Bakers Bring It for Halloween

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  I wound up spending it at a friend's house, so I still have tons of candy I didn't give out.  Dear God.  What about you all?  Any good stories??  Share, share!!!

Okay - this is the last Halloween post.  (If there was election candy, I'd be all over that, but alas, no such luck.) 

Most of the candy makers just repackaged their candy in Halloween wrappers - something you all know bugs the heck out of me and seems like a cop out.  I found these in TJ Maxx:

Halloween packaging and colors, but no real flavor - just sugar coated almonds.  I love their butter pecan and toasted coconut flavored Jordan Almonds, but these were just boring.  Not worth the calories.

Chips Ahoy brought out some new Halloween cookies!  Yay!

I like the new wrapper and the festive orange chips, but they pretty much are the same old cheap chocolate chip cookies.  Big points if you love Chips Ahoy, but nothing to go crazy about.

These, however, are delish:

See all that great orange filling?  These are double stuff thickness - love them!!  And look at the cute designs:

Clockwise from upper left - witch on her broomstick, black cat, ghost, jack-o-lanterns, bats.  I like the creativity, love the color of the filling (and the quantity - yay!), the packaging and the designs.  Woohoo - thank you Oreo!

Even Pop-Tarts came up with a Halloween design:

Although Choc-o-Lantern is a pretty lame name  (Palmer would have called these Bloody Pop Hearts and filled them with cherry.)  These look great on the package, but pretty grim in reality (pretty ugly and terrible actually):

But the flavor isn't bad - like chocolate cookie dough.  So appearance is bad, but taste is great!

I'm not sure if these are special for Halloween or not, but I've never seen them before and there is a mention of a Halloween promotion in the right hand corner:

Now look at them on the box - pretty cool.  Look at them in real life - ewww!

At least they are cream filled, right?  Um - no.  Not good.  Weird taste.  Boo.  (And not in a ghostly way.)

Harry and David comes through with these adorable mini iced cookies:

Aren't they the cutest?  And they taste great too.  Although they are the most expensive of the lot at $9.95 for a bag.

And is that the Salvador Dali pumpkin?  Must be a mustache.

These are in Target - witches' hats, pumpkins, and ghosts:

They are shortbread covered in white icing with orange and black sprinkles.  And they, too, are delicious.  And addictive.  I think they are laced with crack.

I found these in TJ Maxx too.  TJ Maxx has some cool treats, but you have to dig through the chaos.  These are Too Good Gourmet's Candy Shortbread Cookies:

Love the adorable witch and the pumpkin cut out window on the box.  And the cookies?

OMG!  They are GREAT!  Delicious shortbread cookies with loads of candy coated chocolate bits.

So, not only did I eat too much candy this Halloween season, I ate way too many cookies and Pop Tarts.  But what a great adventure!  I am proud of the bakers and candy companies who went to the trouble of bringing us something new - woohoo!  I am saddened by the apparent demise of the mini (70 calorie) Reese's Pumpkin.  But loved the new Hershey's caramel apples Kisses.  When one door closes, another opens.  ; )

Have a great week!! And don't forget to vote!

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. 

Gorgeous Chocolate and Its Lessons

You might have noticed the new pic on the blog.  I'm so proud that one of mine turned out so well.  Of course - the subject matter is simply beautiful and sooo festive! They are from the Chocolate Bear.

This is the autopsy photo of the dark chocolate truffle in the lower right corner:

It's a wonderful, rich dark truffle.    Good, wonderful if you love dark chocolate.

But you know me, this is more up my alley - this is the one at the very top and as, you can tell, is filled with peanut butter:

A nice touch is the thin dark chocolate lining of the milk chocolate shell.  And while this is a mighty fine peanut butter truffle, it's just not that salty, sweet amazing Reese's peanut butter.  I know, I know - don't get me wrong - this is a fine, fine truffle, but there's just something about Reese's that I adore.  And God knows it's a helluva lot cheaper!

This one fell apart a little after the autopsy - it's the pretty salted one on the bottom left:

I love the salt, was not as crazy about the flavor - kind of coffee like (I thought it was a caramel truffle) but the flavor is strongly of coffee.  Not my fav.  Love the salt, though.

At first, I just couldn't bear to autopsy the other two - they are so damn pretty.  But the white chocolate one on the right in the middle with the milk chocolate "turban" was a BIG disappointment.  It has a pink fruity filling with a thin coating of milk chocolate, than white.  Too fruity (and not in a good way), too sweet.  And those sparkles on top are sugar.  Very pretty on the outside, no substance on the inside. 

And the prettiest one of all?  Gooey chocolate inside, but all that pink crap and the round sprinkles on the top ruin it!  They taste like sugar plaster!  Boo!

I'm going to show you their insides just for spite!!

They don't look horrible in the photos, but I'm telling you, these are not very good.  Fabulously gorgeous, but not so good to eat.  VERY expensive and very disappointing.  I would have been better off covering them in resin and using them as decorations.

Their chocolate and cookie combos are so creative!  You have to love this dark chocolate frog sitting on a cookie lily pad!  This one was delicious!

This one is their signature cookie - the Chocolate Bear paw, I guess.  It 's a great idea - the pad of the paw is a dollop of caramel and the back of the cookie has some extra chocolate to sweeten it up:

But I didn't like the cookie as much -it has a smokey flavor - like maybe the almonds were smoked?  I dunno - it didn't work for me.

The best chocolates to look at tasted the worst!  Once again, fooled by an attractive exterior.  Just because something is pretty and expensive doesn't mean it has lasting value.  Paris Hilton, anyone?

And sometimes the frog turns out to be the prince.