NEW! KitKat Chunky NY Cheesecake (Tesco)

It's been just over a year since we last had a new flavour to the KitKat chunky range. Have you tried the Cookie Dough version? I must admit that I wasn't taken with it. In fact I haven't bothered buying it since that review. The KitKat peanut butter bites were a pleasant surprise however, so I tried to hold back my preconceptions and get excited when I saw that Nestle had released NY Cheesecake Chunkys. The new KitKats are currently stocked in Tesco and are part of their very handy 3 for £1.20 mix and match chocolate bar offer (or else they're 60p each). 

"Crispy wafer with a New York Cheesecake flavour topping (19%) covered with milk chocolate (60%)."

As normal, the Chunky comprised of three segments. Within these segments were the bottom layers of wafer topped with that "New York Cheesecake" layer. Now I've only recently mentioned by ambiguity towards NY cheesecake, and it's lack of identifiable flavour. Was this going to be just another cover up from Nestle, another marketing ploy for what was essentially a pretty dull vanilla topping?

Well kind of. It was vanilla-ry but there was a slight sour tang to it that I've not tasted on any KitKat before. I mean, it wasn't groundbreaking and it certainly didn't make me squeal with delight, but it wasn't resigned to the bin either. The ingredients list includes "powdered soft cheese", so there is some authenticity to the title, but without any hint of biscuit (digestive, graham cracker or otherwise) can it really be labelled as cheesecake? In any case, the topping worked fairly well with the standard KitKat milk chocolate and wafer layers; i.e. it didn't jar, but didn't provide something entirely new or interesting either.

If you're intrigued by the bar then please do give it a go, at least there's no new product premium to pay -as is so often the case nowadays- and it's inoffensive. As the Cookie Dough before it, I probably won't bother with it again though -  I'd much rather the double caramel, peanut butter or white chocolate KitKats. Well actually, I'd rather that Nestle brought over the Raspberry Cheesecake Duo KitKats that our Australian cousins are lucky enough to have - of which you can read Nat's review here.

7/10

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.

NEW! Mocha Cheesecakes (Waitrose)

A couple of days ago I reviewed Waitrose's new Cookies & Cream cheesecake slices and mentioned that I'd bought another double pack at the same time. It was these Mocha cheesecakes that had initially caught my attention though, and was only Bert's hatred of coffee that caused my brief hesitation. It wasn't long before I saw sense and bought them anyway, making the most of the fact that they're currently on offer for £2.63 -before they go up to £3.20.

I sent my sister a picture of my dessert purchases, and she instantly tried to persuade me to hop on a train to Cardiff to share them with her -despite my insistence that they wouldn't bode well on the two hour walk-train-bus journey to her house. In a great twist of fate however, her best friend collected her and brought her back to Hereford on Saturday evening. Great! I'd cook her Sunday dinner and we'd have them for dessert. Or so I thought... 

A heavy night of drinking later meant that she was only up to a coffee at my house yesterday, and took her cheesecake-to-go. Cheeky mare (love you really, Lou bum). Anyway, yes, mocha cheesecakes. Back to the case in hand, and the reason you're reading this post...

"2 Baked chocolate and coffee flavoured cheesecakes on a chocolate flavoured biscuit base, topped with vanilla flavour mousse and cocoa and vanilla dusting."

Despite their thoughtful packaging, the cheesecake stuck itself to the acetate surrounds, meaning that they didn't look as attractive as I'd hoped. I reminded myself that it was the taste I bought them for, not the aesthetics. 

Is it just me or is the vanilla mousse a slightly odd choice of topping for a mocha cheesecake? My thoughts went as follows:

 1. Cheesecake isn't normally topped with an additional layer
and
 2: Well, wouldn't white chocolate be more in keeping with the mocha theme?

I mean, it was light, fluffy, and perfectly pleasant. I just think it was slightly peculiar.

For once,  I was pleased that Waitrose hadn't opted to include a ganache layer because it meant that the Belgian chocolate flavoured cheesecake could shine through. Yes, it was every bit as rich and delicious as I always hope for when buying chocolate cheesecake, no doubt thanks to the inclusion of 10% Belgian milk chocolate.But wait a little minute here. Wasn't this meant to be chocolate and coffee cheesecake? Did that mean that there was meant to be two tiers of separate flavours, or that the cheesecake was meant to be mocha and therefore encompass both? All I know was that the coffee flavour was very much on the mild side, especially noticeable considering the helping of Jude's Flat White Coffee I chose to enjoy alongside the cheesecake. Looking at the ingredients gives an indication as to why it wasn't particularly prominent - Waitrose have used coffee granules here, and not ground coffee. Oh.

