Review - Sweetbird & Walden Farm Syrups

Sorry for all the 'doom and gloom' of the prior two rant-esk posts. Here's a simple review without the drama! :)

Having enjoyed my mocha Frappuccino light from starbucks the other day, but balking at the cost, I wanted to be able to make them myself before I ended up burning a hole in my wallet.
Ice, milk and coffee are easy enough to come by, but the classic taste came from the syrup – something that isn’t readily available around here. Amazon offered up a few sugar-free syrups (most are only sold in the USA, darn it), and with the exception of the hazelnut, I bought them all.
Well, they arrived today, and after the success at Borough Market I was very excited to try them out! (Must be all this sunny weather going to my head).

First, the Walden Farms Chocolate Syrup. I had my doubts about this one, which proudly exclaimed “calorie free!” on the front in big bold writing. Reviews had not been so good online, but it was the only sugar-free chocolate syrup available, and I want my mochas!

The syrup was incredibly runny, despite being advertised as poured over ice cream in a thick stream on the cover, (though this would work to my advantage in coffee). I took a big sniff, hoping to smell chocolate (ha!) but instead felt my stomach grow uneasy. There was an initial metallic taste, which quickly developed into a slightly caramel/nut like chemical aftertaste, with no hint of cocoa whatsoever. It was disgusting! I attempted to eat it with one of my Borough Market strawberries, but it just ruined that too. The aftertaste also persisted long after chugging down gallons of water in an attempt to get rid of it, by which time the syrup had started congealing into an unappetising, gloopy mass on the spoon…yummy. The bottle has gone straight in the bin.

Verdict? Don’t waste your money, unless you like licking old cars in your spare time.
0 out of 10

Sweetbird Sugar-free, naturally flavoured, coffee syrup – Vanilla & Caramel flavours
 Moving onto the Vanilla sugar-free syrup, this time from the company Sweetbird, (which is actually meant for drinks and used by some UK baristas), I was feeling slightly apprehensive. Unlike the Walden Farms disaster, this actually smelt like the real deal – vanilla. Obviously you’re not supposed to have it straight, and instead blend it into a drink, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t trying to hide beneath other flavours like the “chocolate “ syrup was obviously hoping to do.

 Surprisingly, as I cautiously dipped my tongue in, this tasted sweet, syrupy and of vanilla. I mopped it up with a strawberry and that really set off the flavour. Licked the spoon clean.
Definitely gonna add this to iced coffee! The bottle is snazzy too with a very useful pump for quick and precise servings, and the syrup is a gorgeous colour.

Caramel
I was looking forward to trying this after the vanilla’s success, despite not liking caramel as a flavour too much. Again, there was a promising smell, not as light as the vanilla but definitely of syrup and caramel.

Verdict - Wow, that surprised me! Although it initially tasted the same as the vanilla in terms of the syrupy sweet ness (without the vanilla overtone obviously), it instead had a beautiful undertone of caramel coming through. It was less sweet than the vanilla flavour, and I found that I licked the spoon clean before even thinking about a strawberry! Would be nice in a cold iced coffee, or even a hot one.

Rating wise, I’ll leave these until I try them with coffee, but they’re pretty darn good. :]
If only sweetbird did more sugar frees…. I want my mochas! There’s a brand called Monin in America that does so many sugar free flavours, like gingerbread, chocolate, peppermint, raspberry…the list goes on! So jealous.

(If you live in the USA and are willing to sell some to me, just leave a comment and I’d be uber grateful!)

Borough Market - if it isn't temptation I don't know what is

Went to Borough Market for lunch today, since the sun was out, it was gorgeously warm, and I wanted to tempt myself into eating after what Gwyneth told me.

First – a note on strawberries. My shop-bought raspberries and blueberries from sainsburys are wonderful but their strawberries…. I had to chuck them out the other day, as they just weren’t ripening and were pretty solid. The taste was also like cardboard! (Though they’re not actually in-season at the moment, so it’s to be expected).
 I got to my favourite produce stall first, run by a guy called Jock Stark, (one of the few places they don’t charge “designer” prices for fruit & veggies!) I’ve bought stuff - like peppers - from him before and it’s always been cheap but delicious. One of the funny things I love about him is that his hands are filthy – on anyone else in London, you’d wonder where he’d been, but the dirt is from all the soil on the potatoes, etc, and really gives off that fresh-off-the-farm vibe!

