NEW! Banoffee Doughnut (Greggs)

Doughnut week is very much down to one of you lot. Dan, if you're reading this, I'm not sure whether to thank you or cuss you. You see, Dan brought the release of Greggs' new range to my attention last week...not long after I had realised that I would soon be in the proximity of a Krispy Kreme store (and would be making the most of the opportunity to stock up). His prompt also fell after a conversation with the talented Heather (at The Tandem Bakery) about a very exciting doughnut that she was going to make this Wednesday (just gone) and I just knew I couldn't resist that one either. That brought the running total to 5, so why not go utterly doughnut doolally and get the two new Greggs offerings too? Especially as one of them was banoffee.

The new sweet menu was released yesterday and features lemon shortbread, toffee apple cookies, as well as the duo of doughnuts. 

"Soft ball doughnut topped with caramel icing with a banana flavoured filling."

The new filled doughnuts come in at 90p each, a damn site cheaper than Krispy Kremes, but more expensive than standard jammy doughnuts. They looked as pretty, if not more attractive, than Krispy Kremes too.

Slicing mine in half revealed an abundant pocket of pale mousse. Perhaps Greggs should offer Krispy Kreme some training on how to adequately fill a doughnut. 

However, having had so many Krispy Kremes this week, it was extremely evident to me who reigns supreme when it comes to the dough. Even after freezing and defrosting the KKs they were much fluffier in texture than the Greggs doughnuts, with a sweeter flavour throughout. In contrast, Greggs dough felt heavy and breadlike, though it was still admittedly enjoyable. 

The banana mousse was entirely artificial in flavour, and although it was reminiscent of foam banana sweets, the aftertaste was slightly chemically. I wish Greggs had thought to inject a little toffee sauce into the centre too, because although the icing was caramel flavoured, the synthetic banana was the far more prominent of the two flavours and so to me it wasn't really true to the classic dessert. 

I did however enjoy the little crunchy balls on top, which reminded me of the Muller Crunch Corners. Sure it would have been nice to have some digestive crumbs (as per a banoffee pie) but I guess they'd have gone soggy and so I think Greggs might have made a wise choice. 

To be honest, I probably won't bother with this doughnut again. Hats off to Greggs thought for constantly innovating their range (as opposed to KKs barely veiled attempts to disguise their rereleases as new products). 

7/10

NEW! Lemon Sherbet Doughnut (Greggs)

Ok, it's not that new. Greggs' lemon sherbet ring doughnut was released the same week as their brilliant caramel cookie filled doughnut*. The thing is, I don't really see the point in non-glazed ring doughnuts -surely the best bit is the squidgy filling? That's if you get any of course, both Krispy Kreme and Greggs seem to be hit and miss. I've been having citrussy cravings of late though, I think it's due to the changing seasons, and so I decided it was time to try Greggs' other limited edition offering. 

"If you're after something with a sweet and sour kick to it, then this is for you! 

A soft ring doughnut topped in a tangy lemon sherbet flavoured fondant finished with a white chocolate flavour spin decoration. "

There's two Greggs in Hereford. I went into the first yesterday, took a look at the sorry state of the lemon sherbet doughnuts and decided to stop into the second branch instead as it was on my way home. Humf. The second lot didn't look any better. The icing wasn't sitting attractively atop the rings, instead it was sliding off all over the place. It wasn't even that hot outside! I even sneakily brought a doughnut box from LIDL with me to protect it, so this time I'm not taking any blame for the sorry state of the topping. 

Slicing the ring in two revealed the well aerated dough. It was adequately soft too, although nowhere near as soft as the Tandem Bakery's incredible doughnuts**.

Sweet and sour icing you say Greggs? Lemon sherbet? That's news to me. Yes it was lemony, yes it had a slight tang, but it certainly wasn't about to cause any lip-puckering. The lemon flavour was little stronger than the icing you'll find on lemon buns**. I found it pleasant, but it certainly didn't earn the sherbet badge. What was stranger was the dusting of caster sugar that I found underneath the icing. It was like Greggs had made too many sugar dusted ring doughnuts and then whacked some lemon icing on top -which perhaps explains why the topping was sliding off. Very peculiar. 

As for the dough itself, it seems to be an improvement on the rings I've had from Greggs in the past. That's to say it was less bread-like, with a sweeter flavour and lighter texture. 

