10