REVIEW: Phin & Phebes Peanutty Pretzel

June 23, 2017June 22, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Life is all about second chances. After a very lackluster experience with Phin & Phebes’ Vanilla Malt Cookie Dough, I thought I would give them another shot with a flavor profile I love – sweet, salty, and nutty. Simple enough, Peanutty Pretzel combines peanut butter ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels. How could I lose?

Going in for a scoop the aroma is solid with a great peanut aura that has my hopes up. Getting a taste the peanut flavor is decently pronounced and tasty with a good balance of sweetness and a hint of salt but the texture is just…off. It’s grainy and almost sandy in a way that I haven’t experienced with ice cream before. It’s not the kind of icy freezer burn or re-freeze texture you get from an unfortunate freezer accident but feels more like the base was simply made improperly or with a powdered peanut butter instead of the real thing (which it wasn’t, I checked the ingredients). When the ice cream softens, and even approaches melting, the problem doesn’t get better, but actually worse, and feels like tiny grains of sand inside the base – not appealing.

The chocolate covered pretzels are also a miss. The first two pieces I got were completely stale and soft with another undesirable texture that just adds to the overall off-ness of this flavor. Since I’m not a quitter I kept digging and managed to get a couple good pretzels that were properly preserved and popped with a salty crunch that was really tasty. Unfortunately that success was short lived as my next two pieces were once again soft, stale, and straight up not good, which is a big bummer because the bites with the good pretzels actually offset the weird texture momentarily and achieved a pretty solid bite.

While this pint had moments of quality spoons, my overall impression is once again very low of this up-and-coming and now distributed by Walmart company. While the first flavor I had from them suffered in balancing flavors and depth, this one had straight up miscues in quality that lead to an unenjoyable experience that left me not wanting to dig in for more. I’m not going to completely write P&P off of my list for tasting in the future but I’ll need to do some research on what their strongest flavor is and see if I can find any redemption.

Rating: 5/10
Found at: Grocery Outlet ($2.99)

REVIEW: Salt & Straw’s The Roxie Road

June 21, 2017June 20, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Popcorn is one of my favorite foods. It’s a volume snack I can put back with light crunchy ease that tastes fantastic AND actually has some fiber and protein to go along with its deliciousness. Whether its the straight ahead low fat sea salt bagged variety, or the naughty oil drenched stuff in a dark movie theater, or a crunchy drizzled sugary treat, popcorn is a mainstay in my diet and I love it. As popular as it is, it rarely finds itself incorporated in my, and America’s, favorite dessert – ice cream. While it may sound kind of strange, the roasty, buttery, sweet and salty potential of popcorn is actually an amazing mashup for making a wonderful ice cream, and for the June Rescued Food series Salt & Straw did just that. Utilizing leftover popcorn from the Roxie Theater, S&S created a popcorn ice cream base and mixed it with their house caramel and a coffee-flour cookie crumble to create The Roxie Road.

The popcorn flavor in the base is fairly subtle, but comes across in initial bites when I search for it. Beneath the layers of silky smooth high quality dairy are gentle corn notes that finish with a slightly roasted butter flavor. Much more apparent than a straight ahead popcorn flavor is an overall butteriness that aids in the texture and makes it feel and taste like an elevated corny sweet cream. The execution and overall effectiveness of the popcorn experience would have been greatly amplified by a saltier presence, which we know Salt & Straw can do extremely well in their Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons and countless other stellar releases. Even though it’s lacking some salty pop there’s no doubt this isn’t vanilla and it’s a really tasty ice cream.

The caramel in this pint is the same fantastic S&S caramel that I know and love – thick and rich with an impressively dark burnt flavor that is my absolute favorite caramel in any ice cream. It isn’t particularly salty but does reset my tastebuds to be able to taste the popcorn flavor in the base more prominently, and is a wonderful compliment to pretty much anything it touches.