At 75p the lemon sherbet ring doughnuts are unlikely to break the bank, but I know I'd rather have a plain jam doughnut from any of the supermarkets. Last year's rhubarb & custard doughnut was better -but still not great- so please pull your socks up Greggs for your next seasonal release.

6/10

*please buy one if you haven't yet, they're better than Krispy Kreme! 

**Tandem doughnuts...check out these Easter week doughnuts (they were the size of my hand!) 

Creme Egg

Hot Cross Bun

***oh god, I'd forgotten about Sainsbury's nostalgic finger buns, adds to shopping list.

NEW! Limited Edition Caramel Cookie Doughnut (Greggs)

It's doughnut change week at Greggs and whilst I was sad to say goodbye to their fabulous chocolate orange doughnut, the bakery chain more than made up for the loss with their new creation. Well, actually there's two new doughnuts which Greggs kings @macrodad & @notyouraveragejoe_89 kindly alerted me to via their morning food porn over the past couple of days.

The first new doughnut was a lemon sherbert ring which appeared on Wednesday. It sounded tasty but I wasn't desperate to have it. Then yesterday morning Joe discovered the caramel cookie doughnut. Now that I had to have, quick smart!

It just so happened that I was in Hereford city centre at the time, so popped into Greggs on the way home. Alas! No cookie doughnuts in sight. Do I continue back home or detour back to the other Greggs? Silly question really.

"Sweet biscuit flavoured filling, topped with caramel flavour fondant with spiced biscuit crumb and white decoration."

Remind you of anything? Krispy Kreme's Biscoff doughnut perhaps? Talking of which, I don't believe that the 're-branding' to Krispy Cream is real, I think it's a publicity stunt (remember the 'leaked email'?) otherwise they're effectively declaring the U.K as stupid.

Anyway, let's not take the limelight away from Greggs here. The doughnut was lighter than expected and looked every part the luxury doughnut. At £1 (also part of a £2 deal with a hot drink) it's not badly priced either.

The dough itself was what I've come to expect from Greggs: less sweet, more bready. This was easily the freshest doughnut I'd had from the chain though, and despite the fact it had been bought at 10am and not eaten until 9pm (yes, my self restraint is commendable) it was still perfectly soft, even at the edges.

Slicing it in half revealed a pale whipped centre. It was a sight for sore eyes given that it was much more generously filled than any high street doughnut I've ever had*. Flavour wise the creme was super sweet with a mild cookie flavour. Perhaps it could've done with more spiced biscuit, but it was still absolutely delicious.

The Caramel fondant was thick and gooey, adding yet more sweetness. This is where Greggs have gained the upper hand with their less sugary doughnut however; the flavours balanced out, managing to stop my teeth from jarring.

Atop the icing was the biscuit crumbs, which miraculously had remained crisp and crunchy, adding in extra crunch. I often wonder why the chains don't include crunchy biscuit pieces in the filling itself though -after all crunchy Biscoff is better than smooth.

If you've managed to read this far without stopping what you're doing and immediately making your way to Greggs I both applaud you and wonder what on earth you're playing at. Don't miss out any longer, go and get yourself a Caramel Cookie Doughnut straightaway!

9/10

*Just check out this shockingly filled Greggsnut I bought recently...

...and it certainly doesn't beat the filling ratio in the Black Forest doughnut I had a couple of weeks ago from The Tandem Bakery (which is well worth a visit if you're in Hereford)!

NEW! Chocolate Orange Doughnut (Greggs)

I've moaned time and time again on this blog about the fact that I can't get my hands on a Krispy Kreme unless I travel an hour to either Cardiff, Gloucester or Birmingham. So when their Chocolate Orange and Tiramisu doughnuts were released in January, I once again turned an unattractive shade of green as the #foodporn pictures appeared on instagram. As you know by now I have to rely on Greggs to bring home the goods instead, and whilst they're pretty good at bringing out (fairly disappointing) new ring doughnuts, they don't tend to update their filled versions as often. Imagine then my surprise/glee/envy when I was on holiday and saw @Macrodad's photo of the new Greggs chocolate orange filled doughnut! Fortunately I was eating a Malaysian Krispy Kreme* at the time, so my skin-tone remained a lovely tanned shade and didn't even start to change colour. I could wait, it was ok.

Now some may accuse Greggs of ripping off Krispy Kreme but- as I mentioned in my hot cross bun post- Chocolate Orange seems to be the flavour combination of the season, and there's some stark difference between the two. 

