REVIEW: Salt & Straw’s Food Runners’ Banana Bread Pudding

June 14, 2017June 13, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Salt & Straw’s June Rescued Food line of ice creams is one of the most interesting and engaging things I’ve seen a craft company do, and San Francisco got blessed with some seriously amazing flavors. Joining forces with SF based Food Runners, they took all of the unused pastries from bay area startup meetings and put them to good use, instead of in the trash can. While Food Runners usually take these baked goodies and deliver them to people in need, this month S&S bought them from the company and turned them into the fantastic Food Runners’ Banana Bread Pudding, which combines a spiced banana ice cream with chunks of bread pudding and a sesame caramel swirl.

This is not your standard banana ice cream. Immediately the distinct flavor of squishy over ripened bananas smacks me in the face, with a taste that is so different and much sharper than what many banana bases offer. There’s a cutting, almost syrupy sweetness to hyper-ripe bananas that comes through beautifully and is balanced out and complimented by the high quality dairy. Rounding out the profile is a healthy dose of nutmeg, and with the use of that spice the banana base BECOMES banana bread ice cream, as the unique strong banana flavor mingling with spices and sweet honey notes is instantly recognizable as one of the most beloved quick breads in the game.

For the actual bread part of the bread pudding equation, S&S made a cinnamon-spiked custard and tossed all of those destined-to-be-garbage pastries into it to create one big mismatched wheel of flavor. This is one of the most interesting elements of the flavor, as every pint, and likely every scoop, is going to be slightly different. I had a massive chunk of what felt like layers of crunchy filo dough or some kind of pie crust, and a bite with raisins, and another bite that tasted like cinnamon roll streusel. It’s a lot of fun. The element of surprise makes digging into this ice cream pure enjoyment, and the undercurrent of the cinnamon flavor drives the banana bread essence even farther.

The final piece to this bread pudding puzzle is the sesame caramel, which, like most S&S swirls, is executed with skill and finesse. When eaten in conjunction with the other components the caramel adds the sweetness and gooey-ness you’d expect, but is a lot less dark and burnt tasting than the standard S&S caramel. The caramel helps marry the other two elements together in ooey-harmony, but when you taste it on its own it absolutely bursts with sesame flavor. The unmistakable earthy flavor that drives tahini is very present in the sweet swirl and adds a deep savory quality to the experience that brings the rescued food theme home.

Simply put, this is Salt & Straw at their absolute finest – mixing delicious decadent flavors with innovation and purpose in ways that not many brands can accomplish. There’s plenty of intense decadence out there without the creativity, and plenty of elevated ice cream churners without the whimsy, but S&S manage to achieve both simultaneously and this is a glowing example of what makes them some of the absolute best in the expanding world of gourmet ice cream.

Rating: 9/10

Found at: Salt & Straw (San Francisco)

REVIEW: Fudge Stripes Lemmy Num-Num’s

June 12, 2017June 11, 2017 / seansskillet / 2 Comments

When it became apparent that Keebler were going to enter the Oreo game and have limited Fudge Stripes chase after what Nabisco has been doing for years I was stoked, but I didn’t anticipate having to chase down the flavors myself with such difficulty. Sometime in April Keebler released Lemon Cream Pie Fudge Stripes and after looking everywhere from Target to Walmart to Safeway they just never popped up, and instead it seemed like 500 new packs of Cinnamon Roll were birthed every time I went back to check. With the release of Despicable Me 3, the cross-promotion between the cookie company and film includes an apparent rebranding of the pie flavor to “Lemmy Num-Num”, and this version has decided to make its way to the bay so I can finally try them. Of course, since this release there’s already been two more Fudge Stripes that I haven’t seen, but, that’s another story…

Opening the package the cookies have a nice, soft, lemony scent that remind me of an amped up version of Barnum’s Animals Crackers. The flavor mimics the smell with a gentle lemon flavor that isn’t too bold or tart, with a slight butteriness and smooth creamy finish. There isn’t a huge amount of sweetness either, and these cookies kind of just “exist”, without any super dominant or super offensive flavors, which is kind of rare for lemon. The texture is nice – soft and crumbly with a little bit of crunch just like all other Fudge Stripes.

