Milka Cherry Creme (Polish Deli)

I was on an unsuccessful hunt for more of the Karmelove bars in our local Polish delis last week when I came across a couple of treats that did catch my eye. 

One of which was a spread version of the KarmelLove bars, which seeing as it's pretty much the equivalent of Caramac you can top your toast with, I feel it should really be renamed crack. If you see it, buy it*. We have an abundance of Easter European shops in Hereford and I've only found the one jar in one shop. It's also short dated, so I'm not sure if E.Wedel is still making it. The lack of availability is the only reason that I'm not doing a full review, but do let me know if you find it and try it! 

The other product that got my attention was a cherry flavoured Milka bar, which was far more readily available. I first fell in love with Milka on holiday in turkey almost twenty years ago, but now it's pretty easy to get hold of (the only benefit of the Mondelez takeover I guess). Some of the funkier flavours are still resigned to the Polish delis however, but I found this 100g bar for a very reasonable 79p. Normally I prefer my fruits paired with white chocolate, but given my affinity towards anything Black Forest, I was happy to give it a go. 

The Milka bars, as you probably know, are a lot slimmer than the Cadbury large bars and so I wondered how they would fit the cherry within the squares.

Snapping it in half however revealed a generous jammy layer atop a Creme -all surrounded in the typical Milka alpine chocolate. The Cherry oozed, emitting a tangy, fruity scent. 

As expected, the Cherry jam was super sweet, but there was enough of it to pack a punch. The chocolate was also good and far silkier than Cadbury. As for the Creme, it reminded me of the vanilla mousse filling in Cadbury's seasonal products -such as the egg n spoon and Snowman. On its own or in small doses, it's fine, but combine it wish jam and creamy chocolate and you've got one sickly concoction. 

Normally I can eat 50g+ of chocolate without batting an eyelid but even I was struggling with the sweetness by the time I'd even eaten half of this bar. It's tasty, and one to try as it's so different to what the British mass market chocolate offers, but it probably should be eaten in smaller portions than I'm used to! 

7/10 

*this is the crack spread...

NEW! Extra Special Black Forest & Amaretto Desserts Review (ASDA)

I've recently outed my addiction to buying chocolate and ice cream on instagram in an attempt to remind myself that I really need to stop buying more and instead work through my admittedly impressive collection. The trouble is, whilst I love both chocolate AND ice cream, occasionally I'm just not in the mood for either, or I spot something different that I'd rather have. This is especially true when it comes to ice cream, and since promising myself that I'd not purchase any more, my non-frozen dessert cravings have fully kicked in. BAM! All of a sudden I just needed to have the Black Forest & Amaretto Pots that I've been contemplating for weeks.

Even my price conscious nature gave way to the compulsions to try these little desserts. In ASDA Gü are currently on offer for £1.50, yet I still chose their own brand desserts. I must be mad. In my defence, previous experiences with ASDA's Extra Special desserts* have thus far been remarkably positive.

"Amaretto-infused sponge layered with black cherry compote and Belgian dark chocolate ganache."

C'mon ASDA, you seem to have fallen foul of Cadbury's usual trick here and only half filled the pots! The Peanut Butter Millionaire's Dessert was full to the brim, and had much more distinctive layers too.

Digging in to the top I first tasted the dark chocolate ganache, which was as silky and as delicious as expected -there just wasn't very much of it. The little that there was had kind of sunk into the custard below. Talking of which, the custard was a bit of a let down. The flavour was weak against the ganache and so I wished that ASDA had just done away with it and filled the tub with more of the good stuff.

Fortunately the black cherry compote was delicious, offering a sweet tartness against all the chocolate, but again the pot could have done with more. Boo.

The final layer was the main reason why I wanted to try these desserts so badly - the amaretto soaked sponge. The cake was in keeping with the Black Forest theme and was therefore chocolate flavoured. It was a good sponge with a decent amount of cocoa -but I just couldn't taste the amaretto or even almond. Now this might be partly because I was drinking a glass of red wine alongside it, but nonetheless I was disappointed.

I'm aware that I've done a lot of complaining in this review, and perhaps it's not entirely necessary considering I scraped the sides of the tub and really enjoyed it. The trouble is, I know that ASDA sell a much better version of this, and it's cheaper too: their Black Forest Velvets.

7/10

*such as their White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake which was one of my first reviews, and remains my favourite supermarket cheesecake!

Black Forest Dome Gateau (Tesco)

Are you a savvy shopper? I certainly think I am. In fact, I'm obsessed with finding a bargain -so much so that I drive poor Bert nuts when doing the weekly shop. If I know a product is cheaper in another supermarket, I won't even consider buying it in the one I'm in. See, told you I'm a pain. I'd like to think that it's because I'm a student, but actually I've always been this way. My mum even managed to buy her (convertible) car entirely through Tesco clubcard points. Yes really. Anyway, the point is, I love to find ways to get things cheaper, and one of the ways I've been doing this for the past few years is through Tesco's Orchard scheme. If you ever shop with Tesco, and fancy trying some of their ranges for free (in exchange for giving them some feedback) then it's definitely worth signing up.

