Really Fruity Jammie Dodgers - Strawberry Flavour Jam AND Biscuits [@NLi10]

 We love Jammie Dodgers, and even though they've gradually changed the recipe to be less exciting, they do the odd special edition to keep things spicy.

Here we have pink biscuits along with the classic strawberry jam centre - which adds an extra dimension to the flavours.

And - if I'm honest - it's a bit much.  The classic plain biscuit and powerful jam was a great duo.  Here the two flavours don't quite mesh (so you can tell there are two) and instead of harmonising they just clash.

I mean I'll happily finish the box, but they aren't a classic combination to go back to.

Twix Chocolate Spread (Iceland) By @Cinabar

Another day and another jar of spread. This one is hopefully a liquidised chocolate bar; here we have Twix Chocolate Spread. This sounds like a perfectly indulgent breakfast or energising afternoon snack to boost me for an afternoon of work. Sadly, I had the second option running today, so I needed a bit of sugar.

I put the toast on and spread this on it. The base flavour is chocolate and caramel, but there are little bits of biscuit pieces also mixed in. I’m never really sure about bits in spreads, but they did have a nice buttery shortbread taste. The sauce itself has a good chocolate and caramel taste; it is sweet and indulgent. It was a treat on toast and a nice version of a Twix bar; the flavour was quite well recreated. 

I’m not sure what other chocolate bars are available as spreads, but I will keep an eye out for any more that I can find. 

Golden Blond Chocolate Spread (M&S) By @Cinabar

A few days ago I was talking about Caramac making a temporary comeback and how it had lost its market share as everyone was doing golden caramel chocolate-like products. Well, Marks and Spencer has brought out Golden Blond Chocolate Spread, so they are taking the golden caramel chocolate to the next level. I picked up a jar because one of my favourite treats is chocolate spread on toast. And I have a sweet tooth. 

Once home, I put the toaster on, ready to give this the taste test. I opened the jar, and the first thing I noticed was that there were bits in the spread. The texture was light and fluffy and easy to spread, but I couldn’t work out what the bits were. I checked the jar again, and it turns out they were waffle pieces. I have no idea why they are there. I have this on toast, so I don’t think it adds anything for me. The flavour though was sweet, rich caramel tastes, and was absolutely delicious. Maybe they do a smooth version without the bits too. I really enjoyed the taste; it was the perfect sweet treat for an afternoon snack or a naughty breakfast at the weekend. 

Hazelnut and White Chocolate Flavoured Spread (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I have reached the next jar in the adventures of interesting spreads for my toast. This one is a supermarket's own spread, and I think the inspiration comes from the thought of what it would be like if Nutella was made with white chocolate instead of milk chocolate. So here we have Hazelnut and White Chocolate Flavoured Spread. Count me in.

I opened up the jar and scooped some out with a knife onto my toast. I’m still running with a no-butter system, and I hope that is right as I’m new to these spreads. The spread itself is quite thick and was a bit more difficult to even out on the toast; when it warmed up on the hot bread, it was a bit easier. The taste was gorgeous. I have to add my usual disclaimer about having a sweet tooth, as this is a very indulgent treat. The white chocolate is sweet and creamy, and the hazelnut adds that lovely balance of nutty goodness. This Hazelnut and White Chocolate Flavoured Spread is an absolute delight. White chocolate Nutella works, and I’m very happy with my purchase. 

Bonne Maman Caramelised Apple Spread (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I always used to just have butter on my toast. Boring, I know, but there we are. I have recently tried a chocolate hazelnut spread from the brand Nutini (just to see how it compares to Nutella) and just as something a bit different to try. Now that I’ve finished the pot, I’m not sure I can go back to just butter on my toast. I scraped every last scrap out of that pot. I found myself browsing jams and spreads on my last supermarket order, and I was a bit surprised by some of the spreads that are available. I managed to create a list of ones I wanted to try, then a shortlist, and now here we are opening this jar of Bonne Maman Caramelised Apple Spread. There are another two pots of different spreads waiting in the cupboard.

As a newbie to spreads on toast, should I be putting butter on first? I haven’t been; I would if it were jam, but chocolate spread doesn’t feel like it needs it. This is fruit-based and had me puzzled, but I left the butter and went straight for the spread. As I put the knife in, I was surprised by how soft the spread was; it was much softer than a chocolate spread or a jam. I spread it over my toast. I hadn’t expected the sauce to taste buttery, but it did. There was a sweet caramel flavour and then a sweet, fruity apple flavour running through it. I think the concept of liquidised toffee apple on toast springs to mind; definitely a win for someone like me with a sweet tooth. It probably doesn’t count as one of my five a day. I have to say I’m very pleased with the first jar of Bonne Maman Caramelised Apple Spread I’ve opened, and I can’t wait to try the other new spreads too. 

