“Butter Cookies! From France! Dipped in Dark Chocolate!”
“Just about everyone loves butter cookies. If they’re French butter cookies, there’s an expectation that those cookies are going to be truly great. And what if those French butter cookies are also dipped in dark chocolate? …Made for us in France”
I got these to review and my review is these are quite good. We really liked them.
Very tasty, buttery cookies that have been dipped in good chocolate so that they have a nice coating. The cookies are on the thin side.
Frankly these taste way better than you would expect something which costs $2.99! (Note: they are only you about 10 cookies in a box). So you don’t get a lot of them but the quality of these cookies is pretty darned good!
“These Cookies are, indeed, made for us in France. The usual cookie-dough suspects—flour, sugar, egg yolks, milk, leavening, and salt—are combined with cultured French butter (13% of the recipe) to create a dough that is shaped into thin rounds. The baked biscuits are coated in rich, Dark Chocolate (40% of the recipe), yielding an exquisite Cookie that is at the same time: smooth, crunchy, chocolate-y, and buttery!“
Yummy. A big thumbs up. Put these out for company. Or eat them all yourselves!
FRENCH APPLE TART – “Baked apples in a short bread crust with a hint of apricot and vanilla”
This tart is a seasonal item at Trader Joe’s that comes out around the holidays. We got this first for Thanksgiving to try out. We were impressed. It was so good we got it again later at Xmas!.
This tart tastes way better than I expected a store bought pie to taste. This tastes as good as something you would get at a bakery – which would easily cost twice or more as much. You can just look at it and see its a rung up from your average commercial apple pie, just by seeing intact slices of apples arranged perfectly all along the top edge and baked just until browned. Checking the list of ingredient I see it actually lists varieties of apples: “Northern Spy, Granny Smith“. The crust was pretty good even though we didn’t even warm it up, which would probably make this taste even better.
“To create this masterpiece of a Tart, our supplier takes a buttery apricot and apple filling (made with sweet Northern Spy apples and tart Granny Smiths), nestles it in a shortbread crust, tops it with a fan of even more sliced apples, and finishes it with a light, apricot glaze. A thing of rustic beauty.
Now, you might raise an eyebrow when you notice that our French Apple Tart is made here in the U.S.A., but before you raise that other eyebrow, consider this: the Master Pastry Chef who developed this recipe once made this exact tart—which is constructed and baked according to French tradition—for the President of France himself. Spoiler alert: he loved it.”
While fine on it’s own, if you want to really make a super dessert, you could warm it up a bit and serve with a little French Vanilla ice cream on top. That was heavenly.
“8 Mini Ice Cream Cones filled with rich vanilla ice cream and a chocolate coating”
Who hasn’t heard of these yet? Well, just in case you haven’t, these little mini ice cream cones dipped in chocolate that Trader Joe’s came out with are Da Bomb. These are SO GOOD! Not to mention so popular. They seem to fly off the shelves. As you can see in the photo I took when I went to buy them there was an almost empty shelf but luckily there still were a few boxes left so I could get one to try out for review. I got the vanilla but I’m sure all are as good.
They are small mini cones, kind of a perfect size when you are in the mood for a little ice cream snack. One is maybe about 5 or 6 bites. You could easily eat two or three! Even if you did eat three, according to the box that would be 260 calories, not too crazy bad.
The chocolate covering is not super thin, nor too thick, it’s just thick enough (ok its not Dove Bar thick) so you do get some very good chocolate with the first few bites, and the chocolate is good. The combo is so tasty matched with the all three elements: ice cream, chocolate coating plus the tasty cone it is in.
One thing I especially liked about these is that you get some ice cream all the way down to the very bottom of the cone which really makes these good till the last bite. Another huge improvement? They now are seeming to pour a little chocolate in the very bottom of the cone. This acts as a “stopper” and helps the ice cream not melt out through the bottom.
