Right now, Texas weather is cooling to what we call “winter”, and we are nearing the holidays. Around this time, stores put out their best spooky decorations, Thanksgiving sales, and Santa Claus cutouts to help advertise their holiday specials. A trend I couldn’t help but notice this year is the extremely festive combinations in their baking and dessert aisles.
Of course, being a baker myself, I couldn’t help myself from attempting to create the yummy sweets that are advertised on the boxes. I bought four different desserts to try and see if any of them were actually good or if they were just another gimmick.
The first dessert I tried was a Little Debbie Brownie Pumpkins which was supposedly pumpkin flavored. It just mostly tasted like a normal, albeit dense, brownie. It didn’t taste like a pumpkin at all. The icing on the brownie tasted painfully artificial and sickeningly sugary. Overall, I couldn’t finish the brownie.
The second dessert I tried was also a Little Debbie treat. The Pumpkin Delight Cookies, a little pumpkin jelly-filled cookie in the shape of a jack o’ lantern! The ingredients listed pumpkin puree, so I had higher hopes for these cookies. The smell that came with opening the package was overwhelming. It smelled like an oatmeal cookie with pumpkin. The actual cookie itself was soft, chewy and tasted a little bit like oatmeal cookies. The jelly that outlined the face was very sweet and sticky. At least it tasted like pumpkin. Once again, I couldn’t finish the cookie.
The first dessert that I got to turn on my oven for was Pillsbury Grands Pumpkin Spice Rolls. If anything was going to make me approve of fall themed desserts it’d be cinnamon rolls, one of my favorite pastries. I followed the instructions until the sweet rolls were golden brown. The actual rolls themselves were delicious. The icing was another story. It almost tasted minty, but was labeled as pumpkin spice. For the third time I could not take another bite of the dessert. This seems to be a running theme for these fall desserts.
Finally, I got the chance to get out my measuring cups and my mixing bowls for the ever intriguing Fall Harvest Baking Mix. This mix came with a recipe for muffins. I followed the recipe exactly. These were the best fall themed desserts I have tried. It tasted like apple and cinnamon and other fall flavors. It wasn’t overly sweet or tasted artificial like the other sweets, probably because there are no added flavors or preservatives.
Most of the desserts I tried, I would never buy again, maybe I just have something against pumpkin spice or maybe it was the artificial flavors that got to me. The only fall themed dessert I would go back to the store for would be the Fall Harvest Baking Mix, how yummy!