Guess what? Lo and behold, there were punnets piled high with the nicest, biggest, glossiest looking strawberries you’ve ever seen. They were a beautiful crimson red. Of course, being Borough Market, there were free samples everywhere, so I decided to see if they were as good as they looked.
One word – heaven. Compared to the Sainsbury failures, these were just like the ones you get in Devon during peak time, and evoked images of clotted cream and sunny picnics. As soon as I tasted that sample I was hooked – felt my eyes light up as my hand quickly whipped out the money straight away! (Only four pounds for three punnets stuffed to the brim too, bargain!)

Of course, I’d come to Borough Market to get myself to eat lunch, not to buy strawberries for tomorrow’s breakfast. Initially I’d planned to buy freshly made, wild-boar stuffed tortelloni from La Tua pasta, but after last night’s craving had been fulfilled I didn’t fancy it anymore. So that I didn’t use this as an excuse to not eat anything for lunch, I quickly walked up to the closest stall and picked the first thing off the list – beef, harissa paste and rocket in a roll. The servers were lovely and their banter distracted me from the heaps of oil sizzling on the hot plates!
I’d seen big queues here on Saturday before, (when the market is packed with tourists), and watched people walk away with their rolls crammed full. Mine, however, was sparse, and a bit of a ripoff at 4.80 for something that was mainly bread and harissa paste. I was disappointed by the bread to meat ratio, and seeing people walk away from other stalls with crusty french bread rather than my bog-standard dough made me feel a little cheated. (Probably just my guilt trying to stop me from eating the damned sandwich though). Ignoring the bread, taste wise the harissa paste was nice and spicy, and the meat was good but there just wasn’t enough of it.

Surprisingly, although feeling daunted by the sheer size of the roll, (it was easily four times the size of one of my normal sandwiches), I wolfed it down SUPER fast, and actually felt more hungry afterwards! The sunny weather and gorgeous food in the market made me forget about my body image (hurray), and I actually went on the hunt for cake instead of fleeing. I wandered around for two hours, slowly working up the courage to actually buy something, and when I began lingering at stalls was given free samples left right and centre – people were so generous – I got given free slices, not slithers or cubes, but massive slices to sample stuff. I sampled goats milk ice cream, chatted with a load of the super friendly stall owners, and tried frantically to decide on a stall to buy my brownie from (they were all made differently from each other, and there were over 6 different stalls selling them!) Eventually I settled on the Bread Ahead bakery’s brownies, as the man there was wonderfully friendly and had given me a free sample easily the size of half a shop-bought brownie, (how’s that for generosity), so I felt I owed him my custom.

Verdict – light but stodgy, chocolatey yet not too heavy, moist but not wet – it seemed to be one thing then another in the mouth, surprisingly different with each bite, and I packaged it up to take home for dinner.
Update: after eating the entire thing over a period of several hours I now feel very sick. Ooops. Though that might be due to the fact I can still smell the Walton Farms syrup (see next post for review)

I nearly bought my brownie from another stall (though I hadn’t tried it), which featured the most ginormous stacks of chocolate, raspberry or crème-filled meringues, dangerously teetering on the edge of the counter, and piles of Turkish delight spilling out of various jars. My eye was caught, however, by a strange looking cake that looked to be incredibly dense on the palate, which I’d never heard of before – a “Lamington”. The trader grabbed a piece and whipped off a large chunk for me to try, (again very generous!), proclaiming it to be an Australian favourite. I was surprised by the feather like weight of the cake, as it looked all the world to be uber heavy.
And how wrong I was. Biting into that Lamington was like eating a cloud, it was so delicate, super light and fluffy, almost impossibly so.

What was it? A Victoria sponge slightly tasting of vanilla, with a thin layer of jam through the middle, coated in chocolate and rolled in coconut shavings. The beautiful thing was that the extra additions to the cake had been done in such a way that they had merged with it in a transition that meant none of the light texture was lost – pure bliss. If I hadn’t bought the brownie, that would’ve been in my bag instead. As Borough Market is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I know what my lunch is tomorrow. Lamington calls for me! ;]

A rant

I haven’t updated since Monday, and between now and then a lot has happened. On Tuesday, I was all ready to review a few bits and bobs, not much. (Summary? Encona hot pepper sauce, which was like a fiery version of thai chilli, probably good in rice dishes but not chicken sandwiches, Nandos peri-peri sauce is brilliant for that though, it lacks the sweetness. The Caffé Misto from Starbucks was nowhere near as good as the Mocha light, probably because the coffee taste was stronger, hahah, I’m such a light weight).