Nutini Chocolino: Cocoa and Hazelnut Spread (Iceland) By @Cinabar

This Nutini Chocolino is a brand that rather snuck on me. I usually can spot new brands a mile away, but there was nothing then; there were so many different items that I couldn't tell you how I missed them. I love chocolate and nuts, especially hazelnuts, and their brand seems to be built entirely on them. They make mini bars of chocolate, nutty biscuits, and, of course, this: Nutini Chocolino Cocoa and Hazelnut Spread. I decided to give it a try as a midmorning snack. 

The tub reminds me of a butter tub, with its shallow plastic and clip-on lid. I found the spread to be smooth and softer than Nutella, but a long way off being runny. It went smoothly onto the bread. I then had the dilemma of where to store the spread, in the cupboard or the fridge? I went with the fridge; please don’t judge me. We are heading into summer, and because of the sunshine through the conservatory, our kitchen gets quite warm. I put ketchup in the fridge too! I didn’t layer it too thick. I gave it a try, and the spread was super yummy. There was lots of rich cocoa and loads of hazelnut taste too. The combination was well balanced, and it transformed my piece of bread into a chocolate treat. I thought the flavours were lovely, and this Nutini Chocolino: Cocoa and Hazelnut Spread is definitely one I’ll buy again. I will also try and see what some of their other products are like, because they, like me, do seem to be nuts about the chocolate-hazelnut combination. 

Percy Pig Sandwich Biscuits - M&S [@NLi10]

 I don’t physically go in M&S that often these days - I just Ocado their food - so when I spotted the `Percy Pig’ Sandwich biscuits for the first time it was more than a year from Spectre’s original review!

As I wanted to try them anyway I decided to go ahead and leave the jam sandwich creams as for another day.

The original appearance of the Percy sweets predates Peppa `pig, but I’m sure she is a catalyst for the widening of the range. Not that I’m complaining, although describing this as “Percy Pig Flavour” is a little odd if you’ve not seen the original pink mallow sweets.

My pig’s got no ears! It’s snout is a bit odd too -  maybe they should have added a fondant circle to the jam for authenticity? Decently happy little face though - although not porcine.

Full marks for the back though - all it needs is little trotters so it can jump in muddy puddles (hot chocolate probably, although strong tea would work too).

As with M&S other products these are sweet enough for children, but healthy enough for adults to buy them for them (ok - well maybe just grandparents but they aren’t as bad as they could be).

I enjoyed them, nice mix of the raspberry-ish sweet flavour in the shortbread, and the actual raspberry jam and creme part is up to the usual high standards. Would have again - even without children to cheer up!

All Butter Blood Orange Curd (Stokesay Castle Shop) By @SpectreUK

Bwah hah hah haaa! It's coming up to Halloween and what better to have on my toast in the morning than a bloodcurdling All Butter Blood Orange Curd. On a recent trip to spooky Stokesay Castle, in Shropshire, we picked up this blood orange curd in the castle shop. Produced for English Heritage, this Blood Orange Curd is recommended with Gingersnaps.

 

Of course I tried this All Butter Blood Orange Curd on toast first. My favourite lunch is boiled eggs and some sort of jam on toast. It's the only meal where I eat the sweet, such as the jam or whatever on toast first before my boiled eggs. Cinabar says I'm a freak for doing that, but nevertheless I have always enjoyed it that way. I found this Blood Orange Curd tasted a little like a lemon curd had been left on its own in a dark cupboard next to a randy jar of marmalade.

I didn't have any Gingersnaps to hand so I thought I'd try the next best thing and spread this Blood Orange Curd on ginger nuts. Bizarre sounding I know, especially whilst I was spreading a little curd on the top of a ginger nut biscuit. However having said that, the Blood Orange Curd really went very well with the crunchy ginger nut biscuit. With flavours of orange curd and spicy ginger whirling around in my mouth as I ate, I rather liked it. Well, you never know until you try that's what I say. Boo!

Waterhouse Fayre - Raspberry Jam - by @NLi10

My partner liked to bring back food from her trips and this came from Westward Ho! which is the actual name of somewhere in England.  I'm not entirely sure where Waterhouse Fayre are based, but lets look together shall we.

So far, so normal - but again this has an award!

Small batch jam from what I presume is a West Country farm - awesome!

And look at that richness - exactly how jam should be - like a blob that slowly sinks into the scone or bread you popped it on.  This is full of fruit - lots of little bits of flavour and joy all rolled in to one.

And this only got Silver?  What were the judges thinking - I can only assume that Waterhouse Fayre submitted another flavour alongside this.  And I shall be hunting for that on our next trip to that area.