These MINI CONES really became popular fast. They may be Trader Joe’s most popular dessert item now. They’ve come out with and added a number of flavors besides the original (Vanilla) one so now you will see a few flavors like Strawberry, Mint and Chocolate…
If you haven’t tried these yet – and you can find them – be sure to check them out. You can not go wrong with these yummy treats.
“BROWN BUTTER ICE CREAM WITH COCOLATEY COVERED TOFFEE PIECES AND ALMONDS”
This ice cream is a “seasonal, holiday” limited edition flavor, which probably means you will only see it around Thanksgiving to New Years)
Here’s what Trader Joe’s says about it:
“When we set out to create this latest addition to our seasonal ice cream lineup, we could have very well started and ended by just adding bits of crunchy English toffee to something plain and simple, like chocolate or vanilla— English toffee is more than delicious enough to work on its own. But that’s not what we did. We decided, instead, to go the extra mile of adding bits of chocolatey-coated toffee and almonds to a rich, remarkably full-flavored base of brown butter ice cream. As a result, Trader Joe’s English Toffee Ice Cream is something even greater than a celebration of Toffee—it’s a symphony of sweet, buttery flavors, a revel of roasty, toasty, nuttiness, and a carnival of all things caramel-y in each and every spoonful.”
My review of this is this new limited edition ice cream that Trader Joe’s is it’s good. Very yummy stuff if however pretty sweet, but let’s face it toffee is pretty sweet.
If you are a fan of toffee you will probably love this. They did a great job recreating that taste. I really like this but as it is so rich and sweet I ate this in smaller amounts than I might usually go for. As opposed to lets say the famed Coffee Bean Blast ice cream where if I didn’t make sure and stop myself, I could probably devour a whole pint a sitting! So maybe this is a good thing with the English Toffee ice cream treat as I might more easily self limit themselves with this stuff!
I especially liked the English Toffee Ice Cream best when I paired it with some fruit especially bananas, kind of banana split, just the ice cream on top of sliced banana. This combo was a great match and cut down some of the richness so if you get this, try that combo. Or with some other fruit.
This ice cream is quite sweet but delicious, just don’t eat a whole pint by yourself.
MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM BETWEEN TWO CHOCOLATE WAFERS
Well, my wife bought these for us to try. All I can say is this… about two days later she told me I had to go buy her another box as she found only one left. I had eaten most of them.
She barely got a chance to eat any of them and she wasn’t too happy about it. OK I confess this was true. I did eat almost all of them. I couldn’t stop myself! These are “Dangerously Good”, as we say in our house.
Basically these are small ice cream sandwiches; with mint chocolate chip ice cream between two chocolate wafers, like an Oreo/Joe Joe’s but these wafers are pretty soft.
The combination of mini and double chocolate inside and out is really good!
Eating just one of these is nigh on impossible, in fact I dare you to try eating just one (you will want another as soon as its finished)
Four of these have 240 calories, so figure one of the mini mouthfuls comes out to 60 calories.
The box goes for $4.49 (15 oz/12 mini ice cream sandwiches)
I would buy these again. (I have to. I ate almost the whole box myself)
I think this is a new dessert, or at least we hadn’t seen it before. MINI CHOCOLATE MOUSSE. Individual tiny chocolate mousse cakes that are Imported from Belgium, where they know a little bit about chocolate!
So rich and yummy. Its a round mini cake consisting of chocolate mousse on top of a shortbread crust base, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. Three layers. These were very delicious and a dessert that will satisfy any discerning Chocoholic (raises his hand). Just heavenly.
Reading the label though, we were all a bit confused by it saying “1 serving per container” as well as “serving size 6 pieces”! What? They think this box is one serving? Now each one is small, only about 3 bites each. I could eat 2 easily. Maybe even 3…. Still I don’t think anyone should eat six. Odd Nutrition label. Still each serving of one piece says its (only) 110 calories. Not bad at all and they are very light as mousse is airy.