The surprise factor in this flavor, and my favorite element, are the coffee-flour cookie crumbles. There are some smaller “crumbles” sprinkled throughout, but also big hunkin’ chunks that explode with a gritty cookie texture and robust coffee flavor that are unexpectedly delicious. The chunks are hard, almost like a piece of toffee, and are equal parts intense coffee grounds and bitter chocolate notes. It’s almost like a super coffee-forward shortbread, crumbling beneath my teeth, and the bitter coffee flavor is very welcome in the sea of sweet creaminess.

I was ecstatic when S&S announced they were doing a popcorn-infused base, and while it is a fantastic ice cream, I wish it was a bit more popcorn-y. The best popcorn base I’ve ever had was in a Humphry Slocombe seasonal last year called Peaches and Popcorn, and I feel as though I will be forever chasing that buttery salty memory. Regardless of any small flavor preferences, if you like buttery ice cream with sensational caramel and bursts of bitter coffee and are fortunate enough to live in the Bay Area this one is definitely worth at least a scoop, and probably a pint to boot.
Rating: 8.5/10
Found at: Salt & Straw (San Francisco)

REVIEW: Hostess Cinnamon Sugar Crunch Donettes

June 19, 2017June 19, 2017 / seansskillet / 1 Comment

As a weekly host and attendee of Cinnasluts Anonymous meetings I’m always on the hunt for new ways to get my fix. I’ve got four different types of cinnamon on hand to sprinkle on everything from fruit to chicken to vegetables, and of course a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cinnamon Bun Oreo’s, a couple stocked bags of Cheetos Sweetos, some apple cinnamon yogurt, a bottle of Pepsi Fire…and the list goes on and on. As I was perusing the grocery store to stockpile more cinna-goodies my body came to a jolting stop right after passing the cinnamon swirl bread and into the snack cakes…Cinnamon Sugar Crunch Donettes. That’s right, Hostess have put a spicy spin on their tasty crunch mini donuts, and to be honest it’s such an obvious twist I can’t believe this hasn’t already been done.

Opening the tall white bag it’s no surprise I’m greeted by a sweet wafting cinnamon sugar smell that is fresh and lovely. The donuts look soft and glisten with a locked in moisture that is a great sign for $2 grocery ‘nuts.

Biting in the two stated flavors, cinnamon and sugar, and very well represented and lean towards the sugar with a nice crystallized crunch, completing the trinity of living up to their names’ description. The prominent flavor is sweet, but the lovely aromatic spiciness of cinnamon lingers in the back and keeps them from being too sugary. While I love a good punchy, almost spicy hot cinnamon, the balance here is spot on and reminds me of a well executed streusel crumble on top of an apple crisp.

The texture inside is soft and moist and tastes very fresh. The donette doesn’t crumble at all and has a perfect squish as I chew that works well with the sweet crunchy exterior. These are basically exactly like the classic coconut-leaning Crunch Donettes but with cinnamon, which makes them automatically better, and feel much more authentic to a real donut than a gas station pick-me-up.

I always loved the straight forward cinnamon sugar cake donuts at mom ’n pop shops for their simple flavors and emphasis on the crispy cake-y dough. They were also the most successful donut I ever made the few times I tried going from scratch at home, and as a result they will forever hold a special place in my heart. While these donettes aren’t as good as the real deal, they’re closer than any other variety I’ve had from Hostess, Little Debbie, or TastyKake at channeling the classic flavors of a bare bones donut shop, and they don’t taste cheap or artificial at all. Whether you love cinnamon or just a quick fix to go with your morning cup, these are one of the strongest baby cakes you can buy.

Rating: 9/10
Found at: Walmart ($2.00)

REVIEW: Ample Hills Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

June 16, 2017June 17, 2017 / seansskillet / 2 Comments

Ample Hills are a Brooklyn based ice cream company churning out some of the finest gourmet custard (egg yolk heavy ice cream) in the United States. They pasteurize their cream on site and bake almost all of their mix-ins in house, creating inventive and delectable flavors from top to bottom that can be ordered online or scooped at one of their seven shops in the New York area. Recently some of their flavors have been made available on Amazon, which cuts down on some of the very high shipping costs associated with ice cream and has made cream-heads like myself jump and salivate with joy. My first rendezvous with Ample Hills is Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, which combines vanilla custard with pieces of gooey butter cake – a short, dense, butter-heavy cake that originated in St. Louis in the 1930’s.

