Part one of the Christmas treats I found on my adventures through Lidl (seriously Mr.1T tried to talk me into buying a kayak in there a while ago?) can be found here.
Favorina Stollen with a Finest Marzipan Filling
Christmas isn't Christmas for me until someone whips out the stollen. Not only do the dried fruits and marzipan make stollen taste Christmassy but they even look all snowy and pretty too!
I had a very nice Kuchenmeister Stollen from Sainsburys a while ago, before the poor girl had even put them on the shelf to be truthful, and I hoped the Lidl version would be even nicer.
They're only 200g so not very large but they're solid little things, naturally we ate half each - nobody wants stale, hard Stollen! Lidl had been a lidl (I couldn't help myself) deceptive and put it heavily sugared side up in the clear packet. There was still a decent amount but not as much as it first seemed. It felt a bit different to the Kuchenmeister stollen in that the Lidl was a lot firmer, with no give or squidge at all.
I wasn't impressed when I cut it in half or when I took a bite. It tasted as dry as it looked. The very large raisins and 'candied fruitpeels' were lovely and moist with a sweet juicy flavour but the stollen itself was dry and bland.
In the photo above, underneath the raisins there is a slightly darker patch. This was literally all the marzipan filling I had in my whole entire half. That small pocket was delicious; sweet moist marzipan with juicy raisins and a thick stollen texture. The rest was boring, plain and a chore to eat. Turns out Mr.1T had all of the a marzipan in his half! He couldn't choose between this and the one we tried from Sainsburys as his favourite whereas I have no doubts in my mind.
5/10 my half 7/10 his.
This is why I don't share!
Favorina Gingerbread Hearts, Pretzels, Stars - Dark Chocolate
I know, I've already bought and reviewed a Favorina gingerbread from Lidl but c'mon this is gingerbread with dark chocolate!
I thought they'd all be bunged in the box like they were in the bag reviewed in part one, but they were all nicely sitting in a plastic tray. The reason for this, I'm assuming, is because they're beasts. To put it into perspective a bit, there are only 18 Gingerbread (compared to about 100 before) and the box weighs half a kilo. They're big.
The texture threw us both immediately. I suppose where we'd had gingerbread biscuits before and the chocolate coating gave these a hard to the touch feel, we expected biscuits but these felt more like a cake. I think they had a nice gingerbread flavour but honestly, it was mild - all I could really pick out was the chocolate. That was dissapointing in itself. I'm unsure whether it was the chocolate or gingerbread but it was on the sweet side. The taste was 99% chocolate but it wasn't a dark tasting chocolate at all, much more along the lines of a milk. Which Lidl sell too. Either way, if it's the chocolate or the gingerbread providing the sweetness, I can only imagine the milk chocolate version being sickly sweet. I couldn't taste any cinnamon or gingerbread like flavours at all, no warmth or hint of spice sadly.
Don't get me wrong, these were nice - if I'd wanted to eat a soft, chewy, sweet chocolate covered cake/biscuit hybrid. But I wanted rich, dark chocolate coated gingerbread biscuits and sorry Favorina hearts, pretzels and stars. That you ain't!
6/10
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