I like these, they’re very tasty, but ultimately they don’t deliver as big of a lemony wallop as I would like. It’s tricky with the renaming and rebranding of a cookie that was Lemon Cream Pie now being “Lemmy Num Num” because if they were trying to channel a lemon pie they did a pretty decent job. While I still wish they were zingy-er and more tart, there is a solid lemon flavor for the filling, the crumbly cookie for the pie crust, and the “fudge” dip and drizzle to emulate the cream or meringue that would top the pie. All of the components work well together, albeit a bit muted, and putting back many of these in a row is no problem at all. Snack on.

Rating: 7.5/10
Found at: Walmart ($2.99)

VIDEO: Sean’s appearance on KQED’s Check Please, Bay Area!

June 10, 2017June 10, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to shoot an episode of one of my favorite local TV shows – Check Please, Bay Area, which airs on KQED/PBS. I had the opportunity to highlight one of my favorite burger spots ever – Jack’s Prime – and try some other amazing dishes along the way. This is my first time doing food-related work on television and it was a blast. Check out the full episode below!

REVIEW: Butterfinger Limited Edition Smokin’ Hot Peanut Butter Cups

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

The candy world has a new obsession, and it’s one I can get behind – spice. Generally reserved for savory items, the addition of spiciness to usually sweet leaning products has advanced from small gourmet stores to mainstream brands like Jolly Rancher, Nerds, and now, Butterfinger. Mixing fruity flavors with spice is very common in countries like Mexico, where sweet and spicy is the preferred profile over sweet and sour, and with that creeping its way into American culture, so is mixing spice with even less conventional flavors – like peanut butter. Butterfinger’s limited edition Smokin’ Hot Peanut Butter Cups take the established combination of PB and chocolate and crank it up a notch with some heat.

Biting into the cup I get the great creamy texture with a little bit of crunch that I expect from Butterfinger Cups and immediately there’s a hint of smoky flavor creeping after the chocolate sweetness. It doesn’t take long for the smokiness to transform into a little spicy dance that tickles my tongue like perfectly executed cayenne pepper. What I mean by perfectly executed is cayenne is one of those ingredients that adds a fantastic kick without too much flavor, but when you go too heavy handed with it whatever you’re cooking can get out of control really fast, and this has a spot on amount of spice. The heat creeps up after the creaminess of the peanut butter has died down and last about 10-15 seconds before fading away without any serious lingering effect.

The addition of the heat to the mix reduces the overall sweetness of the cups and puts more emphasis on the rich creaminess of the peanut butter. While the flavor is still far from savory, it adds another layer of complexity to the sweet, salty, and fatty mix that PB cups always bring to the table.

While these cups are very well executed, I’m glad that they’re a limited edition because they come off as more of a novelty treat than something I would want to seek out and buy again. As is the case with most Reese’s products, it’s hard to improve on the original, and as a fan of regular Butterfinger PB cups I don’t think the addition of spice makes the cup any better. In fact, because it takes away a little bit of the sweetness from the chocolate, it might actually be worse, but it’s still a fun candy that I would recommend to anyone who likes a little kick with their fix.

Rating: 7.5/10
Found at: 7-11 ($1.99)

REVIEW: Baskin Robbins Made with Twix Bars

June 7, 2017June 5, 2017 / seansskillet / 1 Comment

Twix are an all time top 5 candy bar for me, and with the recent release of the very successful and delicious Twix Dark, it feels like the cookie candy hybrid bar is getting some legit time in the limelight; but still seem very underutilized in the ice cream world. While it’s fairly common to see M&M’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and even Snickers churned into succulent scoops, the layered caramel magic of Twix rarely finds itself mixed into any decent cream – until now. Following up on their core lineup’s “Made with Snickers” and last years June Flavor of the Month “Made with Milky Way”, Baskin Robbins are back in the candy cream game via Made with Twix Bars, which combines Twix bar cookie pieces, chocolate flakes, and a caramel ribbon with both caramel and chocolate malt ice creams.

