Trader Joe’s macaroons, my latest food obsession

One of the reasons I love this time of year is Trader Joe’s holiday products. There’s always an impressive selection of cookies, cakes and chocolates. I’m not sure whether these macaroons will be a holiday-only dessert, but I sincerely hope not. They’re definitely in the running as a freezer staple.

When I read about these in the holiday flyer, I was initially disappointed there were only two flavors (vanilla + vanilla cream filling and chocolate + chocolate ganache filling). Now that I’ve tasted them, I’m even more sad about the limited flavors. They’re good enough to deserve a product extension.

First, this box of a dozen is a pretty good value, at $4.99/dozen (macaroons are usually at least $1 each at patisseries). Second, they’re just as tasty as what you’d buy at the patisserie, if not better. Even though I was initially worried that they’d lose their crisipiness in the defrosting process, you’d never know they came from the freezer. The cookie portion of the sandwich is crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside (it’s a combination of egg whites and ground almonds, so it eats like a meringue).

The real clincher was the filling. The vanilla cream is lightly sweet and fragrant; the chocolate ganache, the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. (Try the chocolate macaroon before it’s completely defrosted if you prefer a chewy center.) I was so impressed that even I texted a girlfriend, a fellow macaroon fiend, to stock up on these before other Trader Joe’s cutomers get their hands on them.

Trader Joe’s dark-chocolate covered pretzel slims

Trader Joe’s has been offering chocolate-covered pretzels at a great price forever. These are a variation on that product. There’s more surface area covered by chocolate on the slims than their regular pretzels, so these might be  a better option for chocolate lovers. Be prepared for the large grains of salt on these, which contrast nicely with the sweetness of the chocolate.

This bag was 6 ounces for $2.99. My guess is that ounce for ounce, the regular chocolate-covered pretzels are a better value. I’ll have to verify that next time I’m in the store, though.

Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix

If you haven’t noticed from all the other Trader Joe’s posts on this blog, I’m a sucker for trying their new products. So it’s no surprise that this mix ended up in my cart.

I tested this by making pancakes, which was easy–just add egg, melted butter and milk. (Soymilk’s fine as a substitute.) The pancakes turned out nice and fluffy with crisped edges. Make sure to butter the pan before putting the batter in to attain crispiness. Flavor-wise I could taste the pumpkin-pie spicing, but not so much the pumpkin. That might be something that could be solved with adding a bit of canned pumpkin to the batter (?) 

Random fact: when you see maple syrup looking all amazingly thick and gooey in ads, it’s really Karo dark corn syrup. I had to double-dose this stack of pancakes with maple syrup just to get this shot.

***Update: The second time we made these, I added bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips (better than Nestle, I’ve noticed). So good, and the chocolate chips aren’t cloyingly sweet. In fact, they get a bit burnt during the cooking process, but it tastes good like that.***

Something for the snack drawer at work

These are like Nestle Crunch meets Pringles by way of Belgium: high-quallity Belgian chocolate wafers with rice crunchies. The Pringles shape is a nice touch, as if ergonomically designed to melt on your tongue. They’ll run you $2.49 for a pack of 36 at Trader Joe’s.

Whole Foods vs. Trader Joe’s

I know that there’s no comparison when it comes to say, the quality of produce or product selection–Whole Foods wins, hands down. But when it comes to other categories like frozen foods, Trader Joe’s whoops some serious WF butt. This tart was $5.99, what you’d pay for just a slice at a restaurant or patisserie. At Whole Foods, the nearly identical made-in-France tart was $9.99 over the summer. Ouch.

Trader Joe’s Sutter’s Formula Cookies (PB chocolate chip)

Y’know, I might like these even more than the oatmeal-raisin Druid Circles (see post below). They’re moist, soft, the peanut butter isn’t overwhelming, and the chocolate chips are big and chunky.

Having said that, I’ve got mixed feelings about peanut butter. What else is so uniquely American, and so often found in places it doesn’t belong (cakes, pies and the open fields of Afghanistan via misguided relief efforts)?

Personally, a PB&J sandwich has never felt like a true meal to me. For one thing, it’s super sweet. For another, there’s nothing solid in the middle, just goop. I just don’t get the national obsession, and find myself automatically dismissing anything on a dessert menu made with peanut butter.

But, I’ve had both English and French friends ask me to bring them Reeses’s peanut butter cups from America, so maybe we as a country are really onto something.

These cookies have me seriously reconsidering my stand on the peanut butter.

Trader Joe’s Druid Circles (chewy oatmeal-raisin-walnut cookies)

Walnuts tend to ruin desserts for me. I don’t even like them in baklava (I won’t say no to pistachio baklava, though). Plus of all desserts, I don’t usually crave cookies. So I’m not sure how these ended up in my cart. Wait, I do know. They were on the shelves near the cash registers, prime real estate for impulse buys.

But, no regrets here. These “druids” are soft, buttery, plump with raisins, and somehow the walnuts don’t bother me. BTW the ingredients list coconut flakes, which helps keep them moist and flavorful.

more from the trader joe’s dessert case

This chocolate ganache cake (left) was oddly disappointing. How can you go wrong with that much ganache icing, chocolate cake and a chocolate-mousse center? The cake may have been the downfall of this dessert. It was dry and didn’t bring much to the party.

Luckily, their lava cake (right) makes up for the inadequacies of the ganache cake. A fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth cake filled with rich chocolate goo. It takes less than a minute to warm up in the microwave. All it’s missing is some fresh whipped cream with orange zest.

the best of the trader joe’s dessert case: chocolate mousse collaboration

I regularly check the dessert case here, since the products are always changing. This new one’s my current favorite. A chocolate ganache tops a milk-chocolate mousse, supported by a rich chocolate cake bottom. I don’t even really like milk chocolate much. And I wouldn’t call myself a chocoholic (in fact, I run from those people). But this is undeniably delicious.

It just takes 30 minutes to defrost from the freezer. I couldn’t wait that long to take the photo, so that’s why you see the frost on top. This box was $3.99 for two, which seems pricey at first. But when you consider that similar desserts at Whole Foods or cake shops cost about $5 each, it’s not that bad.

Any nomination for their other best desserts?

Paula Deen’s mini cheesecakes (cream cheese tarts)

This is the first Paula Deen recipe I’ve tried, and it’s a winner. Simple, fast, easy, not a lot of ingredients. Plus it’s not as rich or dense as your usual cheesecake. The crust is pretty clever–a Nilla wafer at the bottom of a cupcake liner.

Paula covered her tarts in blueberry pie filling, but I had a jar of cherries from Trader Joe’s handy. For the cherry topping, stir together cherry juice from the jar, balsamic vinegar and dark brown sugar in a saucepan in a 1:1:1 ratio. Reduce it over medium-high heat until it thickens, then add the drained cherries back into the thickened sauce and coat them. Wait until the cheesecakes and topping have both cooled before spooning the topping on.

Get Paula’s recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/blueberry-cream-cheese-tarts-recipe/index.html