 

Boddington's Berries - The Blackberry Conserve (@NLi10)

 It's very hard to do some flavours of Jam justice.  Take the Blueberry Jams we looked at a while ago for example - the real thing just has more flavour.

All Blackberry things have to compare to the Black Current cordials like Ribena in my head - even though they aren't really that similar.

While at Screech Owl Sanctuary in Cornwall (amazing place if you are nearby) I spotted this in the gift shop for my lunches.  A lovely, locally made, Boddington's Berries Blackberry Conserve.

They have a website - and I'm pretty sure we drove past them at some point!

And it's amazingly rich, and really high quality jam!  It went really well with crumpets, and is something I'm certainly looking forwards to eating more of. The flavour was deep and fruity - this wasn't your sugar only store jam.

A great souvenir from our time at Screech that will hopefully last well into Autumn.

Putting Jam in things - Krispy Kremes & Mochi (@NLi10)

 Japanese sweets can be scary as the flavours are not what westerners expect.

This cheerful person is wearing a strawberry which is good news!

The back hints at a gooey centre.  This could be good.  

I think this is a mochi, and it's so soft and light and fluffy.

And look at that! I didn't dare bite further in to try for a picture as it was already trying to bust out.  Strawberry rice cake with very sweet strawberry filling! result.  Apparently this came from WingYip so I'll be acquiring more soon.

And what's this - some filled doughnuts?  At train station prices?!

These are the ones I got to eat.  The one on the right is the normal strawberry filled one.

But the left...

Also filled - but with raspberry! granted you don't get as much, but this is probably a more acceptable portion.  I wouldn't know as I ate both while waiting for the train.

Lovely flavours all-round, but I do miss the days where these were a little more affordable and less of a super special treat.

Lindt Dark Chocolate Spread (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I don’t buy that many chocolate spreads and I don’t buy them regularly. I like them but I feel guilty eating them at breakfast time. I do however make an exception if I find a new variety then I just blame this blog as my excuse. So Foodstuff Finds made me buy this Lindt Dark Chocolate Spread and its exciting because I don’t think I’ve seen a Lindt spread before and I haven’t seen a dark chocolate variety either.

 

The jar is very smart but not too big. Inside is quite a soft spread is a good rich dark brown colour. It went on the toast very easily as it feels quite light to spread. The toast was quickly covered in a yummy dark chocolate topping. The flavour was so good, it isn’t as sweet as a lot of the chocolate spreads and this actually made it feel more grown up. I like the dark chocolate and all the extra cocoa taste. I think I’m going to enjoy working my way through this jar and having a treat at breakfast for a few mornings, what haven’t I seen a dark chocolate spread before? It is genius. Tomorrow I’m having Lindt Dark Chocolate Spread on toast with some slices of bananas on top too, because that would make it healthier right? I can’t wait!

Chilli Jam?! (Ok - Tracklements Mango & Chilli Chutney) - (@NLi10)

After Uncle Roger initially caused a stir on YouTube about Egg Fried Rice he then criticised Jaimie Oliver for using 'Chilli Jam' in his own recipe.  This is correct - Mr O rarely gets the recipes right, and is a big fan of bashing in anything within arms reach to great effect.  

Thing is - I was pretty sure we had a jar of the stuff sitting unopened at the bottom of one of our cupboards.

Looks ace right? But when are you actually going to use this at home?

That's a lot of spicy stuff - maybe too much for a nice side with ham after Christmas.  But wait! We can order popadoms with our takeaway as an indulgence and have an excuse to try this!

And wow is this powerful.  I chose a curry at the top end of my spice tolerance and this made it feel tame for the first few mouthfuls.  I think it's the ginger - I have a really low tolerance for it - but my goodness is this special.  I don't want to waste this chucking it at EFR, I want to save it for the inevitable left-overs and for the popadoms as intended.  I guess this counts as another Diwali review (I had Masala Mughlai) but frankly I'm eating this all over the winter and looking forwards to it.

Another ace pick up from the Tracklements family. 

(and here is the video in question)

 

Christmas Cranberry Curd (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I did my essentials shop this week in Waitrose, it costs more than other shops but I picked up some interesting items so I don’t feel too much guilt. I mean who doesn’t need Waitrose Christmas Cranberry Curd in their life? Once I got it home I couldn’t decide if I was suppose to use it for baking or simply for toast, I went with the latter. I then couldn’t decide if I was supposed to put butter on the toast or not first, well you do with jam so I did.

