Happy Foodie New Year!

Oh yes, the last of sweet and savory indulgences of the year. The final night of reckless eating, swearing off all high caloric treats for another year. Wonderful isn’t it?

On New Year’s Eve my husband and I bravely went to the grocery store in the early part of the afternoon. It was sheer madness! Others too were in the same situation. Cupboards were bare, food had to be made and bought for the evening festivities and those like myself who even under those circumstances would have preferred to stay home could not because a big storm would be coming for the next three days. That is a recipe for shopping madness and luckily, we survived. Sadly, they ran out of chickens so my roasted chicken will have to wait!

We went to a potluck at our friends’ apartment and I was in charge of the desserts. I had picked up a giant bag of MacIntosh apples and peeled while still frazzled from the shopping chaos for The Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten’s Old Fashion Apple Crisp which was a huge hit. I wanted to make some brownies and cookies but there was no time. Thankfully, President’s Choice saved my baking butt!

Neal Anderson contacted me via Twitter sent me some President Choice treats to review on my blog and I had been saving them for the right moment. It is always good to listen to your foodie instincts. Mine said, wait and share. Even though I had a homemade dessert all ready to go for the party I wanted to try out these treats with my friends and get their reviews too.

We started with the Double Chocolate Covered Almonds with Peppermint and were already blown away. I do not like peppermint, usually there is too much and it is overwhelming but these were just right. First you enjoy the crunch of the almonds with the smooth layers of chocolate and then the peppermint essence follows, which made us all feel very, very Christmasy.

Then we moved on to the Truffles Dusted with Cocoa Powder and as soon as you had them in your little naughty fingers they started to melt! We were so beautifully surprised at how rich yet not super sweet they were. The cocoa must have been a good quality because it did not bite back at you like some cheaper cocoas can do. This truly was a dream of a dessert although technically I do not think they are actually truffles. According to Larousse Gastronomique a chocolate truffle is “made of chocolate, melted with butter or cream, sugar and some eggs then flavoured… and shaped into balls”. These are made with mostly coconut oil which is probably why they tasted like a high-end, grown-up version of one of my personal favourites, Icy Squares. Perhaps they are healthier for you because some kinds of coconut oil is better for you than cream? That is what I am going to keep telling myself considering I ate at least three truffles last night.

Lastly we tried the Maple Flavour Butter Fudge, “A crumbly, old-fashioned delight, made with real butter and Quebec maple syrup”. Sadly, I think the old-fashioned crumbly texture is what made this our least favourite of the three desserts, although my husband did like the texture. I found it was too dry and as a result hindered my maple experience which others could definitely taste but not me. We all liked it, there was nothing wrong with it but it was too sweet and dry for many of us. We kept going back to the almonds and the truffles but only had one piece of the fudge the entire night. It was just too crazy sweet after all the other desserts we had eaten but still delicious, just not our favourite.

It was so fantastic to be the bringer of sweets and not have to make everything from scratch! We inhaled the apple crisp and snacked on the President’s Choice treats the rest of the evening. It is nice for me to know I do not have to do make myself and still wow people with fantastic desserts.