McVitie's Galaxy: Slices (cookie crumble)

Product name: McVitie’s Galaxy: Slices (cookie crumble)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of six slices (tesco.com)
Calories: 150 per slice
Country of origin: UK

I recently spotted these McVitie’s Galaxy: Slices (cookie crumble) online and I just had to give them a go as Galaxy is my favourite chocolate. I’d not seen or heard of these before and the image on the website had the word ‘new’ on the packaging. However, this pack didn’t, so I don’t know if these have been around for a while or not!

These individually wrapped slices were baked for Mars UK and came in a packet that featured the usual Galaxy branding with purple features. It contained mouth-watering photographs of moist-looking biscuit bases topped with a smooth and thick milk chocolate topping. 

Pleasingly, the reality was exactly the same – always a bonus! The deep brown ‘crumbly cookie base’ looked a bit like tiffin, and I couldn’t help but agree with the description of ‘a generous layer of Galaxy milk chocolate’. It contributed to 23% of each 27.5g bar, in fact!

I’ve had the Galaxy Cookie Crumble chocolate bar before but I was interested to see how the combination worked with the biscuit being the dominant feature (46% of the product was simply ‘crushed cookies’). 

The slices had a really buttery scent with a hint of creamy Galaxy, and the texture was soft with a crunchy resistance. There was a lovely sweet and syrupy biscuit taste which mixed well with the cooling chocolate. I was particularly pleased that the creaminess of Galaxy’s unique flavour, whilst not overpowering, was still very noticeable.

I thoroughly enjoyed these McVitie’s Galaxy: Slices (cookie crumble) – much more so than similar products I’ve tried!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Krispy Kreme Vanilla Cappuccino

Product name: Krispy Kreme Vanilla Cappuccino
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 94g doughnut (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
Calories: 409 per doughnut
Country of origin: UK 

I must confess that I was lucky enough to receive this Krispy Kreme Vanilla Cappuccino for free as a thank you for registering my reward card – I promise I’ll start paying for them again from now on!

 

I was really looking forward to trying this new variety but, as my first review of a filled doughnut, I was also a bit gutted I was going to have to cut it open and miss the magic of finding out where the filling was hiding! Prior to this, though, I was impressed by its outer appearance – it was decorated with swirls of vanilla and coffee flavoured icings as well as ‘crunchy shortcake crumble’. 

 

The Krispy Kreme website informed me that this doughnut contained a ‘smooth coffee kreme’ and, on opening it up, I could see that there was a lot of this pale substance. Of course, this excitement came at the cost of calories, but the good thing was that all of the nutritional information was available online so I was able to intentionally have a lighter dinner in order to accommodate this evening treat!

This doughnut wasn’t coated in the famous Krispy Kreme glaze and, as a result, its aroma was more like that of a standard doughnut – sweet and doughy. I found it to be less powerful, and there was no hint of a coffee scent, but it was delicious nonetheless. 

Before diving in, I couldn’t resist trying the different topping components on their own. The shortbread was quite soft but it was crumbly and I thought it tasted like Fox’s Party Rings. The sugary icings had a great texture – slightly crispy on the outside but soft in the centre. The vanilla was very sweet but, alone, had a slight chemical taste to it. The coffee one was better, though, with a decent but not-too-strong flavour. 

The coffee kreme centre tasted just like buttercream but with a hint of coffee thrown in for good measure. It was thick and very smooth. In fact, it tasted so beautiful I would have happily just eaten a jar of it on its own! 

The dough was the same as the Original Glazed (and the majority of other Krispy Kreme doughnuts) and, when everything was mixed together, it was a very tasty experience. It maintained the delicious sweetness that I’ve come to love about Krispy Kremes but added a bit of added interest with a mild coffee flavour. I say ‘mild’, but this was definitely stronger than the Caramel Macchiato that I’ve previously reviewed. 

I had been a little disappointed when I first noticed the absence of a glaze but it definitely wasn’t needed on this particular doughnut. The Vanilla Cappuccino was both sweet and crispy enough from the filling and the topping. 