Wheras KK's doughnut is filled with an "orange flavour chocolate kreme" and "topped with orange flavour gloss, dark chocolate shavings and decoration" 

Greggs'  contains "Orange flavoured filling topped with milk chocolate and orange flavour icing."

It's also just £1, compared to Krispy Kreme's £1.90.

It smelt like Terry's Chocolate Orange! Where was this bad boy at Christmas? Cutting into it revealed a generous (hurrah) pool of florescent, oozy sauce that refused to stay put. So far so good Greggs.

The joy continued when I took my first bite; many a time have I commented on the fact that Greggs' dough is more bready than KK's, but this was certainly much softer than the doughnut I had in Malaysia. Helping matters was the flavoursome topping, which ticked the boxes by managing to be both chocolatey and orangey -scrumdiddlyumptious. 

As for the saucy centre, it was zingy and sweet. If I was being picky I'd admit that I found it to be a little on the runny side -a more jelly-like centre would have been easier to eat- but it was rather good. I often hear complaints about KK's lack of filling, and Greggs certainly delivered here. If you've not got a sweet tooth you may find it a tad too sickly, but I really enjoyed it. 

Greggs really have recreated the traditional Jaffa Cake in doughnut form, and have done a cracking job to boot. It's certainly a treat I'll be buying again.

9/10


* Krispy Kreme's in Kuala Lumpur cost a maximum of 80p for the premium varieties. Although tempted by the KitKat doughnut, instead I opted for the Chocolate Mud Pie. Check out the varieties available below!

Chocolate Mud Pie

"Chopped Cadbury chunks and crushed Oreo crumbs sprinkled on a luxurious bed of chocolate, filled with Chocolate Kreme. Now that’s a Chocolate Creation that you won’t want to miss!"














Which one would you have chosen?

Christmas Tree Biscuit (Greggs)

You know that you've completely lost the plot when you're finding food to match your plates. Yes, that's my current state of mind, thanks to the desperate assignment avoidance mode that's kicked in. If you follow me on instagram you might've spotted my impressive array of themed serveware that has come out to play recently. One of my best finds thus far is the Christmas tree plate that I found at Home Bargains (I think it cost about a pound), and now most evenings I entertain myself by finding festive foods to match said plate -much to the bemusement of my other half. I tried making branches from apples with a mince pie base before discovering that Christmas tree crumpets matched it rather well. Then yesterday I had a brainwave whilst attempting to write a social media report: what about the Christmas Tree biscuits that I've spotted at Greggs when buying their mince pie and Christmas Muffin? They would fit perfectly I'm sure! So that afternoon I side-stepped my studies once more and cycled into town on important biscuit business. 

 Photo from www.greggs.co.uk

"What's more Christmassy than a Christmas tree and a bit of ginger?! That's why our Christmas tree biscuit is back!
Ginger biscuit covered with chocolate flavour coating and decorated with sugar sprinkles and a sugar paste star to finish it off like all good trees should be."

It's a good job I love both gingerbread and chocolate really, and that said biscuit was a reasonable 80p, otherwise this plate hobby could become a bit of a chore. The biscuit was every bit as pretty as the picture in Greggs' adverts, with a good covering of chocolate and sprinkles. I felt a bit childish ordering it, but if you can't be childish at Christmas then when can you be? 

Like Cinderella's shoe, it fit!

Are you a crispy, soft, or no gingerbread kind of person? I like both varieties, but have had my fill of the former kind this month thanks to the Lebkuchen Hearts I've been gorging on. I did hope that the biscuit would be a little kinder on my teeth than the sneaky Gingerbread Reindeer from ASDA were last year though. 

Fortunately the base of the tree was rather soft and almost bendy. I wondered if it had gone slightly stale, but it still tasted good and delivered a fiery warmth. As I worked my way up  towards the star, the biscuit was crisper with a good crunch, yet wasn't hard enough to worry the dentists (although the sugar content might!). The coating tasted typically of cooking chocolate -it was cheap and not the sort of stuff you'd want to eat on it's own- but used in this light its sweet waxiness worked well to counteract the heat from the biscuit.

Greggs' Christmas Tree biscuit is a lovely little festive treat, and I'd be more than happy to have another!

