Some of you are going to look at the 7/10 score at the bottom of this review and be like "I can't believe Nathan and Sonia actually liked these cookies" and others of you are going to be like "Seven out of ten?? These are at least an eleven on a scale of one to ten!" To be fair, we've reviewed over a hundred different kinds of Trader Joe's brand cookies over the past 15 years, the vast majority of which have been crispy, crunchy cookies. So it takes something extra special to get an extra special score on this blog.
So you're saying Trader Joe's Sleigh Ride Cookies aren't extra special, Nathan? Huh? Is that what you're saying?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Unless you absolutely love rock hard, rigid cookies and were pining for ones with bits of smashed up Peppermint Joe-Joe's and candy cane pieces baked into them...in which case, I suppose it's within the realm of possibility that you'll think these cookies are extra special. I wouldn't have asked for such a cookie in a million years. But if Trader Joe's sells it, you bet we're gonna try it.
On the plus side, these cookies are pretty good when dunked in coffee or hot chocolate. They're sweet and minty, crunchy, chocolatey, and you get a lot of cookies for four bucks. Fun packaging design, too.
Negatives? They're too hard, there's too much peppermint, and the overall flavor just isn't that memorable in my opinion. Sonia agrees.
Me? If you want a recommendation for extra special crunchy cookies, there's always the Italian Amaretti Cookies. Oh wait. Trader Joe's didn't bring those back this year. Bah humbug. If you want a rec for peppermint cookies, Sonia and I were both pleasantly surprised with this year's Peppermint Brookie. Hopefully some of those are still around.
So yeah. Four bucks for about 16 cookies. Kosher. Shelf stable for a good six or seven months. I wouldn't buy again. Sonia thinks they'd be nice to take to a party. I guess. Seven out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey and me for Trader Joe's Sleigh Ride Cookies.
Ten bucks gets you ten miniature puff pastries here. Obviously there's some French culinary influence but they are not imported, in case you were wondering. That's a steep price tag in my humble opinion, so let's take a look and find out if they're worth it.
They come frozen, of course. 400°F for 25 minutes will have them piping hot and golden brown on the outside. They smell pretty decent but not particularly pungent.
What's working: the delicious buttery, flaky pastry puff breading outer shell. It's similar to the crust on countless other hors d'oeuvres we've tasted from Trader Joe's throughout the years—the Mini Brie en Croute comes to mind in particular. The overall flavor including beef, mushrooms, garlic, green onions, and salt is complex and savory. Tastes like something a legit Parisian chef might come up with.
What's not working: there's not enough filet mignon, and what little is there is unpleasantly chewy. When I see the words "filet mignon," I'm expecting something tender and soft that will melt in my mouth like butter. Even if they'd have simply called this "beef en croute," I'd have been somewhat disappointed. To call it filet mignon seems downright deceptive.
Sonia isn't as critical of the texture as I am. She's also a bit more fond of the overall flavor. She does agree that Trader Joe's Mini Filet Mignon en Croute contains a very small amount of food for ten dollars, however, and wouldn't be particularly keen to purchase it again simply for the two of us. She would, on the other hand, consider buying it to take to a large holiday party for the benefit (or detriment) of many others.
There are many other appetizers at Trader Joe's that are just as tasty as this one with a better texture and cost less money. I wouldn't buy it again. I give Trader Joe's Mini Filet Mignon en Croute six out of ten stars. Seven and a half out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey.
It has been absolutely frigid here lately. I guess it's another "arctic blast." Fun. Have already done some snow shoveling with the beautiful wifey this year. It's always nice to duck in out of the cold, sit down by the fire, and warm up with a nice big bowl of ice cream, don't you think?
And not just any ice cream—it's Trader Joe's English Toffee Ice Cream. Finally, an English toffee product I can get behind. It's got a brown butter ice cream base, small toffee pieces covered in chocolate, almond bits, and a caramel-esque swirl. It's extremely buttery, sweet, rich, and indulgent.