Then my flatmate’s friend brought in the leftovers of this GINORRRRRRMOUS birthday cake his mum, a professional baker, had made him, and asked us to help finish it. Here I was, thinking I was making progress with my skewed way of thinking, but the instant I saw that cake – despite madly craving a slice – I was filled with fear.

Some people are afraid of spiders, others of height. Me? A fucking chocolate cake. Funny that it’s one of those things I’d have jumped on in glee in the past. Our society’s messed up drive for that stupid “perfect woman” ideal really has a lot to answer for. All of my flatmates took a slice, and I fought the urge to flee when I was handed mine.
I ate it, (wolfed it down actually), and dear gawd it was good. Ultra chocolatey, super moist from the strawberries studding the inside, with a layer of ganache wrapped around it. But of course, as soon as I’d finished the guilt was there.

It’s not that I’m a cake or chocolate free zone anymore – it’s because it wasn’t PLANNED. My day intake of what, how much, calories, etc, is calculated and evaluated over and over and over every evening. It’s exhausting and I can’t help it, but it’s just something I find myself doing.

Up until that cake moment, I really thought I’d been making progress towards not having to plan everything anymore. But as soon as I left to go to my room, I did the thing I’ve never really –ever- done before, I made myself throw up. (For an entire half an hour!) Such was the desire to get that cake gone, the guilt.

Then there was relief after purging, and inevitably the guilt later on from doing it. (I –promised- myself I never would). Leaving a post on gwyneth’s forums, I hoped for some help.
The next day I got it. Gwyneth basically gave me a reality check, the scare tactics I needed to try to pull myself out of this mess. And you know what? As I sat there Wednesday evening, craving dinner – a “sinful” pasta bowlful, I actually went and made it, then proceeded to scrape the bowl clean.

Hurray!

On a side note, I tried a variation on that Greek Yogurt pancake recipe, using an entire egg rather than just the egg white – (this recipe here) – and although it’s probably because most of the taste comes from the fruit, I found that it really didn’t make all that much difference. In fact, I preferred the egg white recipe as it’s both healthier and made for a less stodgy texture.
Plus I tried cooking the mixture two ways – one with adding the berries on top, and the other with mixing them in beforehand. Although the “on top” method seemed to burn the berries (it didn’t), it worked better, as when I reheated one of each for breakfast today to compare, the “mixed in” version had gone a tad soggy, and tasted more dense. (Though perhaps that’s due to using the egg yolk this time).

Recipe Tryout - "Red Kidney Bean Curry"

I'm going to hang my head in semi-despair here, and say that I completely ruined what seemed to look like a promising dish.

The reason? The recipe I used, from the blog smittenkitchen, listed the ingredients in cups. Being English, I have no friggin' idea what a 'cup' denotes, and so spent half an hour decoding the ingredients into grams. Unfortunately, I made a mistake with the ginger.
......oops.
The dish smelt amazing, and texture wise was good, not to mention the short cooking time, but my blunder of chucking in way too much ginger let me down. It totally overpowered my mouth with each bite.

Disappointingly, behind the ginger, I could tell that the curry recipe was actually really, really good. There was an occasional moment when the taste that was supposed to be there got past that blasted root, and it was wonderful. (If only I'd followed my gut instinct when I thought there seemed to be a lot of ginger on the chopping board!)

I'll probably try making this again in the future - but only after I figure out the cup measurement conversions better!

No rating, since it was my own fault I ruined it. Have some photos instead! (It did seem rather photogenic, so at least some good came out of it).



Also, having learnt my lesson from the frappuccino earlier today, I made myself finish my bowl (especially since I'd only had those breakfast pancakes to eat all day - and also because I couldn't really chuck it since some of my flatmates were in the kitchen too). I can tell you, there was no "second bite" moment here!

Calories per serving:
180 without bread
(I didn't use olive oil like the recipe stated, but a spray instead)



On a side note - I'm going to try another coffee tomorrow! (But this time hot, I'm not repeating today's freezefest again in a hurry, haha).
"Caffè Misto / au lait" (Starbucks again, but if I like it enough I'll buy some cheap coffee and make it myself at home in the future). Gonna have a tall with skimmed milk, and either vanilla or caramel - or both if I'm feeling greedy! - sugar free syrup added to it. Only 55 calories too ;]

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Mocha Light Frappuccino (with Skimmed Milk) -Starbucks

This blog is pushing me to try new things, stuff I wouldn’t normally choose or even consider. But there’s something about reviewing recipes and food that’s giving me an interest again…I’m still cutting corners and lowering calories on those, but pulling myself out of monotonous bowls of cereals and soup is hopefully the first step of further recovery? (Oh, how I’d love to be able to chow down on stuff when I’m hungry, or fancy it, and not when and what my inevitable calorie-controlled rations dictate).

