Taste Test - Store brand Lava Cake

I picked this product up just wandering through the aisles of Giant food, however it isn't unique to this chain. There are also variations on this every from Harris Teeter to Safeway. It's a smart move by the stores to get a simple version of popular desserts for those who aren't the most inclined to break out the cookbook and a mixer. Just grab one of these bags, pour and bake and by the time your favorite show goes onto their first commercial break, you have dessert.

Now aside from Salted Caramel Lava cakes, there is a chocolate lava cake option available but I haven't seen it in stock at my local Giant recently. A third variety, your basic chocolate brownie also exists though I haven't ever tried that. As for the chocolate lava cake and the salted caramel variety, they are incredibly simple to use. Preheat your oven, grease your muffin pan and cut open the bag and pour, but only after squeezing it for a little while to make sure the ingredients haven't settled. In ten minutes, you have a nice dessert that might normally take an hour or so to mix and bake altogether. Now I have made chocolate lava cakes before and the chocolate variety from this bag is decent, if not completely as 'fresh' and bright as from scratch is. Also, making them from scratch gives you a slightly more molten core than these do.

As for the salted caramel, they taste just fine if maybe slightly dull. You would expect the salt to pop a little more and the caramel to be a little bit 'lighter' but we are looking at a prepackaged dessert here. I have never made a salted caramel cake, though I have made salted caramel to go on top of cupcakes and for icing so I can't say whether or not the cake itself should have more or less flavor but the filling I feel like could have had more differentiation and taste to it. As it stands these are a nice quick stand in for people who aren't cooks or who want something that is extremely quick. You can't beat ten minutes and one pan getting dirty when it comes to opportunity cost. Pair with some ice cream and you are good to go. If you have some cherries and whipped cream and you have just capped off a great meal with minimal work and that raises the rating on this.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Taste Test - MagPies and Fluffed Up Desserts

So in my next post recapping my weekend at the Emporiyum I'd like to focus on two brands that I identified before I attended that I knew that I had to try and I would like to say I was not disappointed at all. So let's get into it.

First off the Magpies are pretty much an upscale, higher quality version of pop tarts. As I sit here writing this I am eating one that got beat up a little bit and is crumbling and falling apart but that is a good thing and I'll tell you why. As you look into the package and see it crumbled in my case, you can see the real ingredients. Munching on this Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Magpie, the crust is soft and has a wonderful flaky butteriness to it. This dough that they use is so perfect. The filling is good and not too much. Strawberry is also delicious and has a bright fresh flavor you just can't get from tarts made by Kelloggs. I compared these to the mini ones from Iron Rooster and Megpies has them beat.

If you live in the New York area, there are several places to get your fix and elsewhere you will have to order online. Check out their website here MagPies NYC for more information. A 6 count box is a little pricey, but this is a small company and the quality is very high. The only thing is that the tarts are a little on the small side for a greedy person like myself.

Rating: 4.5/5

Fluffed Up Desserts  aka  F.U.D. is a company that makes mini-smores packs in the DC area. These desserts  are awesome, a great little bite of graham cracker, marshmallow, and flavor. Each bite sized dessert is about the size of that picture right above and a package contains 6 of the 60 calorie bites. Biting into it, the marshmallow is fluffy with the right amount of give and chewiness. The cracker could use a little bit more flavor to it possibly but it's hard to find a fault with these other than they are so small you're likely to run through the package by accident.

Rating: 4/5

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Taste Test- Jif Hazelnut Oreo Spread

Jif is one of the most aggressive brands right now when it comes to expansion into other areas with their product lines. They have individual cups, cookies and cookie bars. They also have extended into the area where Nutella has been making their money, the Hazelnut spread category.

This Jif spread is for snack, desserts, and cooking. A ribbon of  cream with broken up chocolatecookie pieces runs between the chocolate Hazelnut spread. Taste wise, it's sweet, and chocolatey but the cookies and cream ribbon doesn't add much to the flavor or change things because the Hazelnut chocolate is so strong. It looks cool in the jar but doesn't do much for me. It's not bad but it isn't something that is revolutionary either.


Rating: 3/5

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Taste Test - Wawa Cookie Dough Parfait

The last thing you probably need to get yourself started in the morning, or to go along with your salad at lunch is to get one of these calorie and sugar laden, decadent cookie dough parfaits from wawa. The good thing about that is I've done it so you don't have to, unless you really want to.

Buying this the cashier asked if I had already had one because they were selling but no one had come back for this, it was all first time trials. that leads me to think they did a great job coming up with and packaging this parfait to make it look ultra appealing. By itself the cookie dough was cool, slightly sweeter than I'd like it, especially being that you end up mixing it into a sweet chocolate pudding. The cookie dough could be a little 'sharper' so that there is some contrast.

The pudding fell a little flat as well. It wasn't a strong chocolate, but it was indeed creamy and milk chocolate smooth. It gets points for that but once it was mixed with the cookie dough, the chocolate chips don't really do anything and the entire parfait becomes just one note and boring. I like a lot of wawas products but this one didn't do it for me.




Rating: 1/5

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Taste Test - Steve's Southern Banana Pudding Ice Cream

So in continuing the warm weather treat trend, I saw this small premium looking container and flavor of ice cream and it caught my eye. Don't let anyone tell you packaging doesn't work! There were a couple of decent flavors but this southern banana pudding caught my eye. One thing is that several of the other varieties all have different sets of ingredients to be both environmentally responsible and friendly to a variety of different diets such as gluten free, non-soy, coconut milk based, etc.

