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