Tag: Baked Goods

REVIEW: Pillsbury Banana Bread Batter

Ann 14 Comments

You’ve been there. It’s Saturday, and you want banana bread, but all of your bananas are green! Rats! There’s no way to rapid-ripen them, so what do you do?! Boy oh Pillsbury doughboy, does General Mills have a solution for you with its new ready-to-bake Banana Bread Batter.

Okay, maybe that scenario isn’t very realistic, but thankfully this banana bread batter is. It’s also kind of hilarious. I don’t know why a bladder bag full of bread batter is so funny, except to say that a tube of goo will always garner a giggle. The product is pretty straightforward. You simply spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray, squeeze the batter goo into the pan, try not to eat all the goo instantly because, for some inexplicable reason, this batter tastes better than most cookie doughs you’ve tried, and then bake.

The batter needs a little assistance getting into all the corners of the pan, so you need to smooth it out a bit. No big deal, and so far, this is the most effort I’ve put into the entire process aside from cutting off the bag’s tip. The first time I made this, I ignored the step in the instructions to let the batter sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking. Instead, I squeezed it out immediately after removing it from the fridge and baked it for the 60-minute recommended bake time.

When I did this, I baked the joy straight out of it. It was way overdone, had developed a thick bottom crust, was pretty dry, and lacked flavor. I was super disappointed, but it turned out the way it did because of user error. It’s reasonable to expect that a loaf of bread that needs to be baked for an hour should be checked on at around 50 minutes or so. Also, the batter tasted so good that I had to try again. I have to give you all an honest review experience!

I picked up another tube of goo to redeem myself! This time I let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes before squeezing the batter into my greased loaf pan. I also decided to add mini chocolate chips because, well, morsels. I reduced the baking time to 50 minutes and checked the loaf with a toothpick for doneness. This second attempt was an enormous success. This banana bread has a natural banana flavor that is not overpowering. The texture is fluffy, almost like a cake. I would say, as compared to homemade banana bread, most homemade recipes are far more moist and sticky dense. But for how quick and easy this is (assuming you don’t have to do it twice because I did that for you), it’s pretty good! It scratches an itch!

Overall I’d say Pillsbury’s Banana Bread Batter is unique and absurdly convenient for a consumer need that I’m not entirely certain exists. But it sticks the landing with a fluffy, tasty cake bread ending. I would suggest adding mix-ins like chocolate chips, walnuts, or maybe even another real banana to jazz it up a little.

Purchased Price: $6.49
Size: 30 oz log (makes 1 loaf)
Purchased at: Mariano’s (Kroger)
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/15 of a loaf) 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar (including 14 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Entenmann’s Cake Truffles

Karen 7 Comments

Entenmann s Cake Truffles Box

What are they?

Not content with simply occupying an entire endcap in seemingly every supermarket on Earth, Entenmann’s is taking steps into the more luxurious side of the snack food aisle with these “decadent” chocolate cake truffles.

How are they?

First, I love Entenmann’s; I have since I was a child. That said, I don’t buy their products too often because I find it really hard to exercise portion control with them. Their crumb-topped donuts are God-tier and their chocolate-iced cakes are a chocoholic’s delight. Then there’re those little chewy chocolate chip cookies… yeah, Entenmann’s stuff always makes me want to eat the entire carton. Given my portioning problems, the idea of cake truffles that bundle the company’s cake experience into conveniently-sized balls of sugary bliss that don’t break the calorie bank is appealing.

Entenmann s Cake Truffles Top

Fresh out of the package, they smell exactly like an Entenmann’s iced fudge cake. Under the thin layer of chocolate icing is a really dense chocolate cake — so dense, in fact, that it may be the confection’s greatest shortfall. I know that these are supposed to be like a chocolate-flavored punch to the face, but the interior texture just doesn’t tempt my tongue. When I eat a piece of an Entenmann’s iced fudge cake, I enjoy the contrast between the thick icing and the loose crumb of the fluffy cake. I’m really missing that here.