I forgave Waitrose a little when I reached the centre of the cheesecakes though, and uncovered a secret chocolate sauce centre*. Ooh, you cheeky devils! There was no hint of this on the products description (or the ingredients list), but who doesn't love a chocolate surprise? I know I do. It wasn't ganache-thick, but it wasn't overly runny either. There wasn't a huge deal of it, but it had a slightly darker edge to it than the milkier cheesecake and was therefore a welcome inclusion. 

The chocolate biscuit base was also pretty good (it was similar to the one used in their new C&C cheesecake) but I think a standard digestive (or coffee flavoured biscuit) base may have actually worked better considering how much chocolate there was already going on. That's only a slight niggle though, because it was still absolutely scrummy. 

Would I buy these again? Probably not, and especially not at £3.20 per pack. As far as new chocolate cheesecakes go, I much prefer the M&S sunken Valencian Orange. 

8/10

*apologies for the dark photo, I was eating it in front of the T.V, hopefully you can spot the darker patch in the middle! 

NEW! Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Slices (Waitrose)

Isn't it funny how thoughts and ideas wheedle into our brains and lodge themselves into our subconscious? Only yesterday morning was I talking to Nat about cheesecakes, and by yesterday evening I was tucking in to one (admittedly it was never going to be as exciting as her talk of a Biscoff banana cheesecake creation). Despite the fact it was a warm day, all of a sudden ice cream just wasn't going to cut the mustard, and so I popped to Waitrose on the hunt for the new desserts that have started to crop up on Instagram this week. 

Argh, they were all on an introductory offer too. Cookies and Cream or Mocha? Bert doesn't like mocha.. but damn they looked good. But so did the Cookies and Cream... bugger it. Both went into my basket. Oops. 

Cookies and Cream were up first....

"A baked cocoa biscuit and vanilla flavour cheesecake on a chocolate flavoured biscuit base, decorated with chocolate ganache."

They were much cheaper than the Mocha at £1.67 for two (they will be £2.20)  and looked rather pretty with their ganache, which was definitely more of a drizzle than a topping. The amount of visible cookie pieces was a promising start too. I really hoped they wouldn't be another disappointingly dull cookie product and that this was a case where I could tell a book by its cover. 

Oh. The cookie pieces looked pretty, but I'll be damned if you could taste them. A look at the ingredients list indicates why: they only make up 4% of the desserts. The vanilla cheesecake itself was fairly good though, but it was sweet and lacked the sour tang of a New York cheesecake. Also on the plus side, it lacked the horrible gelatinous edge that so many supermarket cheesecakes seem to have and I would say it was on a par with the vanilla topping of the Rhokett. Unfortunately it seems that the ganache was only purely for decoration too, for there wasn't enough of it to taste on its own -and believe me I tried!

Thankfully the biscuit base however was a work of art. The deep cocoa flavour worked wondrously well against the vanilla topping, and was the only real nod to the Oreo type flavour that we've come to associate with cookies and cream. Like the base of Rhokett's cheesecake, it held together well until bitten in to -when it started to melt in the mouth perfectly. 

They're good, but not outstanding and I'd still rather have an ASDA white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. 

7/10

Rhokett Caramel Cheesecake (Waitrose)

There's a dessert that's been haunting me for ages.. a cheesecake that's been on my mind since I first discovered it whilst researching Rhokett 16 months ago. The rarely spotted caramel slices has been supposedly stocked in Sainsbury's stores across the country, but Hereford didn't even get a sniff. I once found them, but it was in an extra store on a trip to Birmingham, and at the time I didn't think they'd survive the journey home -plus I was sure they were going to crop up sooner or later*. I guess I was right, it was just much much later, and in a different supermarket: Waitrose. At £3 for two 100g slices they're on the dear side, but I recall thinking that the Belgian chocolate flavour were worth the money and so I hope these would be too.