Now...which one shall I have next?! 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.63/10

Cartmel Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble

Product name: Cartmel Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble
Country of origin: England 

To my knowledge, this Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble is a relatively new addition to the Cartmel Village Shop – I certainly don’t remember it being around a couple of years ago. Either way, this was certainly my first ever experience of it. The nearest I’ve got is my sister’s homemade banoffee apple crumble where she does actually use a jar of their Sticky Toffee Sauce. 

This particular 500g pudding was a gift from my parents and, as a result, I’m not sure of the purchase details. However, I suspect they got it in Booths as it’s possible I mentioned in passing (ahem) that it was on offer there at the time they bought it.  

The cardboard sleeve was very similar to the design of the Sticky Toffee Pudding and Sticky Toffee Chocolatesbut, this time, the bottom strip was an apple shade of green. Again, no nutritional information was provided, so I stored this dessert in the freezer until a day when I wasn’t following my diet plan.

Having been thoroughly defrosted, the ‘yummy’ crumble was supposed to be cooked in its takeaway-style foil container (minus the lid) in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes so I opted for the full 25 as I prefer more of a golden brown topping. 

Prior to cooking, the crumble topping that, among other things, contained the usual rolled oats and Demerara sugar, looked very pale, and there were actually some quite large bits in the mix. I have to say the pudding was very well-covered and it was only the buttery shortbread aroma of the topping that I could detect. After being removed from the oven, the very buttery scent remained, and I was also pleased to see a small section of bubbling sauce seeping through the browned crumble at the edge of the dish.

When breaking through the crunchy topping, the combination of apples and toffee sauce (together accounting for 60% of the product) felt really mushy, so I was surprised to see such large slices of sauce-coated apple inside. This rich brown toffee sauce even managed to look warming on a cold night! I also found that exposing the inside of the pudding released a very slight brown sugar smell, although I can’t say this was quite up there with the aroma that the original Sticky Toffee Pudding boasts.

The sauce contained butter, cream, sugar and vanilla flavouring – not exactly healthy but at least you get a portion of fruit (it counts, right?!) in a pudding like this! In normal circumstances, I always prefer the topping of crumbles to the insides, but I did wonder if the inclusion of Cartmel’s sauce would sway me on this occasion.

I have to admit I raised an eyebrow when I saw the packaging describe the ‘crunchy apples’ used in this product – I figured it meant they were crunchy at the point of manufacture! However, they really did have a crunch rather than the slimy, slithery pieces that usually feature in crumbles. That said, they were, of course, a lot softer than raw apples. They also, unusually, maintained the sweet tang of the fresh variety whilst the sauce, although not tasting specifically like Cartmel’s other Sticky Toffee products, added a lovely sweet dimension. The quantity of the sauce included did also mean that it was possible to have it on its own, here and there, and this resulted in a darker toffee taste.
 

The topping was just how I like it – the upper edge was very crisp with an almost caramelised, sugary biscuit taste, whilst the inner edge was soft, buttery and moist from being in contact with the filling.

The packaging suggested serving the pudding with a ‘big dollop’ of ice cream or cream, and I’ve always been a fan of allowing a basic, neutral-flavoured ice cream to melt into hot crumbles. As a result, and obviously in the name of research(!), I tried this too. As expected, this produced a lovely, smooth and cooling effect, with the vanilla offsetting the sweetness of the dessert.

Since this Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble served four to five people, I decided to share it for once, and I gather from my Mum that it was also ‘lovely’ cold. I didn’t sample it that way, on this occasion, but I did scrape out the foil tin, and the sauce, at least, was just as scrumptious!

This was definitely a hit and, whilst I can’t honestly say that I’d have recognised the toffee flavour as Cartmel’s, the resulting dessert was still fantastically delicious. Can they do no wrong?! 

Appearance: 9.5/10
Aroma: 8.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 8.5/10