 

The Waitrose Christmas Cranberry Curd spread is a pretty dark pink colour and was quite runny, and a little sticky to spread as it kept running in to my fingers but I did my best. The flavour was lovely and totally worth it, it was quite strong sharp and fruity with a sweet undertone. I think it is more of a grown up flavour as it is quite tart and zingy, but it worked well on toast and made for a nice change to the usual lemon curd. I think it word work well too for baking as I could easily imagine it sandwiched between a couple of vanilla sponges, but for me it makes a nice early festive breakfast having it on toast. I think I was right about the butter first too, just as a personal preference.

No Bonfire Snacks to review - have some Blueberry & Cinnamon Jam (@NLi10)

 For all the seasonal food we get there is very little to celebrate fireworks day/guy fawkes night/my Grandma’s birthday.  We did get a few during the burnt caramel era, but I guess they didn’t appeal for long, so more general winter themes have been used.

If you know of any specific fireworks snacks then please share away!

Instead - we have the first of the slightly festive things on my camera roll, cinnamon jam.

This tiny little jar is another one of those small batch things, and the stall owner that sold us this said it’s the most popular one!  My suspicion is that’s because you just don’t see blueberry jam that often, and the cinnamon edge makes it sound very exciting.

As always - add to scones.

I bought another expensive jar of Blueberry jam recently, and my main take away from that was the reason there is so little of it in standard ranges is that it’s just not that good. It’s essentially like a weaker black currant jam, and that’s just not that exciting. Where the genius of this product shines through is that a strong flavour would bury the cinnamon (or make it so you needed to add loads). Here, you get a festive tickle of cinnamon but with the fruity sweetness of the blueberries. A lovely harmony of flavours, that’s fine on scones but really shines on toast - more like a marmalade I suppose.

So, if you spot something like this to try out then I’d recommend it - just festive enough for a crisp November morning, but not necessarily just for saving for the big day itself.

Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Peanut Butter (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

I tried this Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Peanut Butter before reading the ingredients, I think that is important to note because I found the latter rather disappointing. What is the first thing you think of when you Kelloggs Crunchy Nut, breakfast cereal. My instinct was this ‘butter’ was going to be made up of cornflakes, honey and peanut spread and that had me very excited. I love the flavour of cornflakes, especially honeyed ones but alas this is peanut butter with a touch of honey and a lot of branding. Shame.

I liked the flavour, there was loads of peanut and that nice mix of gentle sweetness from the honey. I like that mix of sweet and savoury ot worked very well. The product is good, this is thick peanut butter with a nice crunch from plenty of chopped nuts. I really enjoyed my toast with this spread. The negative part is it had very little to do with its name, you can’t call it Kelloggs Crunchy Nut and not have a flavour of the breakfast cereal or indeed the main ingredients. These are as much Kelloggs Crunchy Nut as the are Honey Puffs.

Eating SIXTEEN year old home-made Damson Jam (@NLi10)

 Jam is a weird substance.  It's essentially fruit and sugar with all of the bugs boiled out, mushed into air-tight jars and stashed away for emergencies.  I'm sure Jam has existed for thousands of years, ever since humans wondered what to do with all the left over fruit at the end of the season.  

Honey is nature's equivalent.  Bees have figured out how to make flower jam, and it's so utterly incorruptible that edible honey has been found in the pyramids.  Probably wouldn't taste great, but technically edible.

Which brings us to this jar of forgotten jam that we found when clearing out some cupboards.  It was made in the year we moved into this house - 16 years ago.

Damson jam is a fairly acquired taste, it's a little like plum, and a little like fig/prune.  My hunch is that these damsons came from my grandparents garden.  I've little doubt that as they moved out of that council house around a decade ago that the tree has gone and been replaced with something far less exciting.  This Jam has outlasted them all.

And it's dark.  Once you break through the paper seal on the top, and get through the far too dry to eat layer attached to it you do get a smell of fruit, but it's far stickier than any normal jam you'd buy.  The darkness for once isn't my photography skills though, it's like it just sat there brooding since 2004.

It doesn't really spread, its too sticky for that and even though these nice holiday scones were a little crumbly in the first place any attempts to distribute it evenly were futile.

But - the flavours are still there.  A deep plum-like flavour, that definitely brings back memories of fighting through the wasps to get to the fruit on my grandparents tree.  And the stickiness isn't a problem once you are eating it, it's more like a really soft sweet than a really tough jam.  And the aftertastes I was worried about are not there - this is well made jam with nothing present to go off - just the natural things and some sugar to keep you coming back to the jar.

So - the verdict is that this will get eaten.  I'm sure that it won't be the first choice of jam to present to guests, but it's certainly a vintage that like wine should be appreciated by those in the know.

While its not quite a part of a traditional cream tea (another excuse for a holiday scone pic!) I'm glad that it's survived it's storage and that I can once again enjoy the fruits from my families old garden.