The vanilla custard is insanely creamy, rich, and dense with an absolutely perfect melty mouthfeel that is divine. The vanilla flavor isn’t super pronounced, but instead has a layered cheesecake-y depth that isn’t over the top in terms of sweetness but is through the roof with fatty dairy notes that teeter on savory like cream cheese without the tang. The abundant use of egg yolks gives a different body to the ice cream that is very unique, reminds me of eating custard cones as a youngster, and is overall fantastic. Heavy yet fluid, the only way to truly describe it is succulent.

The pieces of gooey butter cake are ample and diverse, with a rich, buttery, slightly floury presence that really flourish against the base. Some of the pieces are crunchy with a caramelized exterior that give way to a softer cake interior like the lovely edge of a brownie, and some of them are purely soft with the perfect ratio of dense and squishy. The harder pieces almost feel like they’ve been dunked in a caramel and the slightly burnt brown sugar flavor is phenomenal. This is my first time ever having ooey gooey butter cake in any application and I can’t wait to try it again.

With a base that is straight forward yet decadent and a singular mix-in that is executed flawlessly, this is one of the most perfect pints money can buy from one of the most flourishing ice cream companies in the United States. An absolute thrill to eat from beginning to end, I recommend getting your hands on some Ample Hills as soon as possible.

Rating: 10/10
Found at: Amazon.com

REVIEW: Trader Joe’s Sweet and Salty Granola Bars

June 15, 2017June 14, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

My first name is Sean, and my last name is Skillet, but my middle name may as well be “SweetSalty” for how much I really love that combination. Opposing flavors that can compliment each other AND make one another greater is a thing of true beauty, and I’ll take sweet and salty in my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Understanding this wonderful yin and yang of tastebuds, Trader Joe’s are helping me amp up my S&S at snack time too, with their new Sweet and Salty Granola Bars, which they describe as a nutty granola bar dipped in almond butter and Greek yogurt coating.

This bar is fairly straight forward but very well executed. The saltiness is just enough to warrant the “salty” part of the title, and isn’t overwhelming but comes through in small bursts of little salt crystals evenly distributed throughout bites. They aren’t big and crunchy like sea salt but stand out more than your average table salt mixed into a recipe for balance. The sweetness comes through in the Greek yogurt layer and is a different and refreshing spin, rather than raisins or some other form of squishy sugary burst.

The mixture of crisped rice, whole oats, wheat flakes, and whole almonds gives a great chewy texture with pockets of crunch and a slightly golden flavor that reminds me of graham crackers. The graham-y-ness is accentuated once again by the Greek yogurt with some tasty vanilla notes and a great soft sweet and salty profile without the aggressive use of chocolate or caramel or another decadent flavor you’ll often find in S&S. The almonds help liven up the bites and add small pockets of fattiness that keep all of the components in check and interesting from beginning to end.

The prominent finishing note on the bar is almond butter, and it’s a really nice way to seal the deal. The smooth creamy butter flavor enhances the presence of the actual almonds and has just the right amount of fatty flavor to keep it more interesting than your average granola bar. The ingredient list has not only almond but peanut and cashew butter, and while those butters aren’t super apparent there’s a depth to the richness that is great and much more complex than I was anticipating. Overall these little bars surprised me – sweet enough to go with a nice cup of coffee but not so sweet that they feel like candy. If sweet and salty is your thing, let these push your little impulse purchase button the next time you’re in line at TJ’s.

Rating: 8/10
Found at: Trader Joe’s ($2.99)

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)

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

Sean's Skillet

ice cream, snack reviews, and bay area eats

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