Now, before I started all this phiff phaff in my mind and could actually act normally (well, kind of!), I used to only ever get one thing from Starbucks if I visited. The fabled crème Frappuccino, usually vanilla and, yes, with whipped cream on top. I’ve never really gotten into coffee or tea, and the sugary creamy drink really hit my sweet tooth.

(Note to readers – my first coffee was a baptism in fire. My dad bought me one to ‘wake me up’ when I was feeling sleepy on the ski-slopes, one holiday long ago. Little did I know it was a double expresso shot, and took a massive gulp!

…though I did finish it after much grimacing. It did the trick though, maybe a little too well as my inexperienced, younger self got a whopper caffeine kick a tad later!)

Of course, coming in at a hefty 230 calories for a small, it wasn’t going to be my first choice again any time soon. So I decided to try the “Mocha Light Frappuccino”, (minus cream & with skimmed milk) which came in at a more acceptable 96.
It had all the three things I wanted – guilty mocha for my chocolate addicted sweet kick, the ice base of a frappuccino, and most importantly, coffee, which is something I’ve been meaning to try again for a while now. (Yes, I know the mocha is a slightly wimpy start to coffee, but I didn’t want to be put off!)

My Opinion:
Now this was cold. Obviously so, since it contained ice, but when I turned around and saw there was no seating I was forced to go walkabout in the freezing wind, (which probably turned down the enjoyment a bit!)
Ok, ok. /endgrumble
Anyway, on a rather eager first slurp, I was hit by the taste of coffee, and took an instant dislike to it, disappointed by the lack of mocha/chocolate flavour. Deciding I’d rather chuck it than waste calories on something unenjoyable, I began walking to the nearest bin.
Now let me tell you, I’m so glad that I took a few more sips before I reached said bin, because for some reason, my opinion changed dramatically. I went from hating it to rather enjoying it. (Which shows you that you’ve got to give things a second chance!)
It was strange how the more I tasted, the more I liked it. Tastewise it grew on me, and I could taste the other flavours alongside the coffee, which didn’t seem overpowering or strong at all anymore! The blended ice gave it a satisfying bulk and slush, plus made it seem a little more substantial than the amount of actual drink that was in there. (I laughed a little here as it occurred to me that I was paying a wince inducing – for a student, anyway - £3.20 for something that was mostly frozen water. Touché, Starbucks, touché).
Now I’ve never had skimmed milk in a drink before, normally I’d go for semi. Consequently the frappucino felt like it could have been a little more creamier, and was missing just that little extra that the semi-skimmed might’ve given it.
In hindsight, the terrible initial slurp was probably more due to surprise, as I’d somehow tricked my mouth into thinking it was about to get something much more chocolatey and sweet.

But, all in all, it was a surprising drink, and I’m looking forward to trying out other coffees in the future! (Though perhaps not any more frozen Frappucinos whilst the weather is still so darned cold!)

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10
(I really liked how it grew on me after that ‘horrible’ first sip, but the calories are still a little too high to merit an 8. A bit too expensive to become a regular).
Cost: £3.20

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Alternative Pancakes

It's nearly Pancake (aka Shrove) Tuesday, and with all the pancake related items cramming shelves everywhere, it was inevitable that I would begin to crave them at some point or another.
Thing is, I didn't want just any pancake, I wanted a properly thick, crumpet like one, and with all that butter and sugar, it was inevitably a no-no in my mind.

Determined, I ended up scouring the internet, and found various 'alternatives', one of which used only four basic ingredients - flour, baking soda, egg, and most importantly of all, Greek Yogurt.

Now, I knew it wasn't going to be the same as traditional, sugary, buttermilk pancakes, but it was worth a shot to silence these cravings! I changed the recipe slightly to suit me, and after waking up early today to go fetch those blasted ingredients, I finally got round to eating them for lunch. (I spend far, faaaaaar too long in food shops, it takes me like an hour to choose cereal, let alone multiple ingredients!)

Recipe - "Alternative Pancakes"
(Original credit goes to here where I got the original before I altered it)

Makes: 4 pancakes

Portion size: 2 pancakes per person
Calories per portion: 170 (depending on brands of yogurt, etc)











Ingredients:
1 egg white
1tsp baking soda
roughly 60g plain flour
roughly 150g Greek Yogurt (I used Total 0% fat which is healthier, but you can use any)
Fruit of choice (I used raspberries and blueberries)

Optional:
Vanilla extract
Sweetener (not really necessary but like I said, I have a sweet tooth!)