Sonia and I are both happy it has a yummy toffee flavor without massive jawbreaking slabs of hard candy. It's mostly smooth, but the nuts and toffee pieces keep it interesting. It's got whispers of chocolate, but not much more than that.
We polished off the whole thing in a single day. It's one of the better holiday ice creams we've seen from Trader Joe's. English toffee is far from my go-to flavor, but it's seasonally-appropriate and this offering didn't disappoint.
$3.79 for the pint. Kosher. Would buy again next year. Eight out of ten stars from both Sonia and me for Trader Joe's English Toffee Ice Cream.
Numerous readers have noted that these Trader Joe's refrigerated pastas and raviolis are "too much for one person" yet not enough for two or more. I concur. Although, if you're serving them with sides, they're just about adequate for a couple.
The "servings per container" is officially 2.5 or 3 on most of these products. It's three in this case, although I really don't think it's realistic at all that three adults could share this one package for dinner without copious quantities of sides, toppings, and/or fillers. If we're talking light lunch, then pairing this entire package with a decent salad would probably suffice for two normal folks.
But odd serving sizes aside, this is a decent product. We like the festive red and green colors, courtesy of all-natural tomato and spinach powders. We like the generous amount of ricotta cheese, and we both like the seasonings and pesto flavors involved. We've got basil, parmesan, and even nutmeg in the mix.
We boiled the pasta for six minutes or so. Traderjoes.com recommends serving it with their Rosatella Sauce, but we were unable to obtain that on our last TJ's run. Alternatively, you can serve it with olive oil and grated cheese. We went with avocado oil and parmesan. Honestly, these would probably even do just fine with a traditional marinara pasta sauce.
We polished off the package in a single sitting, devouring the majority of it during the recording of our eight and a half minute video review. We decided that it must be a pasta optimized for Festivus, the fictional winter holiday made famous on Seinfeld. It's probably just the Italian way to say "festive," but I can't think of anything more appropriate for dinner on December 23rd than Trader Joe's Pasta Festiva.
$3.99 for the 9 oz package, found in the refrigerated section. Sonia would buy again and I wouldn't stop her. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. I'll go with seven out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Pasta Festiva.
I think the classic Brookie from Trader Joe's was just an instance of getting my hopes up too high before trying a product. I thought the Peanut Butter Brookie was a step in the right direction, and I like this one even more still. But this might just be a case of not having my hopes up particularly high.
Sonia and I are both wary of peppermint desserts. The peppermint can easily overpower the other flavors and ruin a perfectly good treat. Also, the presence of candy canes or candy cane pieces can dampen my enjoyment of a product. Biting right into hard candy isn't an undertaking I'm actively seeking out these days.
Fortunately, the peppermint in this product adds to it rather than detracting from it. It's a sort of sparkly peppermint dust scattered across the top of the brookie—no big rock-hard candy canes. It's peppermint forward, but there's plenty of chocolate brownie and sweet bready cookie in the mix along with it.
The cookie and brownie are nice and soft. We found nuking the dessert for 8-10 seconds made it even softer. Heating it woke up the flavors even more and made it seem creamier, gooier, and even more indulgent.
We like the serving size. We like the texture and flavor. We like the value. This product would stack up pretty well against any traditional grocery store holiday dessert fare. Sonia and I are both pleasantly surprised with Trader Joe's Peppermint Brookie.
$4.99 for eight brookie squares. Kosher. Found with the baked goods. We would buy it again. You'll most likely have a few days from when you purchase it until the "best by" date. Eight and a half out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. I'll throw out seven and a half stars for Trader Joe's Peppermint Brookie.
The obvious product to compare these happy frozen dessert treats with is Trader Joe's Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches. We enjoyed those quite a bit. Judging by appearances, they're coming from the same third party supplier up in the Great White North straight to your friendly neighborhood TJ's grocery store.
