Pumpkin and Elusive Childhood Memories

I have to say that Ben's comment on my last post shamed me into getting a real post done.  Ben - good for you!  I'm a slacker!!

As promised - pumpkin!

I found these at Target - Ghirardelli Squares in Milk & Pumpkin Spice Caramel:

What a great idea!  Love the creamy Ghirardelli milk chocolate, and they have a whisper of pumpkin.  But I like a stronger pumpkin flavor.  If you want a hint of pumpkin with your chocolate, this is for you.

Harry & David has these Pumpkin Spice Caramel Balls:

Gotta say I like them better!  Much more pumpkin flavor.  No chocolate, however.  But I just LOVE these!  Great texture, chewy caramel - yum!!

Harry & David also has these Pumpkin Spice Milk Chocolate Maltballs:

This is the perfect solution - a little chocolate and a LOT of pumpkin.  These are great too!  Harry & David rock the house on maltballs - TONS of flavors.  These are seasonal.

Chewy or crunchy?  Harry and David has your pumpkin balls covered!  Wait, that didn't sound quite right....

Pumpkin Delights by my girl Little D.  I'm so glad these are only available for a short period of time.  They are impossibly delicious:

Moist and cakey and chewy - sooooo good.  I really do love Little Debbie - these are awesome!!!

And they smile at you!  What more can you really ask for?

I found these Pumpkin Pie with Cream Cheese Topping cookies at World Market.  They are by Too Good Gourmet.

Great idea!  Love the cream cheese topping!  And the cookie is moist and has good pumpkin flavor as well as the delicious nutmeg and cinnamon of pumpkin pie.  Well done!!  So far I like everything I've tried by Too Good Gourmet.  Look for them in World Market and TJ Maxx.

I was over the moon when I heard about these - thanks to our other Ben who tipped me off several posts ago - PUMPKIN PIE POP-TARTS!  When Ben told me they existed, I searched for them.  I read online reviews gushing about how great they were.  I HAD to find some!  They became my holy grail.  When I finally saw then in Target, I was so excited; I bought up six boxes.   I snuck home from Target like a junkie who just scored a fix.

Okay, not really like the picture on the box, but we know how this goes:

Promising?

The result?  BOO!  Not nearly enough pumpkin filling.  These should be called Pumpkin Pie CRUST Pop-Tarts.  I mean, I'm down with pie crust, I like it, but I was expecting more here.  I was expecting some filling.  These were a heart breaker.

Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors so I'm definitely biased in demanding more.  And it's only available seasonally, so I gotta get as much of it as I can! 

What have we learned?

Some flavors need more chocolate, some need less.  Pumpkin and chocolate is a tricky mix and should best be left to professionals.  I think there should always be more pumpkin.  I feel the same way about peanut butter - the more peanut butter, the better.  Although mixing it with chocolate isn't tricky at all - any combination is good - and complete amateurs can mix away with abandon.

Little Debbie remains a goddess (and the poor man's Paula Deen).

Childhood memories are tricky.  Pop-Tarts are not as good as I remember them.  Prolly because I was forbidden to have any.  I could only get the amazing sugary treats when at friends' houses. I remember more filling - strawberry was my fav.  

But you know how tricky those childhood memories can be!  Some of the things you thought were so amazing you have today and you're shocked.  The best example I can think of is the game Pong.  My brother and I used to play that for hours.  Kids today would be like, "Are you serious?  Do you have a wooden paddle and a ball on a rubber band too?"  Our reply?  "Yeah, to smack you with you little Xbox, Wii playing brat!  Let me get my wooden gun that shoots rubber bands and I'll teach you some respect!"

We've tried so many different foods from so many different countries over the course of our lives, how can a poor childhood favorite keep up?

Never fear, there's always Reese's my dears.  Always.

Football and Foliage

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like there are a whole lot more football specific candy/baked goods than ever before.  Have you seen these babies?  Football Oreos:

Look at all the different designs!  Gotta love "lick the competition."  Do these do anything for me?  While I admire the different shapes and the many designs, I have to say - not really.  There seems to be more cookie and less cream and I am so NOT about that.  I was born for Double Stuff.

Little Debbie (LD) has some football shaped brownies (oddly these are the same shape as their Easter egg brownies, but the shape is better for footballs, so you go, LD!)  They taste pretty good - the same as all the other Little Debbie brownies I've reviewed.  A new shape is just a good excuse to buy more.  Cheap and pretty chocolately - while not a touch down, I'd say definitely a field goal.

Look pretty good, huh?  Always moist - Little Debbie has the cheap, mass produced brownie down cold.

And look at these!  Reese's Footballs!

These are totally the Reese's eggs repackaged as footballs.  But they are still that delicious Reese's peanut butter, so I'm not complainin'!  And the bag weighs like a ton!  (2 pounds!)

Since football is a fall sport, I'm going to include some other fall flavors.  (Yeah, yeah I know it's January - give a girl a break!  I've been busy!)  Harry and David has these Red Apple Caramel balls:

And while you guys know I love most of Harry and David's stuff, I did not love these.  They had some kind of funky aftertaste.  Boo!  If Hershey can get the exact taste of caramel apples in their Kisses (reviewed on September 5th), Harry and David can do better than this.  Flag on the play!