This Christmas Tesco gave me the opportunity to try some of their party food or cakes and desserts for free. No prizes for guessing which option I chose.

Lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago I received £6 worth of vouchers in the post to use on any of Tesco's fresh or frozen cakes and desserts. I'd got my eye on their chocolate and hazelnut stollen, but when I did the Christmas food shop yesterday the store was completely out. No bites, no slices, no chocolatey stollen, in fact no pannetone or pandoro either. Humf. I couldn't complain though really because the vouchers were freebies, so I head to the frozen dessert section instead. 

Christmas day desserts in my house are already sorted: Christmas pud for my dad in-law, and a homemade cheesecake for the non-traditionalists (i.e. everyone else)! This just meant that I got to £6 worth of free desserts and not have to wait until the 25th -double win! 

I still headed towards the Christmas desserts and spotted the most amazing looking Black Forest Dome Gateau, and although it serves 8 (there's just me, Bert and the dog at home), I just had to have it. I'm partial to a sport of the 80's retro flavour combo and have reviewed quite a few black forest foodstuffs this year (muffins, dessert pots, low fat biscuit snacks, and most recently lebkuchen of course if you want to check them out). At just £3 my vouchers more than covered it, so I also picked up some other desserts to try at a later date.

"Dome shaped chocolate sponge cake filled with Kirsch chocolate cream mousse and cherry sauce on a short crust pastry base. Covered with a chocolate flavoured glaze, decorated with chocolate decorations and Morello cherry."

I didn't expect the dome to contain 8 reasonable sized portions, but it certainly did (take note Iceland). I was also impressed by the careful packaging that surrounded the dessert -not good for eco-warriors but it certainly enabled a very clumsy me to get it home in one piece. The packet suggested a defrost time of 3 & 1/2 hours, but I cut out our portions and left it on the side for an hour and it did the trick. 

The centre of the dome looked just as impressive as the photo on the box, and I mentally gave another point to Tesco. My knife easily slid through the layers too, which helped as I'm the worst at plating up, although I imagine it would be messier when defrosted.

The chocolate cake was light and fluffy, lacking the density of a good fudge cake, but admittedly was a good choice to surround the mousse innards. Said mousse however was a bit disappointing, in fact I thought it was just a vapid chocolate mousse until I wrote this review. Tesco seem to have fallen into the same trap as ASDA did with their muffins; neither the chocolate or cherry was dominant and therefore the mousse just tasted odd.

Fortunately the cherry sauce was wonderful, perfectly balanced between sweet and tart, and working well with the central cake layer it sat upon. The pastry base was also good, and added an extra textural element. I also thought the chocolate glaze was tasty too, although to be honest I was just pleased to find that it wasn't the horrid hotel jelly stuff that often graces the buffet table in continental hotels. 

Overall, it's not the most delicious dessert I've ever had -but it's one of the better frozen puds and it looks damn good. If you haven't done your Chrismas food shop yet and are after an alternative centrepiece without the faff of homebaking (or M&S's prices) then I suggest you have a think about picking up Tesco's Black Forest Dome Gateau. 

7/10

Schlute Kirsch Lebkuchen (TKMaxx)

Last year I was obsessed with plain Lebkuchen, but this year it's the turn of the jammy, chocolate dipped variety. Thus far I've tried the Lambertz version, but then I spotted this curious Kirsch version from a company I've not heard of before in TKMaxx.

I don't make a regular habit of buying food from the discount retailer (mainly because it's actually more expensive than most supermarkets) but I've recently made a habit of checking my local branch because I've discovered that they regularly stock Jordan's skinny syrups- and they're much cheaper than I can get them online.

Now that TKMaxx have their Christmas foods in stock I'm finding it even harder to make my was to the syrup shelf without being distracted by the continental treats -and Kirsch Lebkuchen sounded just to good to resist. At £1.49 for 100g bag they're more costly than the Lambertz version, but they sounded so much more exciting and I felt that the extra expense was justified.

Have any of you tried Schlute's products before? Their website leads me to believe that the company are a quality German manufacturer of biscuits, waffles and pastries who use only "old, tried and tested recipes and exquisite ingredients" and "carefully selected ingredients".

"Juicy gingerbread with fine apple-cherry-fruit filling (18% and plain chocolate (28%).

Gah. The bag obviously hadn't been looked after on its travels. Unlike the Lambertz Lebkuchen, most of the hearts were smashed. I certainly wouldn't have been happy if I'd received them a present in such a questionable state. Still, I hoped that the taste would make up for their sorry appearance.