Entenmann s Cake Truffles Split

However, the portion control aspect might be very appealing to some chocoholics: two of these balls come to a not-that-heavy 260 calories, and polishing off two of them is relatively satisfying. Of course, you defeat the purpose of portion control when you finish off the entire box (not that I would know or anything).

Anything else you need to know?

There are two varieties, Chocolate Delight and Cookies & Cream. Now I wish I’d picked up the latter because, from the pictures on Entenmann’s website, they look like they have more textural contrast.

Conclusion:

These could be very useful if you’re a chocolate-lover watching your caloric intake, but when I really want to indulge, I usually want a big slice of cake, not…little chocolate golf balls.

Purchased Price: $6.89
Size: 9.1 oz
Purchased at: King Kullen
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 pieces) 260 calories, 12 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 140 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 23 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies

Mike 6 Comments

Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies Box

What is it?

Little Debbie’s Snickerdoodle Crème Pie is the newest addition to the product line that includes the classic Oatmeal Crème Pie, beloved by kids and former kids alike. Will these Crème Pies earn a place next to the adored oatmeal variety?

How is it?

Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies Split

The Snickerdoodle Crème Pie is made of two cookies with vanilla crème sandwiched in between. It’s a simple snack, but sometimes the simplest things can be the best.

Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies Top

In this case, it’s just kind of boring. The cookies are soft, cakey, and moderately sweet with cinnamon flavor but lack anything to make them stand out. They’re not rolled in cinnamon sugar like a normal snickerdoodle but have cinnamon bits that add textural interest. They’re unevenly distributed, though, being completely absent from some cookies. The vanilla crème is inoffensive when eaten with the cookies but also doesn’t bring much excitement. When eaten alone, it leaves a waxy residue, like bad cake frosting.

Anything else you need to know?

Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies Whole

I was shocked at how tiny these are. The Oatmeal Crème Pies I eat are much larger, and it sent me down Google hole to find out what was going on. It turns out there are actually two Oatmeal Crème Pie sizes commonly available. The large is often marked for individual sale and seen in convenience stores, and the smaller can be seen in multipacks at grocery stores. The Snickerdoodle Crème Pies seem even smaller than those. What I’m saying is that if your preferred size is the Triple Decker Oatmeal Crème Pie, you should plan on eating several of these.

Conclusion:

These are serviceable yet unremarkable cookies. Those who love snickerdoodle cookies might love them, but others will probably find them unexciting.

Purchased Price: $2.29
Size: 9.57 oz/8 pack
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cookie) 150 calories, 5 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 mg milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 14 grams of sugar (including 14 grams of added sugars), and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Reese’s Snack Cake

Julie 18 Comments

Reese s Snack Cake Package

What are Reese’s Snack Cakes?

Each snack consists of a chocolate cake layer topped with Reese’s peanut butter creme and covered in milk chocolate.

How are they?

Reese s Snack Cake Exterior

When I unwrapped my package of Reese’s Snack Cakes, I was expecting a take on a Hostess CupCake or Zinger: a supple, airy sponge slicked with icing. What I found looked more like a candy bar: two chocolate-coated rectangles nestled in a cardboard sleeve, compact and entirely coated with milk chocolate.

Intrigued by the snack’s appearance (and anything involving peanut butter), I felt this warranted deeper investigation. Because I’m weird, I like to analyze snacks layer by layer, pretending that I’m a junk food scientist studying a sugary ecosystem. Here are my findings:

The milk chocolate coating is smooth and creamy. It tastes like what you’d find in the candy aisle, but a little sturdier and less prone to melting.

Next, the peanut butter creme has the delicious flavor of Reese’s filling, but with textural differences that remind me of marzipan or even hard fudge. It is soft, but dense and malleable enough that the layer can retain its shape when separated from the cake.

