Went through my pantry and found a BUNCH of Pop-Tarts. I guess I kept buying them and forgetting about them. Rather than stretch these reviews out into individual posts (which I could do, because it's a bunch of content) I am kind of sick of these things and want to get them out of here ASAP.So I'll just run down the list and rate them out of 5.
So, seemingly out of the blue, Paczki showed up on at Aldi.
Now, if you haven't heard of Paczki, you're not alone. I hadn't heard of them until a few years ago. From what I understand they are a polish dessert that is very similar to a doughnut, but richer, and they are usually eaten before the start of Lent. As I understand it, this is a last sugary hurrah that uses up all the not-so-Lent friendly ingredients in your pantry so you can indulge now and (ideally) won't be tempted later.
Growing up in a mostly secular household, all of this was pretty foreign to me, but you don't have to observe Lent in order to enjoy this pastry, so let's give these a try!
I found these on an end-cap new the check-out. Visually, they're not much to look at. We have a plastic clam-shell with a plain-looking red, white, and black label. The clear plastic allows the pastries to be the center of attention, but in my opinion, they don't look any different from a classic custard-filled doughnut from Dunkin. Since Paczki are trending right now, with the upcoming holidays, I decided to buy them in-spite of their lack-luster appearance. (Was that a mistake?)
Once opened, they smell....like a typical creme filled doughnut. These smell like fried dough, sweet custard, and vanilla. The aroma is appealing, but it's certainly not unique. The scent is classic custard-filled doughnut. Maybe it'll taste richer or more complex?
At first bite, I was immediately underwhelmed, but then after a few more bites...I graduated to full blown disappointment. The dough base is sweet, fluffy, and fatty. It kind of melts in your mouth, so texturally it's great, but flavor-wise it was so bland. When your doughnut is more texture than flavor, something is wrong. I thought the custard filling might help, but it too was rather bland and flavorless. It has the texture of vanilla pudding, and a bit of egg-y custard flavor, but again, it was mostly bland. This tastes sweet, like sugar, but not much else and while that isn't a bad thing, it certainly wasn't great.
In the end, I feel like this was a waste of perfectly good calories. Oddly enough, my fiance was really into these. He liked the chewy doughy texture and that moist filling. I He thought they tasted much fresher and lighter than most cream filled doughnuts you'd buy in a grocer store, and I can see that. The filling and doughnut weren't overpowering, that's for sure, and and when you compare that to the sometimes crusty sugar bomb doughnuts you can buy in grocery bakeries, it makes sense that this more bland version would be so refreshing by comparison. This wasn't the best doughnut he'd ever eaten, but for a store-bought pastry he was pleasantly surprised.
These are pretty okay doughnuts, and would pair nicely with coffee or tea, but as a stand-alone treat, I consider these a fail. (But to be fair, my fiance would buy these again in a heartbeat, he liked eating one for breakfast with a cup of green tea.) It all depends on your personal tastes, but I'd say you should get your Paczki fix elsewhere.
In case you missed it, I posted a few stash-busting gum reviews over on my Instagram. I'm hoping to do a few of these each weekend to make myself less of a food hoarder. Check out my NEW Quik Review section.
Limited Edition Pop-Tarts, unlike Oreos, are pretty low-risk when it comes to writing food reviews. I can easily recall a few failure/nightmare Oreo products that haunt my tastebuds to this day, but when it comes to Pop-Tart flavors, I have no regrets.
Even the slightly more risky flavors, like Maple bacon were pretty great! I liked them so much that I bought several clearance boxes for my at-desk snacking needs. Unfortunately, Pop-Tart's winning track record is now being put to the test with these new Soda flavors.
It's a Christmas Mira-kringle! (Boo!)
What's a Kringle? Well, it's a large halo-shaped pastry made with layered dough and various fillings and toppings. They're the official state pastry of Wisconsin, they have Danish roots, and here on the East Coast, seasonal Kringle offerings are often sold at Trader Joe's. When Trader Joe's does get a shipment of Kringles in, they never last long. People go crazy for these things!
A while back I reviewed the seasonal Pumpkin Caramel Kringle from O&H Danish Bakery, but before that I tried the O&H Almond Kringle (my first ever Kringle) and it was the absolute BEST! Since it's the holidays and they're in HIGH demand, it's hard to get my hands on one from Trader Joe's, so I decided to try this version from Aldi instead. Will Racine Danish Kringles taste as good as O&H? We shall see!
