Trader Joe's Mini Apple Danish Pastries

If you spent any part of your formative years burning the roof of your mouth on a McDonald’s apple pie in the back seat of a station wagon, allow us to introduce you to their sophisticated European cousin. Imported straight from France, Trader Joe’s Mini Apple Danish Pastries deliver a heavy dose of nostalgia—except with actual buttery, flaky layers instead of deep-fried cardboard pocket energy.

At $4.99 for a bag of eight mini pastries, these ready-to-bake treats hit that sweet spot between casual weekend breakfast and "I spent three hours laminating dough from scratch." Bake them up for 25 minutes at 350°F, and your kitchen instantly smells like an autumnal wonderland.

The crust bakes up delightfully golden and crisp, cradling a rich, sweet apple filling. Right off the bat, both Sonia and I picked up on distinct, cozy notes of cinnamon and brown sugar. Here’s the plot twist: neither cinnamon nor brown sugar actually appears on the ingredients list. Are they stealthily hiding under the vague umbrella of "natural flavors"? Quite possibly. What does show up on the panel is caramel, which explains the warm, deep sweetness that ties the whole filling together.

A quick word of warning for fellow remote TJ’s travelers: because our nearest store isn't exactly right around the corner, our bag suffered a bit of a thaw-and-refreeze situation on the long trek home. A few of our mini pastries ended up fused together like sugary, pastry-bound soulmates. They still baked up fine, but keep those cooler bags handy if you’ve got a long drive ahead of you. It's ridiculous enough you should totally watch our video review just to have a laugh at the ginormous wad of apple danish.

These are a huge step up from drive-thru pies—fancier, flakier, and genuinely delicious. Since they’re a seasonal, limited time offering, you’ll want to grab a bag before they vanish for the season. We’d definitely buy Trader Joe's Mini Apple Danish Pastries again next fall. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me.

Bottom Line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Basque Style Cheesecakes

I've heard of the Basque region my whole life, but I never even looked up exactly where it was until now. Apparently it straddles the border between southwestern France and northern Spain. There's also an autonomous community in Spain by the same name. This product does indeed come to us from Spain, though it's not specified that it comes from the Basque region per se, hence the name Basque-style rather than just Basque.

Two hockey puck-sized discs come frozen in Trader Joe's Basque Style Cheesecakes. Simply remove from packaging and thaw, covered, in the fridge for four hours. Easy as pie...uh, I mean cake. Er, cheesecake. Anyway, the product is soft and fluffy and scrumdiddlyumptious.

It's very caramel-forward to my palate. It's sweet and tangy and slightly tart. It's quite creamy both in flavor and texture. Despite my expectations, it's much more rich, indulgent, and dense than Trader Joe's Japanese Soufflé Cheesecakes. That's just fine by me. As much as I enjoyed trying those Japanese dealies, they just didn't deliver the comfort food euphoria that I'm looking for in cheesecake.

These did. They're like a fluffy custard made with cheese spread, egg, cream, and sugar. There's a hint of browning on the top of the dessert, but the inside is just sumptuous smooth sweet cream. Delicious.

There's no breading here of any kind. In fact, the product is labeled as gluten free. As much as I love breading and/or graham cracker crusts, these smooth, circular snacks don't suffer for want of a carby coating. I suppose you could throw some kind of berries or whipped cream on top if you wanted to jazz them up a bit, but honestly, they don't need it. They're simple but scrumptious as they are.

$4.99 for two frozen cheesecakes. Product of Spain. Gluten free. Available for a limited time only, though I'd hope they'd consider keeping this around all year. Would buy again. Eight and a half stars from me for Trader Joe's Basque Style Cheesecakes. The beautiful wifey will go with eight out of ten stars.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.