Godiva also has a caramel apple Gem:

Now it's just pathetic when Hershey does better than Godiva.  Once again I rant at how damn expensive Godiva is and how not so great.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

Not to be limited by football, LD also had these for the Fall and their usual brownie trees for Christmas:

A solid performer.

Marshmallow Treats again - this time for Fall.  Nothing wrong with them - they are basically second rate Rice Krispy treats in fall colors.  A little less crispy, a little less sweet, just not quite as good as the original. 

But you gotta give LD credit for those colors.  I like a little originality and flash.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

My favorite decorated sugar cookies from Harry and David:

Good tasting, not rock hard like some of these decorated cookies can be.  They are VERY hard to stop eating.  And they are in adorable little designs.  I'm glad to see they have remained politically correct and not included an Indian head dress.

These little marzipan works of art were in World Market:

You know they are from Europe when you see the toadstool.  We would have never included that in the good ol' US of A.  Leaves yes, fungi no.  They come from Germany.  Land of the fairy tale (and the fungi).

Really pretty, aren't they?

The taste isn't bad - they have a good, strong almond flavor.  I would like it if the chocolate coating was thicker.  Marzipan can be so sweet - I like it best with paired with heavy chocolate.  But I really like the artistry of these - very nice.

If you are intrigued by any of these - Harry and David stores are having a great sale right now.  I got the cookies for half price.  Little Debbie's never stay around for long - I have to grab them as soon as I see them.  The Reese's footballs I found in Wal-Mart.  But two pounds is a lot - be ready. 

Go Team Chocolate!!  Coming up next - my other beloved - pumpkin!!!!!

Coconut (and Chocolate) Cookies

Since we ended with Almond Joy Pieces last time, let's open with Almond Joy Cookies in this entry:

These are a chocolate cookie base with a layer of coconut cream - a few almonds are tossed on top and the whole thing is enrobed in chocolate.  Not a bad idea.  Not a great cookie.  The Almond Joy bar is better.  But a great effort at making a cookie out of a candy bar.  If you feel it's important to to that.

Check out these festive summer cookies offered by Pepperidge Farm!  Tahiti Coconut:

They remind me of Milanos - which I love with all my heart and soul. But these were no good.  I found them very, very dry and with little taste of coconut.  Disappointing - usually Pepperidge Farm rocks!  These are terrible.

Target's store brand Archer Farms made these:

They are wafer thin and are pretty good.  The coconut is more for decoration than for taste.  The dark chocolate overpowers everything else.I like chocolate covered Moravian cookies better.  But these are not dried out and if you want a light, dark chocolately cookie - these are very good.

And look at this coconut entry by Little Debbie:

Titled German Chocolate and subtitled "cookie rings with caramel and coconut," I had to wonder about these.  I mean, really - Germany and coconut?  Does that makes sense?  Well, according to Wikipedia (yeah, yeah, I know, not always right) the whole German Chocolate cake (with the coconut and caramel and all) came from a recipe submitted by a Dallas housewife in 1957.  It was called German Chocolate cake because the chocolate she used to make it was Baker's German Sweet Chocolate.  I gotta say this concoction seems more Dallas circa 1957 than Germany.  What does your gut tell you?

Anyway, these are not bad.  I don't think they hold a candle to those Samoas the Girl Scouts sell (better cookie - these need more cookie).  And I'm thinking the Pacific Islands seem a better fit for coconut than Germany.  But, hey, what do I know?  Tahiti, Samoa.....

I've never tried coconut macaroons before.  This one by Godiva was my favorite.  But I can't tell if it's just because of the chocolate:

Gotta love the chocolate base with the Godiva name stamped in:

This had a cakey texture that I liked better than the other macaroons:

I usually love Archway cookies:

And these looked great!  I think, for coconut macaroons, they probably are great.  These just aren't my favorite.  With chocolate, they are amazing.  Without chocolate, not so much.

These were made in my hometown of Macon, GA by Crown Candy Corporation. 

And they were drier than dry.  Ugh.  Archway was at least moist and chewy.  These were el yucko.  I'm so glad I got out of Macon.

I have to start reviewing some of that shortbread I have!!  And would you believe I found some coconut shortbread?

Eh.  Kind of dry.  What is it about these coconut things that makes them dry?  I expect coconut to be moist!  This shortbread didn't do anything for me and I ADORE shortbread!

Here's some vanilla shortbread from my friends at Walker's:

This has a really good flavor. Sometimes shortbread can be a bit bland, but this has a great, but not overpowering flavor.  Delish!

Harry and David also has some vanilla shortbread:

And I have to say, I love the thickness and the texture of this shortbread.  For the most part, I really love Harry & David's baked goods.  And I like the granulated sugar on top.  (As usual, nothing like the picture on the box.) BUT the flavor of Walker's is better.  The texture of Harry and David's is better, but I gotta go with Walker's.  So yummy!

Okay, gang - more shortbread and coconut and loads of other good stuff to come!!  But I might be MIA for a few days - I'm heading to New Yawk City for the Fancy Food Show!  Don't worry, I'll look both ways before crossing the street.  But I WILL be taking candy from strangers.