M&S Strawberries & Cream Choux Buns

A light, choux pastry filled with whipped cream and strawberry conserve.

I really liked the choux pastry; it was very light, but the pastry seemed a lot more flat than the other choux buns. The strawberry conserve was delicious; really fruity and tasty. The whipped cream was nice, but I felt that there wasn't much of it. 

For the price, I was expecting a slightly bigger choux bun with more filling - like the custard choux buns. I just thought that these were a bit stingy for the price; both the size of the bun and the filling. 

Price: £2.50 for two

Rating: 4/5

M&S Dessert Menu White Chocolate & Blackcurrant Spheres

I've been dying to try these White Chocolate & Blackcurrant Spheres; a lovely summery combination of flavours.

These spheres consist of a white chocolate mousse, a blackcurrant curd centre and a blackcurrant mousse with a white chocolate plaque.

The White Chocolate mousse is incredibly light, and actually tastes of white chocolate ( a lot of products with white chocolate tend to not have much of a white chocolate taste, as the chocolate content is very low), so I was very pleased with this.

The blackcurrant centre is delicious; just the right amount of tang without being too sharp. A beautiful contrast against the white chocolate mousse.

Finally, the blackcurrant mousse was lovely and light, again with the same amount of tang as the curd centre - absolutely perfect.

These are absolutely delicious - light and summery. Highly recommended!

Price: £4.00 for two

Rating: 5/5

M&S Blackcurrant Eclairs

I look forward to the Summer range every year by M&S. This year, they seem to be focusing on a blackcurrant and Strawberry theme in their range of Summer desserts and sweet treats.

These blackcurrant eclairs are filled with a blackcurrant mousse instead of the traditional cream filling, and is then topped with a beautiful blackcurrant and white chocolate fondant glaze.

These eclairs were really, really nice. The blackcurrant mousse actually tasted of fresh, tangy blackcurrants, the choux pastry was lovely and light and the fondant glaze was lovely and sweet. The tanginess of the blackcurrant filling and the sweet fondant glaze worked really well to balance out the flavours. The blackcurrant mousse had the perfect amount of tanginess without being too sharp.

A beautiful summer treat, I really recommend these.

Price: £2.50 for two

                                                                         Rating: 4/5

M&S Salted Caramel & Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

I have been dying to try these for weeks, despite being rather skeptical about how these flavours could possibly work in a hot cross bun.

I was wrong, VERY WRONG.

Now, I like to eat my hot cross buns un-toasted, just because I find that heating them changes their soft, bouncy texture and the flavours aren't quite the same.

The bun itself is extremely soft and fresh, with a lovely caramel colour. The Belgian chocolate chips scattered throughout the bun are perfect; they are gooey whilst still holding their shape. The salted caramel fudge and toffee pieces were perfect; fudgy and gooey, again holding their shape, with a lovely silky caramel/toffee flavour. 

The surprising part? Despite all of these delicious flavours, I could still taste the warm,  fragrant spices amongst the chocolatey caramel goodness.

I am thoroughly  impressed with these hot cross buns, especially considering the perfect balance between all of the flavours.

M&S, please please please bring these back next year!

Price: £1.70 for four

Rating: 5/5

M&S Colombian Coffee Ice Cream

Despite my reservations about this Colombian Coffee Ice Cream tasting like actual coffee due to the stingy 1% coffee listed on the ingredients, this ice cream has a strong, rich coffee flavour  which was rather pleasant, at first.

After  3 spoonfuls, the ice cream seemed less appealing; the coffee was now bitter and overpowering and the ice cream lacked a nice, creamy taste. It tasted watery and unpleasant; so much so that I threw the remainder in the bin.

This is another of those products with amazing potential, and I really hope M&S will improve the recipe. A more subtle coffee flavour perhaps, with a higher cream content. There needs to be a better balance between the cream and coffee flavour.

Price: £4.00

Rating: 1/5

M&S Salt & Black Pepper Combo Mix

I really love these bags of 'combo mix' snacks; they are great value and incredibly moreish!

I particularly like the different shapes which produce  a variety of crunchy textures. This salt and pepper flavour was really tasty - the black pepper added a nice kick, too. 

Price: £2.50

Rating: 5/5

M&S Extremely Chocolatey White Chocolate Rounds

Oh my. White chocolate shortcake style biscuits? This is my idea of heaven.

As it says on the box, these M&S Extremely Chocolatey White Chocolate Rounds are more chocolate than biscuit, but that's okay, because they taste amazing.

A buttery, crunchy shortcake style biscuit is covered with a delicious, creamy, chunky white chocolate, making these biscuits irresistible. The chunky white chocolate also gives these biscuits a lovely 'bite'.

These biscuits are too good for dunking in your tea/coffee, you will also have great difficulty in sharing them. 

Price: £1.85 for eight biscuits

Rating: 5/5

M&S Chocolate Coated Peanut Butter & Choc Chip Cookies

I've never tried peanut butter cookies before; they seem to be a relatively recent thing in the UK. I'm pleased to see M&S keeping up to date with these food trends and adding a touch of their own M&S magic.

These chocolate coated peanut butter and choc chip cookies are exactly what I'm talking about!

These cookies are made with peanut butter, studded with peanuts and milk chocolate chips and half- dipped in milk chocolate.

These aren't the sort of cookie I was expecting. I was expecting the traditional soft and chewy cookie, but what I got was a very hard, crunchy biscuit. 

I couldn't taste the peanut butter, but the peanut and chocolate chip pieces were lovely. The milk chocolate coating was nice, too.

A disappointing cookie/biscuit, but these are so crunchy that they are perfect for dunking with a cuppa! All is not lost.

Price: £2.00 for 8

Rating: 2/5

M&S Gastropub Empire Pie

This Empire Pie is from the Gastropub range at M&S. It consists of spiced lamb with mango chutney and is topped with crushed potato and herbs.

As it was cooking in the oven, the smell was beautiful and comforting; I couldn't wait to tuck in!

The spiced lamb ragu was full of flavour, very tasty with plenty of sauce. There was plenty of minced lamb which went really well with the various herbs and spices.

The potatoes were a lovely addition. They were very soft and sprinkled with onion seeds which added a nice depth of flavour.

Overall, I was really impressed by this product. It was really delicious and very comforting, I highly recommend this and would definitely buy it again.

Price: £4.50

Rating: 5/5