Lindt Hello My Name Is: Cookies & cream

Product name: Lindt Hello My Name Is: Cookies & cream
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 39g bar (Sainsbury’s Local)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: Germany

I was so excited when I found out that the Lindt Hello My Name Is range was making its way over to the UK so it was with great joy that I picked up one of each flavour at my nearest Sainsbury’s. All four varieties will be reviewed in due course, but today I bring you my review for the Cookies & cream bar.

The first thing I noticed about the range was the luxurious feel of the glossy wrappers. Each flavour is presented on a classy black background, with the Cookies & cream variant being signified by the metallic yellow tips. I also loved the enticing photograph of the inside of the bar, as well as the unusual and attractive fonts that were used, not just for the product name, but for the ingredients list and other written information.

On opening the bar, there was an instant creamy smell, and the detailed presentation continued with each block of the bar having a different, fun image, word or phrase embossed onto its surface. The bar was a lot slimmer than most chocolate bars, but it was also significantly longer and so it didn’t appear to be a measly offering.

I knew from the wrapper that 8% of this product was cookie pieces and I noticed this as soon as I cut into the bar since I could feel the grittiness against the knife edge. However, the milk chocolate itself, along with the cream filling, were contrastingly smooth and so the bar broke softly along its ridged edges. The pale cream looked refreshing against the chocolate shell and the flecks of cookie were reassuring for a cookies and cream theme!

I found the chocolate to be subtle and not nearly as rich or sweet as Lindt’s Lindor chocolate which, to me, was a good thing. This outer layer melted slowly, enabling it to gradually merge into the sweet, milky cream which melted that little bit quicker. In normal circumstances, I don’t like rough remnants to be left behind in the mouth but, for some reason, the same wasn’t true of the cookie pieces in this bar. I think this was because there were several tiny pieces rather than fewer larger ones and so they didn’t feel intrusive in the mouth and they were also able to provide an additional flavour. Furthermore, they maintained their crunch rather than going soft, and so the experience wasn’t too dissimilar to eating an actual biscuit following chocolate.

I thought this bar was a great introduction to the Hello range and, as expected from Lindt, it was great quality. I’m now even more keen to try the other flavours! 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.25/10

Reese's Nutrageous

Product name: Reese’s Nutrageous
Purchase details: Tesco Superstore
Calories: 260 per 51g bar
Country of origin: USA

Last week, I reviewed Oh Henry! Peanut Butter (see here) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Today, I’m bringing you the promised review of Reese’s Nutrageous – a bar that is an identical concept (even down to being produced by Hershey and containing Reese’s peanut butter).

I ate a lot of Nutrageous bars a couple of years ago when they could regularly be found for the bargain price of 29p in Home Bargains. It’s been a while since I’ve had one, though, and this bar was kindly bought for my by a colleague who knows me very well. As a result, I don’t know how much it cost, but I do know it was purchased in a Tesco Superstore.

I loved the glossy orange wrapper this Reese’s bar came in, and the product inside looked very appetising. At 51g, the bar was slightly shorter than the Oh Henry! alternative but, aside from that, its outer appearance was very similar. Although both bars are covered in a ‘chocolate flavoured coating’, I was pleased that the Nutrageous bar didn’t feel ‘melty’ between my fingers and so it seemed to be of a better quality. Inside, the peanuts looked slightly smaller than the ones present in the Oh Henry! bar, and I also noticed that the caramel was gathered at the base of the bar rather than encircling the peanut butter core.

  
As I’d expect from a Reese’s product, this bar smelt fantastic with a strong, nutty scent which was actually creamier and richer than I remembered. I couldn’t wait to taste it once again.

Whilst the sweet chocolatey coating wasn’t greasy to hold, it did melt nicely in the mouth, and the crunchy peanuts beneath its surface were a nice size. What I did find was that the strong nuttiness of the bar came from the peanuts themselves rather than the peanut butter. Unfortunately, I found it really hard to pick up on the peanut butter which, for me, is the key ingredient. Its saltiness was detectable but not overly powerful.

As for the texture, I actually found the Nutrageous to be slightly dry. Surprisingly, the caramel made a bigger impact than it did with the Oh Henry! Peanut Butter bar as it was particularly chewy and stringy. Together with the peanuts, these were the most noticeable ingredients. What I would have loved is for the crumbly peanut butter to have played a larger role in the bar, and with a real chocolate coating to add some extra creaminess.

If you’d told me a couple of years ago that I’d find a bar to rival the Reese’s Nutrageous, I wouldn’t have believed you, but now I’ve tried them both, I have to say that the Oh Henry! Peanut Butter is my winner. I think the ratio of ingredients is very similar, if not the same, but by having the caramel layer spread more evenly around the peanut butter, a better and less chewy texture is achieved and the flavour from the peanut butter isn’t as diminished.

That said, I do still love the Nutrageous and will no doubt continue to buy it!

