NEW! Festive Menu Chocolatey Banoffee Pie (McDonalds)

I don't make a regular habit of eating at McDonalds, but as soon as their Christmas menu was announced I knew I'd have to make a trip there for my Thursday train dessert night.

There's apparently been a public outcry at the loss of their mincemeat and custard filled Festive Pie" this year but, to be honest, it didn't phase me as id never even bothered to try it. The replacement was far more exciting in my books anyway. I've spoken many a time on this blog about my love of Nutella & banana toasties (as well as my obsession with anything banoffee: peanut butter, biscuits, flapjack, muffins, whey protein, rice pudding...you name it!) so you can imagine my glee when I heard that McDonalds were going to be selling warm chocolatey banoffee pies. This week has certainly been the coldest yet this season, and so I was really looking forward to my treat after lectures last night -especially as I was going to cycle the 2 miles home when I got to the other end at 10pm!

I ordered using the new touch screen menus (since when has McDs been so fancy?) and paid the £1.19 for my chocolatey banoffee pie. Isn't almost everyone scarred from burning their tongue on their hot apple pies as a child? It was certainly something that came into mind when waiting for my order to appear at the collection point.

"A hot crispy pie filled with a thick Banoffee sauce and a delicious chocolatey sauce."

I needn't have worried though, by the time I'd left the fast food restaurant and popped across to the station, the pie was still just about warm  and nowhere near scalding temperature -a good job considering I'd got blisters on my lip thanks to my impatience with molten custard the night before. The train was late and so I got stuck in right there on the platform (hence the awful photos, sorry)! It was smaller than I remember the apple pies being -doesn't everything seem to have shrunk nowadays though?- but just as golden and crispy as ever.

The flaky pastry tasted primarily of oil, although I didn't mind it as it brought back nostalgic memories. The pie was well filled, with two different coloured fillings, which I assumed represented the separate chocolate and banoffee flavours.

Both sauces were yummy in an oddly comforting fashion. The banoffee was more like a sweet banana than actual toffee, although it actually tasted completely natural (I think I expected something reminiscent of foam sweets). As for the chocolate, it wasn't up to Nutella standards, but was thick, gooey and had a good -albeit very sweet- cocoa flavour. Both flavours worked in harmony, and some bites offered more of one sauce than the other, which made it all the more interesting to eat.

The taste, warmth and texture leans towards the perfect winter pick me up; exactly what I needed when starting to flag and in need of a sugar bomb. McDonald's Chocolatey Banoffee Pie isn't the most refined snack, but it is good old fashion junk food at its finest. If you're a chocolate and banana fan it's well worth trying a warm pie before they disappear after Christmas.

8/10