Thursday, September 25, 2014

Snickerdoodle Toaster Strudel - ShopRite: Berlin, NJ

Snickerdoodle Toaster Strudel - ShopRite: Berlin, NJ
I'm not sure if this flavor is limited edition, or permanent, but I figured I would do a little foodie experiment to see if this tasted any different from the new Limited Edition Pumpkin Pie strudel. (Since they are both cinnamon-heavy flavors.) I bought a box of each, so now I gotta hurry up and review these to make room for all the frozen pumpkin goodies I plan on reviewing next month. Let the strudeling begin!


Just a quick note for some of you readers who are unfamiliar with a "snickerdoodle." A "snickerdoodle" is a cinnamon-heavy spiced cookie that is really popular here in America. Some recipes call for additional spices, but cinnamon is always the boldest flavor in the cookie. (Also, according to Wikipedia, it might have originated from a German pastry.)

The box and it's layout fit right in with the rest of the Pillsbury line. We have the classic blue-heavy color palette, the somewhat creepy Pillsbury Doughboy mascot, and a yummy photo of the product itself. Now, looking at the package, this design is straight forward, commercial, and very marketable. This box isn't gorgeous, but it works, and when you look back at the original designs from the products release in the late 80's/early 90's, this is by far the best design they've ever had.

Inside the box, the strudel are packaged inside a long freezer bag with individual packets of squeeze-able icing attached in a long chain. Not visually appealing, but it works.

I tossed two pastries into my toaster, topped them with icing, and then it was photo time! Now, a little pet peeve of mine is that the product photos on the packaging always make the icing look opaque, but when you apply it yourself it always turns into this semi-transparent mess.


The included icing NEVER looks as appealing as the ones in the commercials or photos. Also, the odds of me tearing off a perfect little corner to pipe the icing is always 50/50. As you can see, I was able to make the pastry on the left look as close to the packaging as I could, while the other icing packet completely tore in half when I tried to separate the perforated areas. Now, the icing doesn't look too translucent here, but the longer it sits on the warm toaster pastry, the more translucent it gets, and it starts to look really unappealing after a few minutes. Enough looking at it, let's eat it!

I took a bite, and the first thing I could taste was the creamy custard that's on either side of the pastry. The filling is warm from the toaster, and it tastes just like vanilla instant pudding, which is nice, but what does that have to do with snickerdoodles? There's no vanilla custard in the cookie this is trying to recreate, what gives?


After a few more bites I reached a small reservoir of cinnamon-filling. (This turned out to be 85% custard to 15% cinnamon filling.) The cinnamon creme is pretty flavorful, it reminds me of the filling for Pillsbury cinnamon buns, but there is way more vanilla custard/pudding, so when it's eaten together, the cinnamon flavoring is overpowered by puffed pastry and vanilla creme.

As a breakfast item, I felt like this was too sweet, and it didn't have enough of a cinnamon-y punch to represent a snickerdoodle. If this is a limited edition flavor, I certainly won't miss it when it's gone. These don't taste bad, but they are a poor representation of the cookie and, by the second pastry, eating this felt like a chore. I'm really hoping the pumpkin pie Toaster Strudel will be more impressive.
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