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! Cadbury Caramel Choc Tarts (ASDA)

New Cadbury products are popping up all over the place at the moment. Of course there's the new Oreo bars, as well as a new giant Peanut Caramel Crisp bar, but there's also a number of Cadbury licensed products too. Only yesterday I spotted the new Cadbury muffins in ASDA (I appreciate that the Co-Op have been selling them for a few months now) as well as the new Choc Tart range at £1.50 per four pack (50p cheaper than Tesco). 

The new pastry based treats are available in Crunchie, Flake, Mini Eggs and Caramel, which all vary slightly in terms of their fillings. Whilst I realise that it would have been more seasonal to opt for the Mini Egg tarts, it was the combination of layers in the Caramel version that appealed most to me. 

"Delicious chocolate flavoured brownie topped with a caramel flavour fondant, baked in a delicate chocolate pasty case with a caramel layer & topped with a milk chocolate with a soft caramel centre." 

It's like a chocoholic was asked to reinvent Mr Kipling's Cherry Bakewell tarts. The components are all there, they've just been naughtified*. It's not just the flavours that are naughty either; remember the boobie buns? Surely these have got to be the tittie tarts?

The "delicate" pastry cases were extremely crumbly, and didn't like being sliced into. I needed to show you what the innards looked like though so I persisted in my mess making. All layers were present and complete, and in decent ratios too! 

Chocolate pastry is difficult to do well, and Premier foods (who make the tarts) haven't really pulled it off. Sure it's crumbly, but the cocoa dries the mix out which means that the butteriness is all but lost. That said, Bert really enjoyed his pastry, so maybe you will too! 

As for the chocolate brownie, it too was dry, lacking the fudginess of a fresh home baked version. Fortunately the Caramel sauce beneath and fondant atop it went somewhat to rectify the issue and prevented the brownie from sticking to the roof of my mouth. On the plus side both the caramel elements were pretty tasty! 

I then had an idea: why not heat the second half? Especially as I was eating it for dessert with ice cream** and Bakewells can be served warm. 

Genius. Pure genius. The Choc Tart transformed from something I wouldn't bother buying again to a treat I'll look forward to enjoying again! The Caramel sauce seeped into the pastry whilst the fondant melted over the brownie, resulting in a much less claggy combination of textures. The flavours also enhanced once warmed - double bonus. 

As an ambient snack these are unexciting, so I highly recommend that if you're planning on trying them that you also heat them up and serve them with a scoop or two of ice cream!

Cold: 5/10

Warm: 8/10 

*will someone please tell the Oxford English Dictionary to add that one in please? And yes, I agree, no food is naughty.

**Oppo's salted caramel was the perfect match.

NEW! Cadbury Eggciting Layers of Joy (Co-Op)

Twelfth night is over. Christmas is done, the decorations are back up in the eaves, and I'm no longer nursing a pine-needle carpet. Does that make it OK to start reviewing Easter products? I'm not sure. That said, I did write my first Christmas review back in October, so why not eh?

Today's review is of the new Creme Egg inspired Layers of Joy, Having previously experienced mixed success with the Cadbury's desserts (from the wonderful Caramellionaire and Snowy Delights to the disastrous Bubbles of Joy Duo) I hoped for the best and picked up this pack from the Co-Op for £1.

The top layer was very very sweet and syrupy, rather like a watered down version of the fondant Creme Egg centre. I should probably point out at this point, that although I adore chocolate, I am not a fan of Cadbury's iconic Easter treat. I find their sugary filling far too cloying, detracting from its creamy chocolate casing. So as a non-egg-lover, I found this top layer sickly, much preferring the standard whipped cream topping that all their other 'Layers of Joy' pots are topped with. 

The next layer was the sponge disc, and I expected it to be chocolatey like their existing products, but it wasn't. Instead it was a plain sponge,which I thought was an odd choice considering that there's no cake (chocolate or otherwise) in a Creme Egg. To make things worse it was rather hard and dry, and probably would've made a good frisbee.

Luckily, the bottom layer was the chocolate mousse, which saved the day somewhat. It was light and fluffy whilst rich and chocolatey, and by far the best part of this dessert.

If you -or your children- are Creme Egg-o-holics, and you've been eagerly awaiting their (December!) return, then give these 'Eggciting' pots a go. 

If like me however, you find them just too sweet... then you might want to give these desserts a miss too.

5/10