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!

Final Goodbye to Summer Cookies

It's been insanely hot down here in North Cakalacky - this weekend the high was close to 100.  I almost melted at the Peanut Festival (but that's the next post!).  So it might as well still be summer.  The perfect time to finish up the summer treats.

Flathau's Fine Foods has more flavors of gourmet shortbread cookies.  Here is lemon:

Again, maybe a tad overcooked - see the darker brown at the base?  I so want to like these, but I find them a little bit dry and not that flavorful.  Sorry guys!  I really, really liked the folks from Flathau's so I hate to not love these. 

Another flavor is Key Lime:

The verdict is the same - just not that great.  I want them to be a little less dry - maybe undercooked?  And to have a little more sweetness and flavor.  I like the candy bits, but overall - these just don't do it for me.

I keep trying to like Dancing Deer cookies.  The packaging is cute, they use all natural ingredients.  They get a little too kumbayah with all their mindfulness (They say on the label "we think it's better to share a cookie than gobble one".  Whatever.) and community project stuff, but I do want to like them.  Unfortunately, most of the time, I'm disappointed.

These are adorable Lemon Daisy cookies:

And while not horrible, they sure aren't anything special.  Cute, but completely boring.

If you want a lemon flavor and a great shortbread - this is the cookie for you!  Walkers pure butter Shortbread Lemon Thins:

Nice design, buttery delicious taste, and a hint of lemon.  Walker's recommends serving with a tart lemon mousse and fresh cream. (They don't say anything about sharing or homelessness.)  I think they might work great with a raspberry something.  Or a blueberry something.  Or just handfuls out of the box.  Gobble, gobble.

Not to be left out, Harry and David is in the mix!  With their Tangy Citrus Shortbread:

There's lemon, orange and lime - all three in one box!  And let me tell you - you gotta love citrus to love these.  The flavor to me was overpowering - way too lemony, way too limey and even way too orangey.  More like a Starburst than a cookie.  The worst of the lot!  Harry and David - what the hell?

But, there's hope!  Check out these babies!!

Creme filled (and you can see - they aren't kidding around - look at all that filling!) shortbread in lemon, lime, orange and strawberry.  These are all good - the cookies are great - buttery and delish and the filling is - well, can you really go wrong with frosting?  Strawberry was by far my favorite - orange had a funky aftertaste.  Lemon and lime were both good.  But in all honesty, I like the fruit filling of the galettes better.  Those things are just so damn good!

And look at these - are they not the most adorable cookies evah??  (Snagged them on sale!  Of course, since the Halloween cookies are out now):

They are simple frosted sugar cookies, but I love the sugar cookie!  These are great, not rock hard - just perfect!  And the perfect size.  What a perfect end to summer.  Here's to fall!!!!  And the Peanut Festival!

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.