8/10

Sweet Mince Pie (Greggs)

I've already reviewed the winners of this years' prestigious Good Housekeeping Institute's prestigious Mince Pie taste tests, and today it's the turn of the 2015 runners up -made by Greggs. For those of you who, like me, live in non-mince-pie eating households, it's always handy to be able to buy a single pastry without committing to a whole box. Unfortunately traditional British bakeries offering freshly baked bread and cakes are somewhat on the decline, but most high streets do offer (at least one) Greggs. In fact their mince pie was the first I tried this season -before I thought sod it, and bought three 6 pack boxes to eat to myself. Hey, it's Christmas, it's traditional to be more stuffed than the Turkey throughout (November and) December, right?

"It's that time of year when you can enjoy our sweet mince pies! 
Deliciously crumbly shortcrust pastry, filled with a sweet mincemeat, made with vine fruits, Bramley apple and candied orange and lemon peel - YUM!"

This was a fairly wide and shallow mince pie, much more akin to the ones I used to make with my Grandma every year (I miss doing that so much) than most of the deeper shop bought varieties. The pastry was a light golden colour and there was a fair amount of caster sugar gracing the top. So far, so good. 

Unfortunately, the taste wasn't fantastic. At the time I wondered whether my tastes had changed (yet again) and I'd just gone off mince pies, but I've since tried Iceland's fabulous luxury versions and ALDI's wacky flavoured offerings, and realised that Greggs just haven't done a great job. The case to filling ratio was off, and the sheer amount of pastry made it rather claggy to eat. Unfortunately it wasn't buttery or shortbread-esque like Iceland's either, which made for a rather cumbersome eating experience. 

Please excuse the nibbled edges - I was eating this on the train!

The mincemeat was pretty standard, on the plus side it was quite heavily spiced but it hadn't been cooked for long enough, resulting in globs of unattractive suet permeating the filling. Humf.

Perhaps this is why the Greggs Mince Pie dropped to number 17 out of 24 in the Good Housekeeping's Taste Test this year. C'mon Greggs, more effort next year please!

5/10

Christmas Muffin (Greggs)

Hurrah, another festive treat to tick off my 'wish I'd tried in 2015' list -one of the last I might add! The Greggs Christmas muffin just didn't make it to my mouth last year, but I've often wondered if it was as good as it looked. I owe a big thank you to Dan on Twitter for alerting me to their return, and of course I didn't hesitate to buy one as soon as I spotted them peering at me so longingly from behind heir £1 sign in Greggs.

"Who doesn't love cake and custard?! That's why we've combined the two for you. A mixed spice and sweet mincemeat muffin, filled with a custard style filling and topped with a fondant icing and sugar decoration."

This year the high street bakers have apparently improved the recipe, and they certainly looked the part with their rosy red wrapper and sweet gold star atop snowy white icing. The sweet festive scent also gave the impression that I was in for a treat, and I carefully carried it to uni with me so that I could enjoy it on my late evening return home.

As a side note, anyone who follows me on Twitter and saw my muffin post last night may have read about my grumpiness caused by the train being on time for once (a strange sounding complaint, but I explained why in the comment). I really hoped that appearances wouldn't let me down with this train dessert as they had in the past with the utterly disappointing apple crumble doughnut.

I went to slice my muffin in half but it totally fell apart -this is one cake not made for eating on the go! I then started to wonder what had happened to the custard that was supposed to fill the muffin. Sure there was a little pocket of it at the very bottom, but not anywhere near enough to to enjoy cake and custard together in every bite as hoped.

Not wanting to give up on the Christmas muffin before I'd tasted it, I picked up the largest chunk and dug in. The cake was wonderfully soft and the spices were mellow, reminding me of carrot cake -without the carrot of course! The flavour was delicious and I really enjoyed it, although I'd argue about whether or not it was 'mincemeat' considering that there were only two raisins (or sultanas, I can't tell the difference) in the entire muffin. As for the custard, it was the same delicious innards used in Greggs' Caramel Custard doughnut, which actually made my heart sink a little because it was so good and I JUST WANTED MORE OF IT.

I really hope that I got a bit of a duff muffin, and that others contain both more fruit and custard filling. The flavour and texture of the cake was delicious but it was ruined by the lack of proportions. That said I would like to try it warmed up with a big mug of tea. Please let me know if you've tried Greggs Christmas muffin yet and whether you've had a similar or entirely different experience!

7/10