I liked these. The dough part was flavorful and flaky. The filling was a delightful burst of raspberriness.
However. (1) A couple of them came out of the oven with some unpleasant sogginess to them. (2) They leave behind parts of themselves on whatever surface they're baked on. I was glad I followed the package directions to line the cookie sheet with foil, so I could just throw it away rather than scrape and scrub the residue off. (3) Four of the eight were glommed together in a nasty iceball in the bag, and it was a pain to break them apart before heating. (4) It costs a lot for not very much dessert. They're tiny things.
Will I buy it again?
No.
Bake on foil? That’s weird. They’re buttery enough just on a sheet pan is fine, or with parchment, but stuff always sticks to foil. I might buy them for a brunch gathering of some sort, but i’ll pass otherwise (due to dairy issue)
ReplyDeleteTtrockwood
PS
Are you anti-mochi? I don’t see any mochi reviews here, but the new thai iced tea mochi are AMAZING
I'm not anti-mochi, but have only minimal experience with them. Nina bought a variety pack (4 flavors) of them from TJ's, and we ate and evaluated them together. I even remember writing up the review, but now I can't find it in my archives, and I can't figure out what happened to that post.
DeleteNo wonder they stopped selling these incredibly delicious pastries! Ugh! What an unforunately and inaccurate review. These were wonderful. With Trader Joes frozen pastries, you always need to play with the temp and/or amount of time to bake. It's just how it is. So, as I recall, these bakes for considerably longer than instructed on the bag to get a buttery, flakey puff pastry with melty creme anglaisey and bubbly raspberry!! Holy MOLY, you could not ASK for more! The unimaginative may regard printed baking instructions as dicta; but not everyone is in the same environment at the same elevation using the same oven, etc. Goodness - if these bake at too low a temp or for too short of a time, you will get soggy - that's butter -- gorgeous BUTTER! Bake it longer and, please, no food should ever touch aluminum foil (aluminum is a metal/chemical element), and we mustn't bake directly on top of it. Parchment paper works great. But, alas, too late for these little angels as TJ has long stopped carrying them. Sigh. I would do anything to have these back. I KNEW such a good thing would not last - I bought eight bags at a time & regularly. Everyone to whom I fed these pastries gobbled them up and raved! Oh those crispy-flakey bottoms and warm creme anglaise and bubbly sticky raspberry . . . Nothing gold can stay.
ReplyDeleteAlso, before packaging, the pastries were flash frozen separately. So, if they were glombed together out of the freezer means that they were defrosted and then re-frozen. Nothing would survive that kind of mishandling - particularly puff pastry. The pastries would not be able to rise & so, yes, disaster. That would be on you. Or else the store experienced a power-outage.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing - Do you know how special it was to bake these from frozen? Did not have to kick yourself in the morning for neglecting to set to rise overnight. Nope - pop in the oven at moment's notice. So, these should never be defrosted before placing in oven. Once they are defrosted, they are ruined. Refreezing does not fix it - but refreezing after defrosting would be the ONLY way the pastries could have glombed together.
ReplyDeleteWhat is there to get out of negatively reviewing a product after profoundly mishandling it? Alas, the only food left on the shelves will be highly processed in order to make them completely idiotproof. Sigh.