"A winning combination from Rhokett that really delivers on that traditional texture, raised to the next level by the Belgian chocolate chunks and the smooth caramel sauce that have been swirled through the mix before baking."

They were beautiful slices, l give Rhokett that, however they were very fiddly to retrieve from the packet -so please be careful if you buy them. 

I expected a rich toffee tone to the cheesecake, so was utterly perplexed when I tasted it and was met with a similar cheesecake batter used in the chocolate slices. That's to say it was creamy with a slight sour tang, but it was completely devoid of the caramel flavour that I'd longed for. Humf. What I hadn't realised was that the sole source of the caramel came from the toffee sauce, but unfortunately there wasn't a huge deal of it, and it certainly wasn't the generous pockets of thick dulce de leche that I had concocted in my imaginings. 

Oh the plus side, the chocolate chunks were both aplenty and delicious -although I can't help but feel that due to the lack of caramel that fudge pieces may have suited the slices better. 

I was also pleased that I'd saved the biscuit base until last as it was the only part I thought that Rhokett truly nailed. Thick and buttery with a classic digestive biscuit flavour, it held together enough to make it from fork to mouth, but crumbled easily upon munching. It just wasn't £3 worth of biscuit base. 

7/10.

* I even ended up sending poor Nat (author of Lot-o-Choc) on a hunt for them before my train arrived into New Street station when meeting her in Birmingham last month.

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! Sicilian Lemon & Ricotta Cheesecake Slices (M&S)

Occasionally I find myself craving cheesecake that's not chocolate based. I know. Shocker. In fact I'm quite partial to the odd lemony pud -be it a drizzle cake, meringue pie, tarte au citron or cheesecake- but only if it offers a balanced juxtaposition of sweet and tart. It's for this reason that I'm fond of Gü's citrus cheesecake and steer clear of Aldi's version. The former is delightfully light and zingy whilst the latter is acidic and barely enjoyable. Given my recent experiences with M&S' Spirit Of Summer desserts I believed I could depend upon them to deliver a refreshing, summery cheesecake. 

"Sicilian lemon and ricotta baked cheesecake on a digestive biscuit base topped with a Sicilian lemon glaze and candies lemon peel."

At 110g each they were larger than your usual cheesecake slice, which especially pleased me as I'd only paid 95p for the pack because I'd been lucky enough to pop in at reducing time (I believe they're normally £2.75). 

The consistency of the cheesecake was surprisingly fluffy. It wasn't moussey like M&S' sunken Chocolate & Valencian Orange cheesecake, but it wasn't gelatinous like most other mass produced cheesecakes either. In fact, texturally the cheesecake was pretty damn perfect. It was just the flavour that ruined it. Instead of the sweet tang that I'd hoped for, all I could taste was the bitter lemon pith that you'll find if you ever zest a lemon too far. The resulting flavour wasn't great. I mean it was edible, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. 

Against the acidic cheesecake the flavour of the glaze was lost. I tried a little on its own, and it seemed fairly tasty, but it offered little in the way of redemption. Come on biscuit base! Please be better... 

But it wasn't. It was of decent thickness, I'll give M&S that, but what's the point when it was utterly soggy? I can't help but think that an amaretti biscuit would've worked well here, both in terms of flavour and texture. 

Oh dear M&S. 

5/10

NEW! Sunken Chocolate & Valencian Orange Cheesecake (M&S)

I knew I had my work cut out on Friday afternoon when I rang my sister after her law accountancy exam and she was giving me one word answers -she's usually a chatterbox like me. Apparently it hadn't gone so well, and she was just about to get the train to Hereford to stay with me for the night. How could I cheer her up? Food. Alcohol. That's bound to work, right? I tried my best to encourage her that we would have a pleasant evening in the garden by telling her we were that we were christening our new BBQ, and gave her the option of cheesecake or ice cream and wine or Pimms. "Cheesecake". "Pimms". She muttered. 

Hmm, this was going to have to be good cheesecake to pull her out of this mood. Who could I trust to create a winning cheesecake? It was going to have to be something special. Who does special desserts? I know... Marks and Spencer! I had spotted a smaller version the new sunken chocolate & Valencian orange cheesecake in the Dine In for £10 meal deal a couple of days previously and hoped that they had some left on a Friday evening.

Bugger. 