The base ice cream is different than I expected, with a bit more cohesion and blending than two separate flavors being put into one scoop. I anticipated something more along the lines of Gold Medal Ribbon, where there are distinct layers of chocolate and vanilla, but here the caramel and chocolate malt have fused together to make more of an off-white, and ultimately pretty Twix-y flavor. There are traces of malt, but the chocolate is pretty light and subdued, with some sweet and also subdued caramel notes lingering underneath. The taste really is reminiscent of a Twix with an overall sweet and slightly bread-y (malt) flavor that channels the marriage of the cookie and caramel in the bar, but overall it’s lacking a little bit of pop.

The caramel swirl is a tasty and straight-forward sweet with no salty or deep burnt tones. It’s well-executed and again, very reminiscent of the caramel in a Twix, but I wish there was more of it. The ribbons are a bit thin and too scattered throughout to add the layer of richness that I want, and with caramel being such a prominent note in a Twix I’m searching for more of that gooey goodness, especially with the base not carrying as many strong caramel notes as I would like.

The mix-ins are also a little different than I imagined, and rather than being pieces of chopped up regular Twix bars, it’s just the cookie portion of the Twix covered in chocolate with no caramel. This was a actually a pretty smart move, as sometimes thicker chunks of caramel can freeze hard in ice cream, and the cookies maintained all of their crunchy crumbly texture without being compromised by anything tough and tooth-threatening. The chocolate flakes are pretty big by BR standards and do good to add a solid milk chocolate flavor to most bites.

Overall this is a pretty solid interpretation of Twix in ice cream form, with actual Twix mixed in and a base that mirrors the flavors of the candy bar itself. I really appreciate it when an ice cream can operate on multiple levels rather than just throwing something into vanilla ice cream (an issue I have with BR’s Reese’s flavor), and this scoop is testament that a little extra effort can go a long way. With more caramel and a couple more cookie pieces this could have been one of Baskin Robbins’ more impressive LTO flavors, but as it stands it falls a bit short of being a classic.

Rating: 7/10
Found at: Baskin Robbins

REVIEW: Salt & Straw’s Breakside Brewery’s Spent Grains & Bacon S’mores

June 5, 2017June 4, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

No stranger to being the cool kids in the ice cream class, Salt & Straw are kicking off the summer season with an entire line of gourmet flavors using recycled and rescued ingredients. No, they didn’t dig through the garbage to make a creamy casserole of mismatched scraps, but rather, sought out byproducts of food processes, fruit too bruised to sell at full price, or bread that is too stale to stay on shelves and flipped them into inventive flavors of melty indulgence. As a country that wastes 40% of our food, this is a great thing to do for the United States, and owners Kim and Tyler Malek estimate this limited line alone will save around 2,000 pounds of food waste. For Breakside Brewery’s Spent Grains & Bacon S’mores, S&S utilized the flavor of leftover grains and malts from brewing beer and combined them with chocolate chunks and a bacon marshmallow fluff swirl.

Anytime that I see bacon as a component used in a sweet or non-traditional way I get skeptical that it is there purely for gimmick because of the “everything is better with bacon” hype, but with this flavor that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The marshmallow swirl is composed of 70% or so pure fluffy sweet marshmallow fluff, with an incredible balance of bounce and sugar that is everything a marshmallow should be – it’s perfect. Dispersed sporadically throughout the ‘mallow are chunks of bacon that cut through the sweetness with a touch of salt and a wonderfully pronounced smokiness that evokes the flavors of a campfire. The bacon is used not only to add an interesting tasting component, but to elevate the entire s’mores experience to a new, truer level than I’ve had in ice cream and it is fantastic.

