Tesco Pudding: Chocolate cookie dough

Product name: Tesco Pudding: Chocolate cookie dough
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 100g tub
Calories: 375 per tub
Country of origin: UK 

I don’t often buy desserts for my evening treats but I was intrigued when I spotted this Tesco Pudding: Chocolate cookie dough. It was a bit of a gamble on the basis that I’d never seen or heard anything about it (or any similar product) before, and there were no images of the dessert on the tub, but I decided to give it a go. Instead, there were brown splodges which, from a distance, made me think of cows, but were actually images of Oreo-like cream-filled cookies! 

I actually froze this Pudding in order to extend its use-by date by a month but this turned out to be a bit of a hassle. It was designed to be eaten warm (having been microwaved for 20–25 seconds depending on the power of the machine) but there were specific instructions that stated it had to be defrosted first for at least eight hours in the fridge and eaten the same day. This meant I had to intentionally plan my evening meal and snacks in plenty of time to defrost it, if I had the spare calories for it, but not defrost it accidentally if I didn’t! I don’t know why the pack was so specific (I usually just use a defrosting plate) but I figured there must be a reason.  

 

Anyway, the description of ‘sponge made with chocolate cookie dough, with a hidden centre and topping of chocolate sauce, topped with chocolate cookie dough pieces’ sounded intriguing and yummy and, with the inclusion of golden syrup and double cream and both dark and milk chocolate on the ingredients list, everything sounded good. 

The dessert looked gooey, with the topping being similar in appearance to the icing on a chocolate fudge cake, and the dark sprinkles looking like a chocolate sponge, and this all melted further once heated. Beneath this, the main component genuinely did look like cookie dough, complete with chocolate chips. 

 

Whilst not very strong, the Pudding smelt nicely of warm chocolate pudding (unsurprisingly!). The rich chocolate sauce was slightly bitter but deliciously chocolatey whilst the ‘cookie dough pieces’ on top tasted like chocolate sponge. The dough centre was like a warm and moist sticky sponge, texturally, and it had a slightly buttery taste to it. Somewhat disappointingly, however, I didn’t really make a connection with cookie dough when it came to the flavour. It certainly delivered on the chocolate side of things, though, since there were chips scattered throughout, as well as the second helping of sauce in the middle.  

In itself, this was a delicious treat, but I can’t say it tasted as unique as it sounded. It’s the kind of pudding that, if I were served it as a chocolatey sponge pudding after a pub meal, I would have no complaints. It just wasn’t revolutionary.  

Appearance: 8/10 

Aroma: 7.5/10 

Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.88/10