Fortunately they'd got one of the larger six portion cheesecakes left and as a bonus it was reduced! Perfect. This meant that Bert could have some too, even though he's not the biggest chocolate orange fan -unless he's eating Jaffa cakes  because apparently they don't count, go figure. 

"Baked chocolate cheesecake on a chocolate biscuit base with Valencian orange cements centre and a Valencia orange glaze decorated with a white chocolate drizzle."

I was pleased that the cheesecake was well protected and in one of those pop out cases, making it relatively easy to retrieve. The cheesecake is also freezable, which meant that I could save the remaining slice for another day -yes, we had bigger slices than the recommended portion, don't judge!

Ive said numerous times that my biggest issue with supermarket cheesecakes is the horrible gelatinous wobble that they often have. M&S however have worked their magic on this dessert; the texture was whipped, light and therefore much more like a fresh homemade version. Flavour-wise the chocolate was perfect, it's dark and rich, tasting utterly indulgent. The resulting combination of flavour and consistency made this cheesecake an absolute winner in my eyes. The only trouble was that it wasn't particularly citrusy. The only source of orange came from the centre, and although the glaze was delicious, it would have been better if it had topped the entire cheesecake (although Bert disagrees with me on this, he thought it was delicious). 

The chocolate base was also scrumptious; it was short, crumbly and sweet. Most mass produced chocolate-bottomed cheesecakes feature a bourbon/oreo-esque base, but this tasted more like chocolate digestives and it was all the more delicious for it. 

This new M&S Spirit of Summer dessert was one of the best supermarket chocolate cheesecakes I've ever had. It's so good that I'm dreaming of that last slice. I'd go as far as giving it full marks but the orange just wasn't quite strong enough.

9.5/10

NEW! Red Velvet, S'mores, Salted Caramel & Cookie Dough Cheesecakes (ASDA)

I walked into ASDA the other night to pick up some bread rolls and came away with four cheesecakes. How did that happen?! Please tell me I'm not the only one. Believe it or not, that was me holding back, there were many more new ones (take a look at the bottom of this post for photos of just some of the others I spotted). Anyway, I bought 4 of the 5 new individual ones for £1 each -key lime pie didn't appeal I'm afraid, even enough to take a photo. 

Cookie Dough
I really hoped this would be better than the last ASDA cookie dough cheesecake I reviewed just over a year ago. It certainly looked appealing, with a more substantial base this time around.

"Chocolate biscuit base with chocolate chip and chocolate cheesecake batters, with cookie dough, topped with chocolate sauce, milk chocolate chips and white chocolate buttons."

The cheesecake itself was pretty pants. It had that wobbly jelly like consistency that I find so off-putting in most supermarket cheesecakes. Flavour-wise neither the chocolate or chocolate chip batter cut the mustard either. The paler of the two didn't have many chocolate chips, neither did it taste of vanilla, or soured cream, just plain. Humf. The chocolate cheesecake wasn't much better either. 
As for the cookie dough, that was a bit lost too. In fact I only realised when I finished my slice that I hadn't even tasted it! Oops. Fortunately the chocolate bottom was ok, although a little on the dry and crumbly side.

5/10 

Salted Caramel 

"Digestive biscuit base topped with caramel cheesecake batter and salted caramel sauce, topped with milk chocolate malt balls and chocolate crispies."

At least the cheesecake itself was actually flavoured. Whilst it still wobbled, I enjoyed the treacly flavour (although I'm not sure how salted it truly was). 
The honeycomb balls on top were crisp, although admittedly they weren't up to Malteser standards.

I also enjoyed the base of this one. Sometimes you can't beat the original, and I greedily hoovered up every last crumb of digestive biscuit. 

7/10

Red Velvet Secret Centre 

"Red velvet base with vanilla cheesecake batter and a chocolate sauce centre, with red velvet topping."

Boy this was messy to retrieve from its pot, the cake crumb scattered everywhere! Also, can you call a cheesecake a cheesecake without a biscuit bottom? 

Another sub-standard cheesecake. I think ASDA must've used the same batter in this and the cookie dough flavour, for it had a similar a similar taste and consistency. The cake crumb was ok, but there wasn't much of it, and without the crunchy base there was a distinct lack of textural contrast. Not good. The 'secret centre' constituted a measly teaspoonful of runny chocolate sauce, the sort of stuff you'd use to top ice cream -again it wasn't particularly enjoyable. 

