These are NEW ITEM that recently came out from Trader Joe’s called MORNING BUNS – “Sweet rolls with flakey butter croissant dough, cinnamon sugar filloing and sweetented orange zest”
The prep is a bit similar to Trader Joe’s excellent CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS. Meaning the night before you take them out and let them proof overnight (or 7-9 hours) at room temperature before baking them for approximately 15 minutes at 375. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet myself but they seem promising based on how good the same type of laminated dough used in the chocolate croissants is.
I think it’s cool that they have even provided the paper cups that you bake them in to save you a few steps. Just put them on a baking tray or in a muffin tin to proof.
A package of 4 is $4.99 – I’m sure at some bakery something like this would easily cost that about four or five bucks each for one!
Trader Joe’s says” “Laminated dough (made through an intense process of rolling, layering with butter, folding, and repeating the steps many times) creates the delicate, flaky crust akin to a croissant. In fact, our Morning Buns are made with the very same dough as our Chocolate Croissants and Almond Croissants. The twenty divine layers of dough are then covered with a cinnamon and brown sugar mix that is accented by vibrant orange zest to awaken your sun-up senses. The dough is finally cut, rolled into Buns, frozen, and packaged, leaving just the proofing and baking to you.
Before you go to bed, place each frozen Morning Bun on a baking tray in the provided paper cup and let rise at room temperature for 7-9 hours. In the Morning, the Buns will have about doubled in size, ready to bake in the oven a 375°F oven for 14-16 minutes. This “muffin” format makes it so easy to take a fresh-baked Bun with you as you rush out the door.”
I did find one Instagram user who has given them a thumbs up with, “I think it’s a winner”
“Dubai-style chocolate is all the rage across social media these days, and for good reason—it’s delicious. Really, what’s not to love about a chocolate bar filled with sweet pistachio cream and crunchy kataifi?” – Trader Joe
“Dubai Chocolate” has certainly been all the rage on social media. I have seen Dubai Chocolate that can cost close to $20, or even more. So I never got the change to taste any. That is until recently when I tasted a more affordable version sold by Trader Joe’s made by “Patislove”. This 100 gram bar is only about $4. So you know a Trader Joe’s economical version at least you can afford and get perhaps some idea of what the crazy hype is about.
We got it just to try out. Actually my wife gave this to me as a Xmas gift. We tasted it the next day I think. I thought it was OK, pretty tasty yes, however quite sweet for one thing. This version in any case didn’t make me go nuts over it, given how much hype Dubai Chocolate has gotten, where you would expect this would be the best thing you ever tasted in your life. Sure I would have to taste test this against some of that actual expensive, real McCoy Dubai chocolate to have something to compare this version to. To be honest I am not even close to being one of those who would spend that much just to taste some viral chocolate. The whole Dubai chocolate thing has just seemed to me to be yet another one of those Social Media hypes gone wild and overblown.
The Trader Joe’s version says LIMITED and might have been for just Xmas season, so it might be gone now but thought I would still put this out there, as it may be back next year. Worth trying only if you are curious, otherwise I would spend that same money on known great chocolate at Trader Joe’s like the huge pound bars from Belgium.
They would be absolutely perfect to serve to guests over the holidays!
These are a wonderfully delicious French butter cookie, coated with a layer of excellent chocolate.
Trader Joe’s says this: “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!”
Even if these didn’t have any chocolate, you would say these were great butter cookies. But they were dipped in chocolate, coated with a nice generous bit of excellent French chocolate too, which puts them out of this world.
These were a big hit with both of us. We really found these to be a super delicious treat.
My only problem with these? There’s way too few of them in the package! So you may want to buy at least two.
$2.99/package (4.76 oz)
Someone at my local TJ’s came up with “try with a dollop of peanut butter”. Yeah, baby.
“Moist, flavorful pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting”
It’s FALL and Trader Joe’s is of course coming out with all the pumpkin items; This one is a very good MINI SHEET CAKE with a cream cheese frosting on top of a moist cake with the typical pumpkin spices. The cream cheese frosting is good even though found it to be a bit on the too sweet side. Even the frosting has a slight taste of the pumpkin spices. The cake was quite tasty, moist and flavorful. The spices were well balanced; not overpowering as they can be sometimes. This has just the right amount.
We loved the cake with coffee and tea, which balanced out it’s sweetness.
Trader Joe’s says : “You’ll fall for the moist, spongy crumb, flavored by pumpkin purée and warm spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. A rich, cream-cheese frosting is piped on top, lending an upscale bakery vibe and providing a classic flavor-pairing for the Pumpkin Spice profile.”
