NEW! Finest Eton Mess Cookies (Tesco)

Yesterday was one of those indecisive, dawdly days, and therefore probably not the best day to do the weekly shop. The chores needed doing though, and so I found myself hovered in the bakery section of Tesco mid-afternoon, torn between two new bags of freshly baked cookies. I've heard from many people that Tesco Bakery's Finest cookies are the bees knees (especially the white chocolate and honeycomb flavour), yet the brownie stuffed cookies sounded rather tempting too. Choices choices. In the end I let Bert decide, and that's how we ended up with these Eton Mess cookies.

"Cookies with Belgian white chocolate, freeze dried strawberry pieces and meringue pieces."

They certainly looked much chunkier than the anaemic brownie cookies, and they were on special offer too at 4 for £1.

Once out of the bag I could appreciate the rugged, cracked appearance of the cookies; although the white chocolate chips and Meringue pieces were unevenly dispersed. Needless to say I nabbed the most plentifully adorned of the bunch.

I wasn't sure how the strawberry would come across.Freeze dried strawberries can be quite sharp, which I hoped would work well to counteract the sweetness of the white chocolate and meringue.

My first bite provided me with the answer, establishing that the strawberry pieces were crushed into the cookie, infusing a gentle flavour throughout. The taste reminded me of strawberry Nesquik though, which was surprising considering that the fruit wasn't synthetic. As a lover of strawberry milkshake I enjoyed the result, but anyone with a less sweet tooth might not be so keen.

The white chocolate chunks weren't noticeably luxurious, but were sizeable enough to deliver scrummy mouthfuls of sweet chocolatey pleasure. As for the meringue pieces, they were in mini form and so every few bites I came across little sugar hits. They're an unusual inclusion to a cookie, and whilst they were successful in terms of adding extra texture, I actually found the meringues knocked the flavour harmony into sickly territory. It would have been better for Tesco to stick with strawberry and white chocolate.

8/10

Tesco Finest Belgian Chocolate Yule Log

Now, just on the slightest off-chance that you've not eaten yourself into oblivion, and are still inclined to read about chocolate (even if you can't eat anymore), today's post is a follow-up to the lacklustre Cadbury's Mini Yule Logs. I'd been hankering after something a bit more decadent, any I was toying between buying the Co-Op's Chocolate & Amaretto Yule Log and Tesco Finest's version. The Co-ops bûche de Noël sounded more appetising, simply due to the Amaretto content, but Tesco's finest had resounding praise from bloggers Hannah & Lucy.

I decided to opt for the Tesco version, as these girls know their chocolate. It looked devilishly delectable, with a thick Belgian Chocolate ganache frosting smothering the entire cake. It sliced wonderfully, revealing the tell-tale chocolatey swirl. 

The chocolate ganache was beautiful- perfectly rich and chocolatey in an 'I'll lick the bowl when no-ones looking' way. The cake however was disappointingly dry, lacking the fudge-like stickiness that I expected (my personal quality indicator of homemade chocolate cake). Perhaps it needed lashings of double cream, but I'm afraid I didn't have any. The chocolate buttercream tasted decent enough, but I found that the ratio was a bit off-kilter. Although Tesco were generous with the ganache, they could have been a bit kinder with the internal buttercream swirl.

It might just be me, and my experience of home-made Yule Logs combined with the sky high expectations I had of this cake that led to my disappointment; although it was definitely a damned sight better than the Cadbury's minis. With that in mind, I'd be keen to know if any of you have tried it this Christmas, and if so what did you think?

7/10