I'd give this one a miss if I were you.

4/10  

S'mores 
I really hoped that this cheesecake would fare better than the other new ASDA cheesecakes and the Tesco freezer burnt S'mores cheesecake I reviewed last year.

"Chocolate biscuit base with chocolate cheesecake batter topped and a chocolate sauce centre topped with a chocolate sauce and marshmallows."

This cheesecake was at least easier to remove from its case, revealing three distinct layers beneath the marshmallow topping.

The top layer was meant to be chocolate sauce, but it was set and tasted a bit like the odd wobbly chocolate puddings you find in all inclusive hotels on the continent -please tell me you know what I mean? I really wish that ASDA had used ganache instead.

The chocolate cheesecake was far from the best I've had; it was gelatinous and mild in flavour. As for the secret centre, I uncovered the same sorry state of affairs as I found in the Red Velvet. Gah, ASDA, you can do so much better than this.

I was grateful that the base was crunchy and actually made from biscuits! The chocolate flavour was rather good too, with a dark bourbon-esque element. C'mon guys, I'm looking for the silver lining here. 

6/10

Summary
What a disappointment ASDA, especially having bought and thoroughly enjoyed your outstanding White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecakes the weekend before. 

Just some of the other new cheesecakes spotted at ASDA..

I like the sound of the Banana Bonanza, but I fear it'll be just as bad as their other new cheesecakes. Please let me know what you think if you try any of ASDA's new dessert range!

Gü Strawberry & Raspberry Cheesecake (ASDA)

So I was going to write a 7th healthy review today to conclude the first week of the new year buuuuuut....

1. It's Saturday
2. My sister asked me to review something "that she'd actually eat."

..Which gave me the nudge to not neglect those of you for whom high protein/low sugar just isn't interesting. With that in mind I thought I'd jump to the other end of the foodie spectrum and write about one of my sister and I's favourite indulgent desserts: cheesecake. Not just cheesecake either, but Gü's newest strawberry & raspberry shortbread creation.

This duo pack of desserts came out towards the end of the year, which I thought to be quite an odd choice for the company, or is it just me who naturally thinks of strawberry as a summer treat? Especially when enjoyed with shortbread, or shortcake, or scones, or cream. Mmm. Can you tell I'm hungry at the moment? Anyway, they were on offer in December for £2 in ASDA (currently £3) and although I wouldn't normally veer from their incredible Zillionaire's or Banoffee cheesecakes I was tempted enough to try them at least once (for you guys of course).

"Wander through raspberry and strawberry fields with flowering hibiscus, before journeying into vanilla infused cheesecake and crumbly shortbread base.
Pleasure seekers, grab your spoons..."

Yep, definitely summery then!

The bright red topping of these cheesecake looked eerily similar to the insipid toppings adorning ASDA's smart price cheesecakes -i.e not great, don't bother if you're lucky enough to have never suffered them. On the plus side there was evidence of real fruit though in Gü's little number , so I dug in..

I was worried the Hibiscus flavouring might overpower the berries (though I'm not sure that I can tell you what hibiscus tastes like, but I'm guessing flowery like lavender) but all I got was a pretty bog standard jam like topping. The cheesecake was ok, pretty standard, and without Gü's incredible ganache sitting alongside it was disappointing.

As I've explained in all of my cheesecake reviews to date, the biscuit base is very important. I hoped that the rich buttery shortbread tones would sing through, but actually the final layer tasted barely different to your usual digestive number. In fact there wasn't a huge deal of it, and what was there was über crumbly.

Humf. I wish I'd listened to my instincts and picked up a chocolatey ramekin instead. Talking of which, what on earth do you do with yours once you eaten your dessert? I always think that they're too nice to throw away, but I now have 30 or so in my kitchen drawer! Any bright ideas?

5/10

NEW! Red Velvet Filled Muffins (Tesco)

I doubt you're as sad as me. I've been patiently waiting for November to begin and for Tesco to release their Christmas lines. For the past two years the supermarket has sold Mince Pie Cookies and white snowman cookies, but this year they've gone down a decidedly less traditional route with the three new additions in their fresh bakery: Black Forest Cookies, Salted Caramel Filled Muffins and Red Velvet Filled Muffins. Now I'd wonder what on earth red velvet has to do with Christmas (and it's only the red hollies on the packaging that give the theme away) but I really can't talk as I often make a red velvet -gluten free- yule log for the big day. Plus, it's red velvet, I'm always game for red velvet.