The chocolate, unsurprisingly because it’s Salt & Straw, is incredibly dark and bitter with a big, bold cocoa flavor and an interesting gritty texture. It tastes very high quality and feels like some of the spent grains were used in the pieces, as there’s a chunky density to the chocolate instead of the typical smooth and clean texture that usually coincides with chips/chunks.

Rounding the entire s’mores experience out is the actual ice cream itself, which is a slightly gritty yet still silky smooth graham cracker base with light honey notes and hints of earthiness. The texture feels like a bunch of crackers were ground up and soaked in cream and then churned without any kind of aggressive straining to filter out the bits. The base is also where the recycled component comes into play, mixing the roasted spent grains from Breakside Brewery in conjunction with the graham to create a deep slightly smoky presence, and there are no odd flavors that seem out of place or boozy for a s’mores ice cream; everything works incredibly well.

The only element missing from an ideal s’mores experience is gooey melted chocolate, but all the flavors are represented and the execution of the recycled theme is spot on. A wonderful start to the June line, this one is a must try for people who love marshmallow, s’mores, or bacon used in brilliant new ways.

Rating: 9/10
Found at: http://www.saltandstraw.com or in scoops shops in Portland, OR

REVIEW: Little G’s Fluffer Cookie

June 2, 2017June 1, 2017 / seansskillet / 2 Comments

A fluffernutter sandwich combines two of the world’s best lip-smacking creamy stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth ingredients that you can dig up in your grandma’s pantry – peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. While I was always more of a traditional peanut butter and jelly kind of kid growing up and am now very much in the peanut butter and banana camp, I will never shy away from peanut butter plus anything, and I mean that quite literally. My girlfriend recently challenged me to try peanut butter with mustard, and I did it, and guess what? I liked it! For the limited spring fling run of pints Little G put their own spin on the fluffernutter universe, but luckily for us all, did not include mustard. Fluffer Cookie combines peanut butter ice cream with a marshmallow swirl and chocolate sandwich cookies.

I’m going to guess that the peanut butter ice cream itself is up to the usual Little G standards, but as is the case with some of their flavors, this one is so mix-in dense I can’t even really tell. The peanut butter definitely takes a backseat, not only in texture but in flavor, to the insane amount of Oreo cookies smashed into the base. What is really beautiful though, is the way the cookies have softened and taken on a dunked-in-milk kind of texture, that while it’s different than your usual melty creamy ice cream, it’s still insanely delicious and fun to eat. Make no mistake, these aren’t just wafer cookies, these are entire Oreo’s, and the ample amount of creme filling is also present, fusing with the base and the softened wafers to create a decadent, almost cake-like experience that is delicious and downright intense.

The slightest hint of peanut flavor peeks its head through the onslaught of aggressive sweetness and cocoa creme, but most people probably wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the PB versus vanilla or sweet cream. Composition-wise this pint is very similar to the core lineups’ Chocolate Milk & Cookies, with a bigger emphasis on the creme flavor than the chocolate because of the base switch up.

The marshmallow swirl is thick and also very intense, with a dense yet fluffy texture that is pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to an authentic and delicious marshmallow presence. Once again Little G is up there with Salt & Straw for taking the swirl game to another level, and this one, while it tastes predominantly sweet, does have a touch of roasted flavor to it that gives it an added layer of complexity and aids in bringing out a hint more roasted peanut flavor as well.

Through and through this pint tastes like eating an ice cream-ified version of an Oreo. The fusion of the marshmallow swirl with the cookies’ creme emulates the iconic filling, and the plethora of cocoa wafers in every bite makes the Oreo vibes absolutely inescapable. For my personal tastes, and to be true to the tradition of the fluffernutter tag, I want a bit more peanut butter, more salty contrast, and some relief from the intensity of the sugar, but this is one of those flavors that will leave you thinking about it when your bowl is empty, and becomes dangerously addictive.

