It's never been easier to turn an ordinary piece of toast into a delicious indulgent dessert. If you're like me, you like to consume an inordinate amount of calories around breakfast time because then you have the whole day to burn them off. That's what I tell myself, at least.
Following in the footsteps of other awesome autumn apple spreads from Trader Joe's like Trader Joe's Apple Cider Jam and Trader Joe's Apple Cider Fruit Spread, this spread is thick, sweet, and caramel-esque. It's got real apple bits and plenty of applicious flavor. It's surprisingly buttery. And I don't just mean creamy, texture-wise. I mean you can taste real butter in the syrupy spread.
There's brown sugar and cinnamon up in the mix. It's surprisingly rich and versatile. Everything from sourdough to ice cream is fair game. Traderjoes.com says you can even stir it into coffee. I better not tell Sonia about that or the whole jar will be gone by tomorrow.
My only complaints? It's messy. Have napkins and wet wipes on standby. I wish the apple bits were a tad bigger—more like apple chunks. Did I mention apple is the number one ingredient?
$3.99 for the 10 oz jar. It's kosher and shelf stable for a year if left unopened. Refrigerate after opening. In the video review, we gave it a unanimous 8.5 out of 10 score. However, we gave one of its predecessors nine stars, and it's at least as good as that one, so we'll upgrade the score here on the blog. Trader Joe's Apple Pie Spread is pantheon-worthy all the way.
Pumpkins, apples, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash all get harvested in the autumn. So it's logical that they're considered fall foods. Maple syrup is harvested around March. So...why we eat maple stuff at this time of year, I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the whole leaf association..? We think maple, we think trees, we think leaves, we think fall..? Gemini says it's because it pairs well with "squash, cinnamon, pumpkin, and baked goods." Fair enough.
All I know is that if TJ's rolls out a seasonal product, we race to grab it and review it regardless of when it's harvested, because no doubt these puppies will be gone in a matter of weeks, if not sooner. Pretty sure this is the very first year for this particular product. Think I would've remembered it if it had been around previously.
We've got ourselves a product of Canada here. That does not shock me for any reason. It's about four bucks for four little ice cream sandwiches, and they're pretty darn good. They're nice and mapley, but not overly so—containing real maple syrup in both the ice cream and the cookies. They're creamy, milky, and buttery too.
There's a brown sugar sweetness that accompanies the maple flavor. It works. The breading is soft and lightly sweet and does nothing to interfere with the great maplicious flavor of the treats. There's very little if anything in the way of miscellaneous fall spices. It's just maple, maple, and more maple with a hint of brown sugar.
Complaints? The sandwiches are quite small for the price. I wish they were a tad bigger. Could be worse, I suppose. Some grocery prices are getting ridiculous these days. Some folks might want even more maple taste, but I liked the flavor just fine as is.
Sonia and I would both buy these little kosher leaf-shaped desserts again. I'll go with eight and a half stars out of ten for Trader Joe's Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches. The beautiful wifey will throw out nine out of ten.