At £1 for 4 sizeable muffins, the price can't be complained about either. I couldn't actually find them on Friday in my home town when I found the Merry Mince Pie Flapjacks, but did find them in another store yesterday-so keep looking if you don't have any joy at first.

"4 Red sponge chocolate muffins with cream cheese flavoured filling."

Their sugar dusting did little to conceal the poor flat tops (something I couldn't compute as the packaging didn't appear squashed) although I have to congratulate Tesco on the redness of the cake. The colour doesn't really show up very much in the photos, but I can promise you they had a red hue, and I appreciate how much more difficult the colour is to achieve now that it's so much harder to get hold of the super-artificial red food dyes. I noticed both the softness and the substantial weight of the muffin as soon as I picked one out of the pack; it was easy to slice in two, with a very close crumb and a fair amount of cream cheese filling. So far so good. 

The trouble was, red velvet can be so hit and miss. Sometimes it's bone dry, other times it's flavourless -and unfortunately these muffins fell into the latter camp. Had I blind taste-tasted the cake I'm sure I would've told you I was eating a dense Victoria Sponge. I mean, it tasted good, but it just wasn't red velvet and certainly lacked the chocolatey kick that I hoped for. 

The filling in the middle was super sweet and tasted almost like buttercream. The lack of characteristic tartness was evident, although unsurprising considering it actually doesn't contain any cream cheese (only cheese powder)! Say what?

I'm gutted, These are perfectly tasty little (albeit very sweet) muffins, but they miss the mark on two crucial factors:
1) For a festive muffin they're not very Christmassy
2) They're not red velvet!

Here's hoping the salted caramel fairs better...

6/10 

Maple Syrup and Salted Caramel Cheesecakes (LIDL)

My poor fiance works a crazy amount of hours  over three different shift patterns -mainly to pay the mortgage whilst I swan off to uni and  part-time job. One week he works a series of night shifts, then day shifts, then afternoon shifts. This week it's afternoons week, which means that he's away over dinner time. But why does this matter? Well it means that during those shifts I'm on the hunt for tasty, easily transportable desserts to pack in his lunchbox. Last week I made the trip to Lidl to stock up on my staple Skyr pots, when I noticed it was U.S.A week and they had some themed fresh goods -including these curious sounding Maple Syrup and Salted Caramel Cheesecakes. The pots were individual, lidded (easy transportation) and came in a 3 pack for 99p, so I picked them up to try this week. 

"3 Mini cheesecakes with a salted maple caramel topping and biscuit base."

You may have gathered by now, I'm a huge Maple syrup and salted caramel fan, but admittedly I've never had them together before.  I wasn't sure how the combination would work, or indeed how yummy the cheesecakes would be, given how pants supermarket potted versions normally are. 

Each dessert had a decent ratio of each three layers, although I soon discovered how runny the top syrup was.. The amber topping was also translucent, allowing me to see peaks of creamy coloured cheesecake beneath.

The flavour was just as strange as imagined. There were the characteristic deep maple tones, and sweetness of caramel, yet it lacked the buttery richness of a true caramel sauce. The saltiness was also forgotten about -I'm sure it was just used in the title to make it sound more on trend. The looseness of the sauce also meant that it was no mean feat keeping it on my teaspoon! 

The cheesecake beneath was lighter than a proper baked cheesecake, although the mousse-like fluffiness did work well. The sourness was also lacking, which is a shame as it was really needed to counteract the sweetness of the syrup above. 

A thick, crumbly biscuit base greeted me at the bottom. Considering that these cheesecakes were meant to be American themed, I'm surprised that LIDL chose to use the traditional British Digestive (which I hear is very hard to track down in the USA). It was a shame really, and gave the cheesecakes a far less genuine flavour -although I'm not sure how authentic I was expecting them to be considering how cheap they were!

If they sound good to you, I'd pop down to LIDL ASAP -it's now 'Italian week' but they may have some lingering on their shelves- otherwise you'll have to wait until American Week crops up again! 

7/10