I like most of the mini sheet cakes and this one is quite good. My favorite will always be the Chocolate Ganache one but this one is a Fall Limited Edition one, which I think you and your family will like during TJ’s “pumpkin season”.
This is a great Fall item. I would buy it again.
$5.99/18 Oz (up about 50 cents since the last time i got sheet cake)
“Moist, flavorful lemon cake topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with lemon zest.”
This cake has come back to Trader Joe’s shelves. This lemony sheet cake is yet another addition to their very popular line of of “mini sheet cakes”. This lemon one is in addition to the chocolate and Chantilly creme versions, plus a gluten free cake as well.
I heard this lemon version of the cake is popular and sells out fairly quickly. While I prefer the chocolate one as the best of them all, I did like this lemon version. My host who shared it with me, liked it but a bit less than me. She said it not wasn’t anywhere as good as the dark chocolate ganache sheet cake. Which I understand as I love the chocolate version of this sheet cake. Still I did find the lemon one tasty, the cake is pretty moist and the sour cream and cream cheese frosting pretty good, if a bit rich and on the sweet side. I think they could cut down the sugar. So try this with perhaps tea or coffee.
It has a mildly lemony flavor from some lemon zest. If you grated some fresh zest over this cake it might be a knock out and worth the extra effort.
I had to choose between the lemon and chocolate one I would pick the chocolate cake however this is a nice change if you are looking for something other than chocolate. The CHANTILLY CREME white cake is also good, and I hear there’s a gluten free mini sheet cake now as well.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Trader Joe’s has come out with another variety of their CHOCOLATE BARK. I liked the original one with pretzels and sea salt (sweet and salty)
The new one comes in a pink bag. DARK CHOCOLATE BARK plus Puffed Quinoa and Freeze Dried Raspberries.
From Trader Joe’s: “The Bark you’ll find within each bag starts as a thin(ish) slab of rich Dark Chocolate studded with pieces of pleasantly tart freeze-Dried Raspberries and Puffed Quinoa.”
So I got some to review. At first I thought it was a bit sweet, however as frequently happens when I am tasting something from Trader Joe’s, I could not stop eating more. I kept saying to myself, “just one more bite.” Then I realize I had already devoured 3 or 4 pieces. Be warned, this chocolate may be slightly addictive.
This new variation on the dark chocolate slab is good. Quite tasty. In the bag quite a few largish pieces of the bark which you can break up into smaller bites. The chocolate combo is pretty yummy,, just a little bit on the sweet side however the tart dried raspberries in this does counterbalance it all out. There is a nice crunchy texture you get from the puffed quinoa in these, kind of like chocolate with Rice Krispies. Here its tiny puffed quinoa bits. The dried raspberries give a nice backnote of fruit in each bite.
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.
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)
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.
These were in the NEW PRODUCTS sections and when I saw this package I couldn’t resist getting it for my felines Aspen & Kuro to “guest review” for the blog. Let’s face it, this package is just too cute and makes you want to buy it. As far as my Guest Reviewers, all I can tell you when I opened up the bag both of my cats immediately went bonkers. They loved these and went crazy, even trying to tear the bag right out of my hands!
Guest reviewers, Aspen (L) and Kuro (R)
The package says “Made with real chicken”. OK but to be honest Joe, the first ingredient listed is “chicken meal” and lower down the list it says “chicken”. These treats list “Chicken meal, potato starch, rice flour, bone marrow, chicken, chicken fat….”
Ingredient wise I don’t think these treats hold up to little jar of cat treats I regularly buy at Trader Joe’s, the really good Bench & Fields HOLISTIC CAT TREATS. Still if you want to give your cats a different treat they may love these, especially if they don’t like the B&F treats which are fishy. My cats love both brands. These treats come out to 4 calories per treat. With 19% protein (B&F has 32%) . These treat are $2.99 a bag (5 oz)
These treats are way better than another cat treats TJ’s once sold a few years back and thankfully dropped. That one listed potatoes as the first ingredient.
I do hope though TJ’s plans on keeping the Bench & Fields treats and not replacing them with these. Over the last few years Trader Joe’s have really screwed us pet owners, especially us cat owners with horrendous changes , like completely dropping carry any canned cat food, dropping TJ’s own brand of dry cat food and most maddening to me, dropping their TJ Pine Kitty Litter which was so convenient to buy at TJ’s for a reasonable price. ARGH!!!#$! At least they still are carrying B&F Natural Dry Cat food which is an excellent dry food.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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