These were so good. I would buy them again. Look for these in the Frozen Dessert section.
You may have heard about how good this $5 cake Trader Joe’s is. It’s terrific. This cake quickly became a famous Trader Joe’s dessert and I have to agree with how good it is.
TJ’s Chocolate Ganache mini sheet cake is really delicious. I am a big chocolate fan and this hits the (chocolate) spot right on the nose and satisfies it. The cake is moist and the frosting is perfect with a rich dark chocolate flavor. I am actually not a big fan of butter cream frosting, which I find too rich and heavy, however this cake has a cream cheese frosting instead of butter frosting and which is perfect. I love it, it’s so good. The only problem I have with the cake is how hard it is to stop eating it.
There is also a vanilla version of the sheet cake, called Chantilly Creme, also with a cream cheese frosting. I’d seen online many people say its also wonderful as well. I still haven’t tried that one yet but both are no doubt worth trying.
We really enjoyed this Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. Especially after our upstairs neighbor gussied it up with some whipped cream when she invited us to her Halloween dinner (hence the black spider napkin holder) and served the TJ’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. What I liked about this cheesecake was it they did not over do it in the “pumpkin spices” department, it’s pretty subtle and tasted first and foremost like cheesecake with just a little something extra, with pumpkin. Its very yummy. $7.99 for a rather large cake (30 oz). This could make an especially nice dessert for Thanksgiving, or anytime you can get this during the Fall/Winter season when it may be available. Frozen, defrost in fridge overnight or 4 hours and leave at room temp for about an hour or so. I would buy this again.
Trader Joe’s: “We couldn’t fit an entire pumpkin into the box but we did fill it with rich pumpkin flavor…blended into the tangy sweet goodness of cheesecake….perfect for holiday dessert….”
Mochi is a very Japanese food product made of “sticky” (glutinous) rice pounded or ground for a long time until the texture becomes very chewy. Mochi has that wonderful chewy texture prominent in many Asian food cultures. Trader Joe’s MOCHI ICE CREAM product is a terrific combination of this plus ice cream and you can find it in the frozen desserts. TJ’s took a hockey puck of ice cream which has the soft chewy mochi dough wrapped around it to encase it. This combination is delicious. TJ’s mochi ice cream treats come in 3 flavors: Strawberry, Vanilla and a Green Tea (Matcha) flavor. All the flavors are really good and worth trying. These little Mochi Ice Cream treats make for an unusual, interesting and yummy dessert that everyone seems to love. I know we do, we buy them all the time, and yes a box seems to go pretty fast. You get six pieces in the box, and the package now goes for $4.79. Well they are a bit special, its not just ice cream. They’re a special dessert, and these are well worth a try. TIP: keep them frozen as it says on the package and take out just before eating (defrost for 3-4 minutes) If they get too melted its very messy to eat but with a plate for run-off you will be safe and yes you will be licking your fingers like we do.
My wife picked up one of these tarts the other day at Trader Joe’s, and I’ve got to say I was pretty impressed just looking at it. This looks like something that camew from an upscale bakery and I would imagine might cost about $15 or more. At TJ’s it’s $7.99. Wow. But does it taste as good as it looks? OMG, yes. It’s delicious! It tastes as good as it looks like it was made in an upscale bakery. There are a ton of sliced apples that stil look like apples, not some mushy canned apple pie filling loaded with cornstarch that came from a can that even some store bought apple pies have in them. The apples in this tart still have a bit of texture, and it’s not overly sweet, nor overly thickened. The taste is just the way it looks like it is, apples. You can see the quality of the baking. We found this tart to be absolutely delicious especially when we served it, paired up with a spoon of French Vanilla ice cream, a match made in heaven. The crust is perfect too.
If you served this to guests, I’m sure you will get a ton of compliments and questions about where you bought it. Or even “did you make this?”
This is seriously good!
TRADER JOE’S FRENCH APPLE TART – $7.90 for a 1 lb, 4 oz tart
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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