Cookie Pop Popcorn

"Combining cookies and popcorn for a delicious sweet and savory combo!"

Cookie Pop is a product line of cookie + popcorn mash-ups, featuring well known cookies like Oreos and Chips Ahoy!  I could care less about the cookie aspect of this, particularly those cookies, but I'm always up for trying munchy snacks, and in particular, a new popcorn.  They also make a "Candy Pop" line with mash-ups including Butterfinger, Snickers, Twix, M&Ms, and others.

I only tried one flavor, but I didn't find it all that compelling.

Chips Ahoy!

"Two of America’s favorite snacks are teaming up to take on your taste buds as we deliver the delicious taste of Chips Ahoy Cookies in a light, crunchy popcorn package! It’s an incredibly satisfying combo that’s big on flavor, low in calories, and guaranteed to surprise and delight snackers of all ages."

"Popcorn made with chips Ahoy! Cookie pieces and drizzled with chocolate."

I approached this bag with apprehension, as I truly do not like Chips Ahoy.  I see zero place in this world for Chips Ahoy.  Why on earth would I ever pick a Chips Ahoy cookie when there are so many better products on the market?  Even packaged, mass produced, snack/dessert items.  You can do so much better than highly processes, chemical tasting, hard cookies.  Anyway.  I hoped this would mostly be chocolate drizzle corn, and it was ... sorta.

Let's just say, if you went into this excited for the pieces of Chips Ahoy! lurking within, you'd be very disappointed.  I've had several bags of this, and they all just have a few tiny little pebbles at the bottom of the bag.  Yes, technically there are cookie bits, but they are so small, and so few, that it barely counts.  And yet ... it still has a fairly uncanny taste of Chips Ahoy.  In that chemical, not fresh, sense.

The popcorn itself is not particularly great either. Decently popped, average sized pieces (I like bigger and fluffier!), not particularly fresh tasting.  It is drizzled fairly well with the mild milk chocolate.  But ... that Chips Ahoy! flavor really does somehow permeate, and that kicks this down many notches.

Very low *** for novelty, but little other merit besides the chocolate drizzle.

Read More...

Manghis' Bread

During one of my recent visits to see my family in New Hampshire, I learned about a local-ish wholesale bakery, Manghis' Bread, in Montpelier Vermont.  They do not have a storefront of their own, but their products are sold in a few stores near my parent's house.  They've been making bread in the area for 35 years, but this was the first time I had seen them.  

Their distribution model is fascinating: nearly all their deliveries to retail stores are done by volunteers, who are paid in loaves of bread.  This is likely why they aren't found in more places where my parent's live, as it is an hour drive away.  

"Manghis’ Bread uses only high-quality ingredients in our breads. We source ingredients locally whenever possible."

For those local to the area, you'll recognize the names of their sources: King Arthur for flour, Cabot for butter, McLure's for honey, etc.  As a lover of baked goods, I obviously had to try the products I could get my hands on.

Savory Loaves

The majority of their products are savory loaves, classic sandwich style breads (basic white, wheat, honey bran, oatmeal, rye, cinnamon raisin, etc), along with assorted dinner rolls and a few rustic styles.  They also sell pizza dough.

Poppy Challah (Large). $9.99.

"A traditional Jewish braided bread, rich with egg and honey. Makes delicious French toast (assuming you have any left a few days later)."

I couldn't resist picking up this loaf of challah, even though I had never heard of the bakery.  I'm in love with Irving's challah in San Francisco (which I get from Oren's Hummus on Fridays when they have it), and I was really excited to see a locally made challah in New Hampshire/Vermont.   Manghis' Bread makes both a poppy or a sesame version of this, I went for the poppy seed.  Available in a medium or large loaf, this was the large.

I didn't really like this.  It looked great, nicely braided, good luster to the crust.  But it wasn't as enriched at challah really should be, it really just tasted like white bread.  It was fairly dry.  The sprinkle of seeds was nice for crunch.  No one in the family was really into this.  **.

(Sorry for the poor photo, I wasn't planning to review this bakery when I got the challah, but after I got another item a few days later from Manghis' Bread, I felt compelled to review, and this was the only photo I had of the challah!).

Sweet Treats

Manghis also makes several kinds of sweet breads, which of course is what I was more interested in: twists with lemon cream cheese (or raspberry jam AND the cream cheese), cinnamon rolls (with icing of course), or, very Vermont appropriate, maple buns.  I was very tempted by the cinnamon rolls, but opted for the less exciting looking maple buns, as they seemed far more unique.  They also make holiday breads such as Panettone at Easter and Christmas, German Stollen at Christmas, and Hot Cross Buns for Easter.

Maple Buns.  $11.39.

"Real Vermont maple sugar makes these crumbly, crispy, gooey buns extra delicious."

The buns weren't quite what I was expecting.  I thought they'd be considerably more decadent and dessert-like than they were.  I couldn't see a ton of maple icing or glaze, but thought perhaps it was on the bottom (like sticky buns when you bake, and then flip).  The sweetness of these was really pretty minimal, just a bit of maple and cream cheese filling between the swirls.  The maple flavor was nice, but, there just wasn't all that much of it.

The buns themselves were fairly standard lightly sweet yeasted buns.  Nicely puffy, although a bit dry.  They had a homemade appearance, which made them fairly charming.  There was also a tiny bit of a maple crumb topping on top, but it was even more minimal than the maple-cheese filling.

Warmed up and served with fresh fruit and ice cream I did enjoy my bun, but, I really would prefer more of a maple glaze or icing on top, and didn't really want a second bun.  ***.

Read More...