Remember the Maple Bacon Pop-Tarts I reviewed a few weeks ago? It was released with two more flavors, a chocolate caramel and these watermelon ones, and a limited edition Pink Lemonade version is on the way. (Lemonade should be available this April.) When I saw these new releases the chocolate caramel version left me feeling pretty "meh," so I decided not to check those out, but the watermelon? It gave me this surge of nostalgia, I knew I had seen these before..and it turns out, I had! Remember these "Wild Watermelon" Pop-tarts from the 90's? I sure didn't, until I saw these! What's going on? Full House is back, Ghostbusters is headed into theaters along with Ecto-Cooler, and now Watermelon Pop-Tarts?
RIP you wonderful funny man.
I'm pretty sure I ate them way back when, but I can't remember if I liked them or not. The fact that they didn't leave much of an impression doesn't bode well, but what the heck. Why not give these a(nother) try?
How could I go to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and NOT get a doughnut? That's just unnatural.
I already had plans to go to Dunkin' on my way home to grab the pistachio iced coffees (reviewed here), but right before my work day ended I saw Matt Zion's post that there was a new doughnut available for spring 2016. I figured, why not kill two food-review-birds with one stone and try both in one go?
Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie~! My food hoarding isn't limited to the giant pile in my photo-room, it's apparently found it's way into my freezer. I was digging through my usual freezer stuff to find my giant bag of frozen french fries from BJ's, because I'm eating oh-so-healthy this week, and I spotted this box hidden in the depths of my icy freezer-prison where time and food are (obviously) forgotten. It didn't look freezer burnt, so why not review it for todays' #TBT and put it out of it's off-season misery?
I picked this up at random a while ago, but apparently this is a much sought after Trader Joe's product? Awesome! I've had the almond version before, which is usually sold around Christmas time, and that thing tastes freaking amazing. The almond version is hands-down the best thing I've ever eaten from Trader Joe's, so I can only imagine that this will be equally as amazing. So what is a Kringle anyway? Let's find out!
Welp, it looks like I'll be writing pumpkin related reviews all this week! After going through my to-be-reviewed pile, it's safe to say, I went overboard on the pumpkin this year. Originally I wasn't going to review this limited edition flavor, since I was so disappointed by the Snickerdoodle Toaster Strudel, but I saw this item reviewed over on Junk Food Guy's blog, and after reading his post, I HAD to try them for myself.
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!
My boyfriend has been wanting to make taiyaki for ages! He went online and ordered the special fish-shaped pan just so we could make some.
The batter recipe was very easy and we already had all of the ingredients in our pantry. (Which is always a plus. I hate running out at the last minute to get exotic grocery items.)
Inside each taiyaki is a generous amount of red bean paste. This ingredient might be a little tricky to find in an American grocery store, but every Asian market carries it. (We picked up a package during our last Asian Food Market trip, so we had it on hand.)
Ingredients:
CLICK FOR RECIPE
- Cake Flour
- 1 egg
- Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Milk
- **Red Bean Paste for Filling
** You can use whatever filling you’d like. If you don’t have red bean paste, try Nutella, or peanutbutter, or marshmallow fluff…the possibilities are endless!
The finished product is a warm, fish-shaped, cake filled with creamy bean paste. It’s texture is similar to a pancake, light and fluffy, which would work well with fruity fillings.
Although we burned our first attempt, we got into the swing of things right away and these were super easy to make. (You just need a fancy pan. Ebay has them MUCH cheaper than Amazon.)
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
The key lime cheesecake doughnut I reviewed yesterday was pretty yummy, even though there wasn’t much filling, but how will this cake doughnut taste?
This time, the doughnut has a cake base with the same key lime icing, but the whole thing is topped with cream.
Right off the bat, this doughnut is a mess! It is a typical doughnut with a hole in the middle, that hole is topped/filled with cream. When I opened the package cream was everywhere!
The original, glazed, Krispy Kreme doughnuts are amazing, but their seasonal flavors have always been a bit of a let down. Right now the company is promoting 2 different key lime donuts: Key Lime Cake and Key Lime Cheesecake. Since key lime is one of my favorite flavors, I am giving these a shot.
This cheesecake-doughnut is topped with graham cracker pieces and a tangy lime icing. Inside, there is supposed to be a creamy key-lime-cheesecake filling.
