Fruit and Cookies - I Say Yes! Yes! Yes!

There's no chocolate at all in this post, but there is more fruit!  The problem is there are so many great vendors at Candy Expo and the Fancy Food Show I get distracted and venture into other areas....like cookies.  I am the female Homer Simpson when it comes to cookies.

At Candy Expo I met a great guy named Gordon Cramer who works for Biscomerica. He really hooked me up with some FABULOUS samples! Look at all these different flavors of Knott's Berry Farm Shortbread:

And I gotta tell you - they are all good!  Raspberry and Boysenberry are really, really good - but they all are sooo hard to stop eating!  They are not as rich and buttery as Walker's, but they good.  They are relatively inexpensive and the fruity taste is there, but not overpowering.  Good, good stuff!!

And I didn't know this, but according to the wrappers - In 1920 Walter and Cordelia Knott began selling fresh produce, berries and preserves from a roadside berry stand in California.  They earned a place in history when Walter cultivated a luscious new fruit - the boysenberry!  (Who knew?)

Lance (Archway is a Lance brand) was at Candy Expo too and I got a sample of their fruit filled strawberry cookies:

I have to say I was really disappointed.  There's not much fruit filling at all - got a dot in the middle.  And the cookies, while soft and cakey - really didn't have much flavor.  I usually like Archway, so I was very sad about these. 

This cutie is raspberry shortbread from Harry and David:

It's yummy - nice and buttery, but could use a little more raspberry.

These, however, are absolutely to die for:

Look at all that filling!  This is blackberry:

And this is peach:

And they are soooo buttery and so fruity - I swear they are sinful.  Harry and David makes some of the best baked goods on the market.  AMAZING!!!   They also come in raspberry.

These cute, all-butter biscuits (cookies to us Americans) have blackcurrant juice in them:

I just don't like that blackcurrant taste.  Slightly bitter.  And the purple color really isn't appetizing to me.  Cute for kids, but can't told a candle to these babies:

Walker's pure butter raspberry thins:

Delicious buttery taste offset by tart raspberry and in perfect balance.  These cookies are truly a work of art.  I love Walker's.

And on their package it says - "For a real treat these are truly wonderful served with raspberries and fresh cream - the perfect Scottish dessert."  YUM!  We ain't talking no roadside stand here!

McVitie's has a currant shortcake:

No good - dry and tasteless.  Somehow I bet the British love them.

At the Fancy Food Show I met the great folks from Flathau's Fine Foods based in Mississippi.  They were so nice and set me a box of their gourmet shortbread cookies - all flavors (more reviews to come). They come in a couple of different packages:

They taste the same - one might be a little overdone (you can see the difference in the color).  These are raspberry and have little chunks of candy in them.  These are great if you are looking for something that is flavorful, but not too sweet.  And I like my cookies SWEET!  I like them, but the problem is......

I am completely addicted to these raspberry tea cookies from Harry and David:

These are so powdery and sweet and raspberryish - oh man!  Every time I go into Harry and David I have to get some.  OMG!  Start buying Harry & David's baked goods at your own risk.

I think fruit and cookies work really well together.  And with all these berries we can rationalize that we are getting antioxidants.  Woohoo!!!  It just doesn't get much better......unless chocolate is involved.

The Weird World of the Sandwich Cookie

I'm all for the sandwich cookie - two cookies with a layer of something between them (peanut butter, cream, caramel - heck, the possibilities are almost endless!).  What a great idea! But, really, I think they should be called cookie sandwiches instead of sandwich cookies.

There are some sandwich cookies featuring our old friend shortbread.  This one is by Sweet's Bakery in El Salvador:

They are made by sandwiching caramel between two shortbread (they call them shortpastry) cookies:

I thought this was like the greatest idea EVAH!  But, actually, they are kind of bland.  I think they need better caramel.  Maybe some chocolate - I dunno - they need something.

I found these in A Southern Season and they are made by a baker based in North Carolina - Mistti.  The bakery specializes in Latino cookies and they look fabulous:

But these were kind of dry - especially the chocolate one - it was downright terrible.  The others were better and the addition of the chocolate helps a lot, but these just weren't as good as I thought they should be.  That could be a cultural preference.  I purchased several Mexican baked items and I thought they were bland and dry compared to their American counterparts.

Damn - they look sooooo good!!!  And they were NOT cheap - $7.00 for the four cookies.  Totally not worth it.  : (   Yet again, appearances are deceiving.

Let's look at some good ol' cheap sandwich cookies.  These are by Basil's Bavarian Bakery (parent company Biscomerica.  My buddy Gorden hooked me up after Candy Expo - sending a whole case of these!!!  Woohoo!!!).  These are peanut butter:

The problem here is the competition - the Nutter Butter.  The Nutter Butter is so good, no other peanut butter sandwich cookie stands a chance.

These are all perfectly good, cheap sandwich cookies:

Again, the competition is the Oreo - unbeatable in the category.  More chocolately, creamier filling.

I'd never seen strawberry sandwich cookies before:

These are okay - all the flavors are okay.  Nothing extraordinary, but good and, for some reason I keep eating them.  The peanut butter and the strawberry keep sucking me in!

This is a new limited edition Oreo:

I have to say - EWWW! to this.  The strawberry is too sickly sweet and overpowering - I don't like it, don't like it at all.  But if you really like that funky fake strawberry taste of some milkshakes they have captured it pretty well and you may really like these.  Glacck! 

But summer IS time for milkshakes and ice cream!  So soon we'll discuss Godiva's and Lindt's summer flavors - involving ice cream and yogurt.  Life is good!!!