This one I chose was one made with more traditional ingredients. Now these things are high quality and the taste is really clean and fresh. Ben and Jerry's is a little heavy, and haagen das is especially rich. Steve's is in another lane of it's own, taking off from the Ben and Jerry style I would think. I could see this company expanding with their niche being the types of ingredients that are more controlled for quality and freshness as well as variety.

Now this ice cream is off the chain. It might possibly be a little bit more banana flavor than some would like possibly, but not I. I mean it is banana pudding and when you make your bowl and dig in with your spoon you can get a good balance in most every bite. There is a great mix of the ingredients into the ice cream with not too high or low a ratio of ingredients. This is definitely a personal indulgence with a regular price of 7 bucks so if you try it, and like it , keep it a secret so that no one asks for some.

Rating: 5/5

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Taste Test - Edy's Snickerdoodle Custard

Summer is just around the corner and as such it is time for the ice cream companies to bring out the new stuff to get in your wallet as you grab something to cool down with. Custard is getting big as an off-shoot of the gelato craze of the last few years and as people are looking for more unique items for their taste buds.

So Edy's has several new flavors, of course vanilla is one, but to step outside we grabbed the Snickerdoodle variety which is a nice cinnamon flavored cream, but it isn't very strong, with snickerdoodle cookie pieces in ribbons through the dessert. The custard has a nice consistency and while it isn't as hard as some ice cream can normally be, it isn't a really soft custard either. It fits in a nice little space as far as consistency.

This is a simple, review, because honestly it's a premium style of ice cream. Very creamy and made with rich ingredients, the taste is on point and it is just what you would expect. The only beef might be with the size of the container because you don't get a whole lot. You won't be giving this to the kids at their birthday parties. This is for the close family and friends only.


Rating: 4/5

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Places - the Fractured Prune

Doughnuts are just one of the many "new" rages these days with chefs and amateurs alike all taking the classic simple pastry and making them into something more. Locally, The Fractured Prune has been around for a while and the flagship is Ocean City's location. One just recently opened in the Owings Mills Town Center so I took the kids by to grab a taste (my son had never been) and check out the new place.

First of all it was crazy packed but it was the first day so it was what I expected, yet the wait didn't seem too long considering the quantities that people were ordering and it being the opening. The staff was courteous though it was easy to see they were tired. They managed to keep it moving however and the only hold up was waiting on the cake doughnuts to cook. You see the doughnuts are cooked fresh to order then dipped, tossed, and dribbled with the myriad of toppings that are offered.

They offer a great variety of ready designed specialties and as well you can pick out your own unique set of toppings which they will coat your treat with. The doughnut itself is a cake variety and is pretty tasty with just enough sweetness to give it it's own thing yet be a good canvas for other toppings. They did look a little bit dark but they weren't burnt at all.

Taking a look at some of our selections I chose the caramel and sea salt and it had a bit too much salt on it and they are huge blocks of salt so if ordering tell them to go light. Ocean sand is a staple and favorite of sweet glaze and cinnamon and sugar, nothing spectacular. The Banana cream pie was lacking the banana flavor and i thought the strawberry shortcake was cool.

Overall there is a lot to choose from and like and few flaws unless you don't like this kind of cake doughnut

Rating: 4/5

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Recipe Review - White Chocolate Mousse

So Valentine's day was around the corner and my wife doesn't care for chocolate covered strawberries unless it's white chocolate covered, and apparently it's ridiculously hard to get only those the week of valentine's day. I mean you can get them striped with regular chocolate or mixed with regular chocolate, but the simple white chocolate is a no-go for the most part. Even High end Wegman's at the godiva counter couldn't guarantee them so I had to improvise.

What I did was I had a recipe for chocolate mousse from Food Network Magazine All Access which I adapted using another recipe which I found in Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking , which is a great book with a lot of good baking ideas. The mousse was really good and I topped it with some fresh strawberries which i topped with sugar and let sit for a while and a piece of puff pastry for texture. The recipe might be even better with a salted caramel perhaps, or a graham cracker layer to break up the texture, although the flavors with the berries and mousse are just perfect.

 First step was taking 9 ounces of white chocolate and melt it using the double boiler method. In my case I don't own a double boiler because using a bowl and a small pot works just fine.

 Melt the chocolate down until just melted and slightly above 95 degrees.

 Take 1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream and heat until just bubbled and warm then turn off. Mix into white chocolate a little bit at a time until completely mixed until it looks glossy.

 Take another 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat until it forms soft peaks. Once that is done, fold it into the white chocolate mixture carefully.

 Put into vessels and cool off in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

 While the mousse cools take out some puff pastry and follow the directions for it to allow it to thaw. Then use a cookie cutter or a knife and cut out your shapes and bake in the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Slice some strawberries and sprinkle with sugar and put in the fridge until ready to put things together.

 Take some cut strawberries and puff pastry to top your mousse and serve. Enjoy.

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Recipe - Cinnamon Roll Cake

Facebook always has an abundant number of recipes and my wife sill always tag me when she's something that she likes. that's where this recipe came from as something that is a hybrid cinnamon roll/cake. The idea is to bring you that great flavor with a lot less work because you don't have to roll and do as much to make dough.

For the recipe, (since I can't take credit for it) go over to Chef in Training  to get it and print out a copy for your recipe book at home.

My Assistant Concentrating

Mix Ingredients and then add melted butter on top

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan then begin to mix your cinnamon mixture

Drop in the cinnamon and swirl with a knife

Bake and add icing made of powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk and voila.

This recipe was a cinch to make and it turns out pretty good. I do think it might need a little tweaking to get maybe a little bit more 'chew' to it and I haven't perfected the art of making a good icing using only powdered sugar, vanilla and milk because the sugar never seems to dissolve properly to me.

Rating: 3.5/5

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