Event # 8 Breakfast/dessert sweets

 

For Event # 8 I bought multiple sweet items from whole foods. Some fresh bakery items and some frozen.  The items were from and or representing 5 different countries.  We tested these out one at a time over a few month period and ranked our favorites.

 

Gold   Italy   Cannoli

This had a hard but tasty pastry shell, filled with a ricotta filling with chocolate chips.  We really enjoyed these.

Silver   US   cherry turnovers

Triangle shaped turnovers with a good cherry filling. These were very good, and enough for the silver medal!

Bronze   Belgium   Dutch-Style Pancake Bites

These are Dutch-Style and it’s a product of Belgium.  They were frozen and we baked them in the oven.  They were really good topped with powdered sugar, with maple syrup or with both.  This was a nice little breakfast item.

France  Éclair

This was a pastry filled with cream filling and covered in chocolate pretty good but just outside the medals

France   crepes

Made in France.  They were decent crepes but were a little chewy.  These ones were Strawberry filled.  They were good cold and warm.

 

Belgium   Belgian waffles

Made in Belgium.  They were good but very filling.  They had lots of sugar, but maybe too much.

2021 Food Olympics - Event #1 Cookies

 

For this event I visited World Market and picked out 11 different cookies from 9 different countries and then added a package of Oreos so I could have an American contestant.  After I had the 12 cookies collected, the rest of the family came for a cookie taste test.  Everyone all 7 of us sampled each of the 12 cookies. Then each cookie was ranked 1-12 by each person.  We added up each ranking, averaged them and had the lowest score win.            

Gold       Italy - Loacker Quadratini Lemon Wafers

These had the most first place votes with 4.  They were wafer cookies with lemon cream that had a strong lemon flavor that was from real lemon juice. These were definitely my favorite.

Silver      Canada  - Canada True Maple Cream Cookies

Another of most of the taster's favorites.  They were maple leaf shaped sandwich cookies with a tasty maple cream filling.  We weren’t rating the cookies by the package, but these had the best box of all the cookies with nice scenic pictures of Canada.

Bronze      US - Oreo

Just the good old Oreo.  This surprised me how well it did, but Oreos are pretty good.

UK - Walkers Chocolate Shortbread Scottie Dogs

These were Scottie dog shaped chocolate flavored shortbread cookies and the best of the 3 shortbread cookies and the most fun.

Japan - Meiji Hello Panda Chocolate Cookies

These came in individual bags.  They’re small cookies with chocolate filling.  They were perfect for the Olympics because they’re from Japan and have pandas playing different sports on the outside of each cookie. Two of us really liked these and in my opinion should have finished better.

Netherlands - Daelmans caramel Stroopwafels

Most taster’s thought These were pretty good. One taster didn’t like these saying they were too sweet. They were Flat waffle sandwiches with caramel filling. Good on top of a cup of coffee.

France - St Michel Galettes Butter Cookies

Shortbread cookie that was just favored over the Irish shortbread, but I personally don’t like shortbread all that much.

Ireland - Grace's Irish Shortbread

Another Shortbread cookie but this one was cloverleaf shaped.  This was slightly worse than the French shortbread.

Spain - Gullon Chocolate Maria Biscuits

Just an okay cookie, with a light chocolate flavor and the worst of the chocolate cookies.

Netherlands - The Old Mill Mini Peanut Cookies

These were really hard cookies with peanuts, and no one really liked them. They did however have a nice white package with a blue Dutch windmill.

Thailand - Pocky Strawberry Biscuit Sticks

These were in stick form and dipped in a strawberry coating.  These weren’t very well liked.

Thailand - Lotte Koala's March Mango Cookies

Cookies with an odd tasting mango filling that no one liked very much.

That was Event #1, Italy, Canada and the United States all medal!  Stay tuned for Event 2, coming soon!

Athena Sweet Athena Cosmopolitan Baklava Variety Box

I bought this product for $7.99 at World market.  The box contained 9 pieces that were individually wrapped in three flavors: walnut, pistachio, and kataif and nuts.

I tried one of each flavor.  They were all pretty good, they were very sticky and messy and full of honey, but very good tasting.

Whole Foods Market Key Lime Pie

 Whole Foods Market Key Lime Pie $15.99

For Easter I was in charge of dessert, so I ordered a Key Lime Pie from Whole Foods through Amazon and had it delivered for free.  

This was a great pie in every way.  The key lime filling, the graham cracker crust and the whipped cream on top were all excellent!  The whole family enjoyed this so much and we are looking forward to having another one in the future!

Omaha Steaks Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough

 1 (24.7 oz.) pkg.  13 cookies $19.99

These cookies were huge 4 inch and almost 2 ounce a piece.  They were super good cookies with plenty of dark chocolate chunks.  We really enjoyed these; they were pretty much just as good as homemade! 

These cookies were so big we only ended up making 6 of them.  We are definitely looking forward to eating the rest!

Frango Chocolates 1 LB Holiday Wrapped Milk Mint Box of Chocolates

When I bought other gifts from Macys on Cyber Monday, I got these for $9.98 if I bought a certain dollar amount of other items but it would normally cost about $28.  

These had good quality chocolate with a nice mint flavor.  It was a 1 lb.  box with 45 small size pieces.  These were pretty good, and I would order them again.

Omaha Steaks Individual Cheesecake Sampler

 4 (4 oz.) cakes $14.99 total

 

This contained 4 different individual cheesecakes. 1 New York Cheesecake, 1 Cherry Pie Cheesecake, 1 Nutella Cheesecake and 1 Almond Cheesecake

I tried all 4 and they were all good.  My favorite was the New York Cheesecake, sometimes simple is better.  My least favorite was the Cherry Pie Cheesecake. These were good, but I don’t think I’ll order them again.

 

Omaha Steaks Individual Cheesecake Sampler

Carol's Cookies

 

These were really good and big 7oz cookies.  They are High fat I’m sure, with good quality ingredients including butter and sugar. I would definitely order these again.

I ordered these through Tastes of Chicago. 

Oh Fudge by Ann

 

I was looking for something to get mom for her birthday and an ad for Oh Fudge by Ann popped up on facebook.  This is a local business that was easy to order from.  This was really great fudge that you could tell they use high quality ingredients. When I ordered each one was $12.99 and they had a buy 3 get one free deal.  I decided to order

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Combo Fudge

Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge               

Dark Chocolate Caramel w/Sea Salt Fudge                           

Butter Pecan Fudge

 

All 4 were excellent, but I really enjoyed the dark chocolate sea salt.  The old fashioned was also very good.  Mom really enjoyed her birthday fudge and the rest of us enjoyed what she shared with us.  I can’t wait to buy some more.

Oh Fudge by Ann