 
Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 9/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Recipe: Peanut biscuits

Recipe: Peanut biscuits
Source: The St Michael Budget Cookery Book – Audrey Ellis (Sundial Books Limited, 1977)

I’ve not blogged for a few days as I’ve been away and, whilst I’ve eaten plenty of treats, I’ve not been in ‘reviewing mode’. However, I’m back to normal today, food-wise, so I thought I’d return to the blogosphere with my first recipe post.

Last night, I really fancied baking something whilst I still could (ie before the diet started again!). Searching the cupboards, I had access to a lot of basic ingredients but, importantly, no butter or chocolate, and so my recipe choice was quite limited.

Since I did have margarine, I decided to try a recipe for peanut biscuits from a really old book that my Mum lent to me. The book in question was The St Michael All Colour Budget Cookery Book by Audrey Ellis. It was published in 1977 and the state of the front cover indicates it’s been around for a long time!

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to my regular readers that I’ve made peanut butter biscuits in the past. The peanut element of these biscuits, though, only came from real nuts (I didn’t have any peanut butter anyway!), so I can’t say I was expecting much from this recipe. What I really wanted was an opportunity to lick out a bowl (as sad as that is!), along with a simple and uncomplicated recipe, since I was pretty tired from all the travelling I’d done over the weekend.

I’m pleased to say that this recipe delivered. Each stage was really easy and, even though I found each batch of biscuits took 20 minutes to bake rather than 10, I still found the whole process to be quick.

I had been slightly concerned that I only had 200g of Stork so I had to make up the remaining 75g of margarine with Tesco Everyday Value Soft Spread which specifically said it was unsuitable for home baking. However, I found this made no difference, and one comment I received was that you wouldn’t know they contained no real butter.

I was really pleased with the finished product. The peanuts provided a lovely salty and toasted flavour and crunch whilst the raisins were sweet and chewy. What I really enjoyed was the way to the cinnamon and raisins combined to provide the taste of an oatmeal raisin cookie whilst maintaining the crispiness of an ordinary biscuit (albeit a slightly greasy one!).

The recipe stated that it made approximately 48 biscuits. Due to mine being devoured in stages, I’m not certain on the total I made, but I think it was 46 – not bad for an impromptu baking session! Whilst they wouldn’t win any awards, they were surprisingly delicious and addictive and my family members also enjoyed them – one of them even took some along to a meeting this morning where they were enjoyed by all. 

Now I just need someone to polish off the remaining few!

Ease of recipe: 9/10
Finished product: 7.5/10
Overall score: 8.25/10
Bake again? Yes

Goo Goo Cluster: Peanut butter

Product name: Goo Goo Cluster: Peanut butter
Purchase details: £1.79 for a 43g Cluster (cybercandy.co.uk)
Calories: 230 per Cluster
Country of origin: USA

Before placing my order on Cybercandy's website, I’d never heard of Goo Goo Clusters, let alone this peanut butter variety. Ever willing to sample peanut butter delights, though, I had no problem in adding one to my basket.

This product came in a pretty plain and old-fashioned looking wrapper, with the pale brown background reflecting its peanut buttery contents. I didn’t actually know what to expect from what was inside since, aside from the picture and the ingredients list, the only descriptive information given on the packet was ‘made with real milk chocolate’ – this, at least, pleased me since I knew I wasn’t about to be greeted with another artificial coating.

The wrapper’s illustration suggested that the milk chocolate was a very dark shade of brown but, on opening it, I was relieved to see that it was far paler and, therefore, more in line with what I would expect from a milk chocolate. The cluster itself was by no means perfectly circular, and it was clear from the lumps and bumps that it contained a lot of nuts under the chocolate’s surface.

Through the sweet-smelling cocoa, my nose could detect the peanut butter and so I was keen to cut open the product to see exactly what was inside. In short, this Goo Goo Cluster: Peanut butter consisted of a generous helping of peanut butter, surrounded with peanuts and covered in milk chocolate. I should also add that, although it looks like there was an air-filled gap between the peanut butter and the chocolate, this wasn’t actually the case – the chocolate itself was quite thick but some of the peanuts dislodged themselves in the dissecting process which is why my picture shows gaps.

As pleased as I was that this product contained real milk chocolate, I can’t say it was the type I’m used to. It felt greasy between my fingers and it was also really sugary and not very creamy. However, it certainly provided a contrast for the peanut butter which was particularly salty.

Texturally, the quantity of peanut butter was lovely and, despite its stickiness, easily melted in the mouth. Surprisingly for the thickness of the chocolate, it was really soft, but the peanuts beneath its surface gave a nice crunch to the cluster.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, and this product was no exception. However, as good an effort as this Goo Goo Cluster was, the balance wasn’t perfect. For me, the peanut butter was overly salty and the chocolate was overly sweet. Whilst I would have expected these factors to cancel each other out, they were just a little too strong and could really be felt in the back of the throat. However, the presence of the real peanuts did provide a distraction from this, and my tastebuds still loved the flavours this product provided.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10