Like the maple leafs, Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches come in a fun shape, although the beautiful wifey points out that the leaves were slightly more intricate and aesthetically pleasing. As you might have guessed, the cookie part of these sandwiches is indeed gingerbread flavored. The ice cream, on the other hand, is vanilla bean. I guess they were going for a balance of gingerbread spices with creaminess. It's not like Trader Joe's can't do gingerbread ice cream.
The overall effect is nice. The vanilla sweetness is offset by mildly-spiced ginger cookies. There is a hint of grittiness in the cookies. They're not 100% smooth. However, like their predecessors, they are nice and soft. I think crispy, crunchy cookies might have killed the mood with this product.
$3.99 for four ice cream sandwiches. Product of Canada. Kosher. Would buy again. In the end, we liked these for sure but maybe just a tad less than we liked the maple leaf sandwiches. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches. Sonia will throw out eight and a half—just a half star less than what we gave to the leaf sandwiches from each of us.
Apparently there's another viral sensation going around involving lasagna soup. There are myriad variations on the particular ingredients used—some are high-protein, some are optimized for the crock pot, and others have lots of greens and veggies. This offering from Trader Joe's is pretty much ready to go if you're not into the whole DIY thing. It can be heated in the microwave or on the stove top.
It's got a fair amount of lasagna pasta. They're not big sheets. They're more like "bits" with an occasional "chunk" of wavy Mafalda macaroni. There's ground turkey, as well. Most of the turkey appears as little meat crumbles with a few larger wads floating around in the soup. It's all suspended in a thick, tomato-based broth with Asiago cheese and traditional Italian spices including onions, garlic, basil, oregano, fennel, salt, and black pepper.
It's a nice hearty overall flavor. Sonia and I are both fans. We finished the whole 2.5 serving tub in one sitting. We love that TJ's chose turkey meat. Perhaps it's fate that we're putting this review up right after Turkey Day.
Complaints? Sonia wants more pasta. I want veggies like diced tomato, spinach, kale, and bigger onion chunks. We think it would be better with turkey meatballs instead of ground turkey. But we're nitpicking. We always nitpick.
Five bucks for the 20 oz tub found in the refrigerated section. Would buy again. Eight and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Lasagna Soup with Turkey. I'll throw out eight out of ten stars.
Of all the many things you might find at a Thanksgiving Dinner spread, I think I like stuffing most of all. I mean, ideally, you're never really eating stuffing all by itself. You're gonna have turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce to go with it. But I mean, if I had to pick just one item from Turkey Day that's my favorite, it's stuffing. I am a carbivore, after all.
There's a cornbread stuffing mix that you make yourself. We like that one. Also, there used to be a cornbread stuffing that came pre-mixed with chicken sausage in it. That one was so-so, but I don't think it's available this year anyway. Trader Joe's even sells stuffing-flavored potato chips. Those things are awesome. And we did a short video review of their stuffing-flavored popcorn. Sonia and I enjoy that product a lot, too.
Right now, we're focusing in on Trader Joe's Cornbread Stuffing with Roasted Apples, Dried Cranberries, and Savory Herbs. This might be my favorite Trader Joe's actual stuffing product. The popcorn and potato chips got the highest scores on our blog, but if we're talking actual breading/dressing/filling/stuffing then I think this is the best one we've seen from TJ's.
It's very moist and slightly sweet. It's salty and savory, but the apples and cranberries add a nice fruity taste to the breads, herbs, and spices. It's soft and fluffy. We heated ours in the oven right in the tray that it comes in, and it came out great. I'm told it winds up a bit soggy when prepared in the microwave.
$5.99 for the 17 oz container, found in the refrigerated section. Would buy again. Sonia didn't grow up eating pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce, but she did grow up with turkey and stuffing, and she likes this product as well. We'll probably have this again for Christmas Dinner. We'll both go with eight out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Cornbread Stuffing with Roasted Apples, Dried Cranberries, and Savory Herbs.