Rating: 9/10
Found at: http://www.goldbely.com (use code seanpancake0 for $25 off of your first order!)

REVIEW: Quest Hero Bars (all three flavors)

May 31, 2017May 30, 2017 / seansskillet / 1 Comment

Quest Hero bars are the protein bar giant’s macro friendly take on a candy bar, and as a person who’s actual knight in shining armor during the course of a bad day has been a real deal bar of chocolate, I can get behind this. The bars once again utilize the new and confusing artificial sweetener allulose, which is one of the cleanest tasting sweeteners out there, but not without some downsides. The jury is still out on exactly what kind of impact this ingredient has on the body, and as of now still has to be counted as sugar on the nutritional label, giving these Quest bars a significantly less macro-friendly look than their older tried and true siblings. Still significantly “less bad” than an actual candy bar, the Hero bars take the grainy “cereal” base from the Beyond Cereal bars, add an additional layer of gooey texture, and dip them into a creamy coating. The initial launch comes with three flavors – Blueberry Cobbler, Chocolate Caramel Pecan, and Vanilla Caramel.

Blueberry Cobbler:

Off the jump the texture on this bar is phenomenal – super soft and chewy with multiple layers and a lovely creamy coating. The dominant flavor is a very sweet and real tasting blueberry with a hint of acidity and no lingering artificial sugar taste. The second big flavor that creeps into the equation is graham cracker, and reminds of the Quest cereal waffle bar without the prominent syrup flavor and just a hint of cinnamon spice, which is no surprise since these bars use that same chewy granola-esque base.

One of my biggest gripes with Quest is the aggressive use of sucralose, and much like with the Beyond Cereal bars, the swap for allulose has really alleviated that problem almost entirely. The sugar flavor is very clean and true and has a more natural berry flavor than any bar I can recall having. This is my favorite blueberry bar that I’ve had and a very strong addition to the Quest catalog.

Rating: 8.5/10

Chocolate Caramel Pecan:

Slightly bitter cocoa-forward chocolate base with a decently thick layer of caramel on top. The flavor reminds me of a cheap brownie, not too strong of a nutty element but tastes almost nothing like what you would expect from a whey-dominant, “low sugar” protein bar, although the general profile is pretty predictable for a protein product. The caramel has a good chew, tastes decently authentic and has a slight saltiness that keeps the bar from being too sweet.

While this one is fine, it does have a slight artificial aftertaste, and with the worst macros of the three – highest calories and fat with the least amount of protein, I don’t think I would buy this one again.

Rating: 6.5/10

Vanilla Caramel:

This one again reminds me of the waffle cereal bar without the maple and instead a strong golden graham cracker sheen. It is very sweet with a nice smooth vanilla flavor and surprising salty pop on the finish. The salt cuts through in a way that gives a bit more of a salted caramel presence, which is nice considering the overall sweetness of the bar. There’s a little bit of a fake sugar sucarlose aftertaste on this one, not as strong as the chocolate but a bit more present than the Blueberry Cobbler, but still much less than your typical Quest bar.

Although there are almonds on the package and in the ingredients, I don’t get much almond flavor and there are just a couple random pieces in the top layer and a nuttiness is not prominent in the actual texture. This is one of the best tasting vanilla bars I have had and another one I would definitely buy again and could legitimately take the place of a white chocolate-y or caramel craving when watching calories.

Rating: 8/10

Overall this is a pretty impressive launch from Quest, and while the macros aren’t as good as the standard Quest bar the flavor is significantly better and will be pretty enjoyable for a lot of people, even those who don’t usually get down with protein bars.

REVIIEW: Phin & Phebes Vanilla Malt Cookie Dough

May 29, 2017May 28, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Phin & Phebes are a Brooklyn, NY based ice cream company founded in 2010 on the basis of churning out a small-batch product using all real non-GMO and fair trade sourced ingredients with no stabilizers or corn syrup. I’ve been seeing their name floating around for awhile but never gave them too much notice until a couple of flavors popped up at a local store that sounded too good to pass up. The first flavor I decided to dig into is Vanilla Malt Cookie Dough, which simply enough combines a vanilla malt cream with chocolate chip cookie dough.

