Milky Way Crispy Rolls

Product name: Milky Way Crispy Rolls
Purchase details: £0.99 for a box of five two finger bars (Home Bargains)
Calories: 64 per finger (128 per bar) 

Here’s a blast from the past: Milky Way Crispy Rolls. I loved them when I was a kid but when I last tried them, a couple of years ago, I was less impressed. This box was really cheap, though, so I couldn’t resist giving them another go.

These ‘milk chocolate (30%) covered wafer biscuit fingers with a lightly whipped filling (47%)’ were made by Mars and contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. The bars came in packaging containing a picture of the product, as well as some chocolate and wheat. On checking the ingredients, the latter seemed to be included due to the product containing 13% wheat flour. The country of origin was not stated but contact details were provided for Australia, Great Britain and Ireland.

The two cylindrical fingers that made up each 25g bar didn’t have the thickest of chocolate coatings, and I also thought the filling looked quite stiff rather than light. However, they did have quite a milky smell which was probably the result of the skimmed milk powder listed on the ingredients.

The chocolate was quite basic in taste but it melted really quickly and well to give way to the really crispy wafers. I was right in thinking the filling was solid, in that it was able to hold its shape, but it was also soft under pressure. I found these textures mixed really well together.

Pleasingly, the overall taste was quite milky, and it actually reminded me of the much-missed Mars Delight, just not as richly delicious (and without the caramel cream!). That said, it was the filling that made these Crispy Rolls what they were, and this was still richer than I would have expected.

Bearing in mind the size of this bar, and the low number of calories it contained, the flavours on offer were pretty decent! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Recipe: Chocolate crispy bites

Recipe: Chocolate crispy bites
Source: Chocablog: The chocolate blog

At the same time that I bookmarked the No bake chocolate chip cookie bars on Chocablog's website, I bookmarked this recipe for Chocolate crispy bites too. As a quick and easy recipe, it seemed ideal for me to try this for my nephew’s birthday tea.

Like most children, I ate many Rice Krispies cakes as a kid, but these were always the milk chocolate clusters – I was never lucky enough to try something similar made with white chocolate instead. As a result, whilst I was making these with the little ones in mind, I was pretty excited to try them myself!

Since I knew I would be reviewing this recipe, I’m proud to say that I didn’t cheat and use a microwave to melt the ingredients. That’s right, I used the bain-marie method, as advised! This obviously took longer but I’m sure it made a positive difference, somehow, somewhere...

I did have a panic moment when making these bites as, when I added the syrup and began to stir, the ingredients separated out, leaving a thick mixture underneath and a golden liquid on top (this appeared to be the syrup rather than the butter). I soon realised this wasn’t going to reverse itself so I decided to take the plunge and add it to the cereal anyway (unfortunately, I didn’t have a heatproof bowl big enough to do this the other way around, but the liquid easily transferred and didn’t leave any stuck to the original bowl).

Thankfully, when added to the cereal, the mixture seemed to work and there was a lovely smell of white chocolate too. When combined, the mixture glided easily into the tin and, despite initial concerns, the mixture didn’t separate out again.

I’m not at all artistic so my attempt at adding the milk chocolate made the overall appearance look messy but, on the plus side, I knew this would be less of an issue once cut into smaller pieces. Since I had fewer than two hours before I needed to do this, I put the tray in the fridge for a bit – I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to but it seemed to do the trick!

The images on Chocablog made the finished product look similar in texture to Kellogg’s Rice Krispies: Squares but mine seemed to look and feel a lot gooier, even after they had set. Of course, these bites were crispy, but they were surrounded by so much ‘good stuff’ that there wasn’t a chewiness to them and, instead, they had soggy bottoms since that’s where a lot of the liquid seemed to have sunk too. I’m not sure if this means that they had gone wrong or not, but they were certainly very tasty so it didn’t seem to matter. They had a really sweet taste and I was surprised at how much flavour the syrup provided, resulting in a caramel-like taste. I can’t say that I could specifically notice the milk chocolate but they did remind me slightly of millionaire’s shortbread so I wondered if this drizzled layer contributed to that. 

Due to the sweetness and the fact that I knew plenty of other food would be on offer, I decided to cut these bites in a way that resulted in 21 squares – a slightly larger yield than the 16 suggested by Chocablog. This seemed to be the way to go as all of them got eaten somehow – I always think it’s a good sign when people decide to keep some to take home!

This wasn’t the kind of treat that people would rave about (and they didn’t!) but these bites were nice enough. They will have done absolutely nothing positive for the waistline, particularly having seen how transparent the greaseproof paper had gone after being in contact with them but, as my sister pointed out, with the cereal, it was just like eating breakfast! 

Ease of recipe: 8/10
Finished product: 7/10
Overall score: 7.5/10
Bake again? Probably