Reese s Snack Cake Innards

Finally, the cake layer is difficult to classify. Its deep cocoa flavor pairs well with the other cake components, but its texture is unsuccessful. Dense, dry, and crumbly, it is barely a cake. It tastes like a cake deprived of moisture or air, with all of its crumbs squeezed together. It brings to mind protein-enhanced snack bars (think Protein One), and with six grams of protein, it could probably pass as one more easily than it could pass as a cake.

Overall, the peanut butter and chocolate outshine an unsuccessful cake, which should have been the star of this snack. A different product name would have helped to leverage expectations, but the result is not Reese’s strongest offering.

Anything else you need to know?

Reese s Snack Cake Size

In press releases, Reese’s has billed its Snack Cakes as breakfast or mid-morning snacks. Given both the product’s candy bar sweetness and lack of resemblance to cake, I don’t understand the breakfast connection. Coffee cakes, muffins, and scones will not need to fight these snack cakes for space at the brunch table.

Conclusion:

Decidedly un-cakelike, Reese’s Snack Cakes deliver on the classic chocolate and peanut butter pair, but are worth less than the sum of their parts.

Purchased Price: $1.99
Size: 2.75 oz pack (2 cakes)
Purchased at: Sheetz
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 380 calories, 21 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 33 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Super Snack Time Biscuits in a Box

Marvo 4 Comments

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box

The Super Snack Time brand made its debut with a line of pizza-flavored pepperoni jerky that’s unbelievably tasty because of its bold flavors that had my taste buds thinking I was eating actual pizza.

Because the brand set such a high bar with its first product, I expected a lot with its new Biscuits in a Box line. But, after trying both varieties – Chicken & Waffles and Cheesy Bacon – they’re more like miscues in a box.

Each one comes with a bag of biscuit mix. That’s it. The ingredients that provide the different flavors, like powdered cooked chicken and bacon cheddar seasoning, are mixed in with all the other parts.

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box 2

The directions to prepare them are simple. Preheat oven. Mix biscuit mix with 1/2 cup water. Grease baking sheet. Portion into 8-10 biscuits. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Cool. Eat.

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box Chicken Waffle 1

Simple, right?

Although, I should add this pro tip: Do not dump all the water at once. Pour a little. Mix. Pour a little. Mix. Pour a little. Mix. But I should add, even if you do that, it’ll seem like things aren’t getting appropriately mixed. Eventually, they do, however, doing this makes the mixing more thorough than pouring all the water at one time. But you can completely ignore this paragraph because you won’t need it since you probably won’t be buying these.

With both flavors, the aroma that rises out of the oven smells tremendous and sets tasty expectations. But after that, we crash into Disappointment Town.

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box Chicken Waffle 2

They are so close to the line where I want to call them flavorless. The Chicken & Waffles one, which I was the most excited about, has a wispy artificial grease and maple flavor that seems to disappear on the third chew.

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box Cheesy BAcon 1

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box Cheesy BAcon 2

Cheesy Bacon tastes as if I mouth inhale the air from an empty Cheez-It bag or I got mouth-to-mouth from someone who ate Cheez-It crackers about 15-20 minutes ago. There’s a hint of bacon here and there, but it’s as light as cheese.

Their textures also aren’t optimal. Fresh out of the oven, they’re soft, but a little dry. When they cool to room temperature, they become drier.

Super Snack Time Biscuits In a Box Chicken Waffle 3

My experience with both Biscuits in a Box varieties are the exact opposite of what I had with Super Snack Time’s pizza jerky. If you’re going to buy these with the intention of adding accoutrements to enhance the overall flavor like they’re Triscuit crackers, then, by all means, go ahead and get on with your culinary self. But if you’re going to buy these to eat without any, I say a-tisket a-tasket, don’t put these biscuits in your basket.

DISCLOSURE: I received free samples of the product to review from Walmart. Doing so did not affect my review in any way.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 11.3 oz. box
Purchased at: Received from Walmart
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/4 cup dry mix) Chicken & Waffles – 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 300 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. Cheesy Bacon – 120 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 520 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber 1 gram of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.