Immediately the base hits me with a very intense sweetness, which normally I embrace in ice cream but for some reason is coming off as too sweet, almost cloying. The texture starts pretty creamy but finishes really thin and off-putting, like odd tasting cereal milk, and I gotta say I really don’t enjoy it. What I do enjoy, though, is the intense malty flavor, which has just the right amount of funkiness to distinguish it from a traditional vanilla or sweet cream. Unfortunately the malted flavor isn’t intriguing enough to offset the aggressive sweetness and lackluster texture that dominates the overall profile.

The cookie dough chunks are of average good size and have the gritty chew you would expect from this kind of mix in, but again, they taste incredibly sweet and don’t help push the flavor in any kind of enjoyable direction. While there is a nice brown sugar sheen coming from the dough I’m not getting any prominent butteriness or saltiness and the small chocolate chips are the only hint of complexity I’m getting out of this pint at all.

As an introduction to a new company I’ve been left extremely underwhelmed by Phin & Phebes and hope that this is an outlier miss flavor from a brand I was really looking forward to trying. There is nothing about this ice cream that makes me want to eat more of it and the onslaught of sugar without any kind of redemption becomes incredibly single-noted, and quite frankly, boring.
Rating: 4/10
Found at: Grocery Outlet ($2.99)

REVIEW: Little G X MdoughW Peanut Butter Fudge

May 26, 2017May 26, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

It’s well chronicled and goes without needing any explanation that peanut butter and chocolate are a match made in heaven. Peanut butter is one of the few flavors that can stand up to the big bad bully that can be chocolate, and the richness of the two compliment each other exceptionally in almost all forms of dessert. For the Little G X MdoughW entry into the PB books the two combined peanut butter ice cream with triple chocolate fudge doughies and a chocolate fudge swirl.

This my friends, this is why we Little G. The peanut butter ice cream has a beautiful balance of sweet and salty with a robust peanut flavor that is true to the nut. I’m not sure if it’s the sweetness of the other components but I’m getting a bit more saltiness from the base than I’m used to from Little G and I absolutely love it. It may sound odd, but in the past I felt like Grace’s PB base tasted like Skippy, and this one reminds me more of Jif, with a dash more salt. Lovely.

The triple chocolate fudge MdoughW doughies have a dense brownie-like texture filled with semisweet chocolate chips that give multiple layers to the flavor and added depth to the chew. The chocolate isn’t quite dark but not milky either, it’s just simply deep. Once again the MdoughW is a stellar match for mixing into ice cream, and when combined with the fantastic fudge swirl creates a brownie batter sensation that is beautiful.
Speaking of the swirl, it is thick and dark and goddamn is it good. It’s always a good thing when the clear Little G container has giant black globs along the side of it and this pint is testament to that truth. Fortunately for me, the fudge wasn’t just on the side but I got a beautiful pool towards the middle of the pint as well. As the ice cream melts and the fudge integrates itself into the base, the experience becomes just like eating a peanut butter brownie sundae with every taste and texture accounted for, aka, ice cream bliss.

This is the kind of flavor I want to hoard and never have disappear. It’s incredibly rich and decadent and all the elements are strong enough to stand on their own but work in pitch perfect harmony when eaten as a whole. Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw with small batch hand-packed pints, and for me this one was absolutely spot on. Tasty rich ribbons of fudge and a sturdy amount of MdoughW’s, but the ideal amount of what I’ll call “base breathability”, to get spoonfuls of purely creamy rich peanut butter ice cream perfection.

Rating: 10/10
Found at: http://www.goldbely.com (use code seanpancake0 for $25 off of your first order!)

Sean's Skillet

ice cream, snack reviews, and bay area eats