Alas! Compared to the Lambertz versions, these were pathetic. The gingerbread was fairly well spiced but was noticeably less soft and more tough -which in itself wasn't a deal breaker. Add poor quality chocolate and so-so jam into the equation however and you're left with a pretty disgruntled Amy. I was hoping for a lovely, black forest vibe (or at the very least a good quality German gingerbread) but these missed the mark entirely -especially as the jam was distinctly lacking in the Kirsch department. Perhaps I should've read the bag before I'd bought (or even tasted) the hearts, as then I would've realised that the ingredients includes 10% apple pulp and just 1% morello cherry juice concentrate. Very misleading.

I can't blame Schlute entirely for my experience with their Kirsch Lebkuchen though, after all I have no idea how long these have been kicking about the TKMaxx system (but they were in date until April next year) and I also imagine they looked far prettier when leaving the factory floor. 

4/10

NEW! Limited Edition Black Forest Velvet Desserts (ASDA)

Way back in march (it really doesn't feel that long ago!) ASDA launched a line of new dessert pots. I tried and very much enjoyed the Rhubarb Jumbles and Afternoon Delights, whilst I was a little less impressed with the Honey Teasers. Since those reviews I confess I haven't bought any more, but only because they went up to their full price of £2 for two pots, and Gu's desserts have been on offer most of that time for the same price. C'mon who wouldn't choose Gu every time?

Anyway, this week I spied a few new additions to ASDA's dessert line up, and they're on offer to boot at £1.50 per pack. The one that I absolutely had to try straight away was these Black Forest Velvets:

"Dark chocolate mousse with morello cherry compote, chocolate flavoured biscuit crumb, red velvet sponge pieces, dark chocolate sauce and a sweet dusting."

I really didn't enjoy ASDA's new black forest muffins, so I really hoped that the supermarket would redeem themselves using of one of my favourite flavour pairings. The layers certainly looked impressive!

Carefully placed on top were two pieces of dark red cake drizzles with dark chocolate sauce. It's been so long since I've had a decent red velvet (yes I'm glaring at you Boots), but these tasted pretty darn good. Moist and chocolatey with a sour twist characteristic of the American cake, I wanted more! Please make and sell a red velvet cake made from this recipe please ASDA?

Underneath was the deep layer of mousse. It too didn't disappoint: rich and decadent, it reminded me of my mum's homemade pot au chocolat (save for the good glug of rum she always adds!). It was denser than most mass-manufactured chocolate mousses, but I prefer it that way.

Next up was the compote, and I was pleased to discover that ASDA had cleverly retained the cherries' tartness. So often companies decide to add so much sugar that they lose their sourness and turn them into the overly sweet berry that they're not. The sharp compote worked in perfect harmony with the sweet mousse on top and tantalised my tastebuds with the true flavours of Black Forest. Thank the Lord! 

Last but not least was the biscuity base. It was surprisingly and noticeably sweet given how dark and decadent the above layers were, and I can't help but think that ASDA might've been better using bourbon biscuits instead -but that's just nitpicking. 

It's safe to say that I really enjoyed these new Black Forest Velvets. My only suggestions on improving them would be to add more cake pieces (in the same way that the Rhubarb jumbles had the flapjack repeated half way down) and of course to use a less sweet biscuit for the base. I'm dying to try ASDA's new Loaded Millionaires' desserts next!

9/10 

NEW! Black Forest Gateaux Limited Edition Special K Moments (Tesco)

I got through phases with the Special K Biscuit Moments. I'll have weeks where I just can't get enough of them, and then I won't even think about them for months on end. Recently, I've been buying more of the other (more substantial) breakfast biscuits and granola bars, but then I saw that Kellogg's had released a new limited edition flavour: black forest gateaux. 

'Delicious cocoa biscuits with a soft cherry-flavoured filling, topped with a vanilla-flavoured drizzle.'

Now I appreciate that for some it brings back horrid memories of terrible 70's desserts, but as I wasn't born until the late 80s I still think of it as an under-appreciated concoction. I mean, cherries and chocolate are just a match made in heaven, aren't they? One of my favourite breakfasts has to be Coco Pops porridge with added sweet cherries -it's delicious, trust me! 

Anyway, enough of the rambling. Each pack contained two chocolatey biscuits with a rather beautiful drizzle on top; they looked almost too pretty to eat!  The biscuits where thin, but despite their slenderness packed a decent cocoa punch. The rich dark chocolate provided a wonderful vehicle for the sweet cherry jam filling, resulting in a convincing black forest creation. The biscuits were devilishly moreish, which meant that I was thankful that the packs are individually wrapped!

For such low calories, these seem the perfect diet choice for anyone who is a sweet-toothed weight-watcher. I'll definitely buy them again! Well done Kellogg's!

9/10