Method:

- Mix the greek yogurt with the egg white, then add the flour and baking soda, (plus vanilla extract/sweetener if using).
- Heat your pan up. (I used one of those 'one-spray' Flora cans to stop the pancakes sticking)
- Add around 2 spoons of mixture to the pan. Don't worry if it doesn't look that much, the baking powder kicks in and makes them rise quite a bit!
- I highly recommend fruit or it'll be a tad too bland, so pop them on top of the uncooked side straight away, pressing them slightly in with your finger.
- Cook for about 30 to 60 seconds on a medium heat, or until the mixture starts to bubble slightly. Make sure you don't leave them there for too long or they'll burn and taste nasty! (I did this with one)
- Flip the pancake over once the side is cooked (aka holds together) enough to do so, and repeat with the other side.
- Continue flipping until cooked.
- Repeat for the final three pancakes, and enjoy!

My Opinion:

Okay, visual wise, (ignoring my burnt one), these don't look too different to normal thick-style pancakes. They have a much softer consistency, and although they hold together fine, you can break them apart with a fork quite easily (yay for me, less washing up!). Again, the texture is soft but firm in the mouth, and although I like this, other people may want to use oats or wholegrain flour in the mix for more chew.

Moving onto flavours - now, the way these were cooked, the berries all exploded into my mix, so it tasted pretty good. I think I could've done with more vanilla extract or sweetener in the yogurt though. Without the fruit it would taste pretty bland, but I easily polished off my two and had to prevent myself from eating the rest - not because they weren't filling (which they were), but because they were moreish!

NB - I popped the other two in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast, keep an eye out for my edit as I'll say whether they are reheatable / toastable the next day or not! :]
UPDATE: Tried them this morning, one cold and one warmed in the microwave. The cold one didn't really do much, but the heated one was yummy!

Verdict: 6.5 out of 10
These are nowhere near as good as the real thing, but they still do a pretty good job. The fruit is the saviour and highlight of these, and I probably wouldn't cook them without, unless you were planning on adding jam or honey on top instead. (But again, I have a sweet tooth). I'm looking forward to trying out the recipe again and tweaking it further.
As a healthier option? Sure! At only 85 calories a hefty pancake with fruit, they're pretty guilt free and don't take too long to make...without much washing up either.

-> On a side note, the smell from the ones I'm saving for tomorrow, despite being cold now, is promisingly scrummy!


Tomorrow - I'll be trying out a (healthy!) Red Kidney Bean curry recipe I found.

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M&S Bakery Chocolate Muffin

I popped into the Marks & Spencers near me after lectures yesterday, hoping to find their melt in the middle chocolate puddings. Unfortunately, being a small 'food to go' shop in the station, besides the many sandwiches on offer for commuters and office workers, there wasn't much else in the way of chocolatey heaven, and both the rhubarb and jam puddings didn't really justify me splurging out my week's savings.
Damnit, I want chocolate! ;)


So I'm going to cheat a little - when I was back at home last week, my mum bought me a muffin, freshly baked, from the M&S bakery. I have fond memories of that place, and as a kid I'd always look forward to the occasional treat if we were passing by that way. (Usually it revolved around chocolate!)
On a side note - Marks, if you're reading this, bring back the in-store bakery Chocochino muffins! They were simply DIVINE, and although you do four in a pre-packaged version, they lack the gooey center that the bakery muffins had, and fall short of the originals by far.
Anyway, back onto the review in question.

(NB - not my image, since I ate this last Tuesday!). Despite having shoved said muffin into a bag, carrying it on the train journey and then on the tube, then eating it the day after it was bought, the muffin was still intact, and not at all stale. The initial first bite - wonderful, and though there perhaps wasn't enough chocolate flavour, it was still good. 

Going by my old childhood tradition, I popped it in the microwave for a couple of seconds, warming the muffin and allowing the chocolate chips to melt ever-so-slightly. And I'm glad I did! This really added something to the taste, and the muffin was instantly more satisfying. (Those chocolate chips, by the way, are fabulous. I had to restrain myself from pulling them off individually!) There was also a little surprise inside the muffin - the middle had a blob of some gooey, not-quite-chocolate filling, and again, this added an extra something. (Can you tell I like melting middles?)

Overall, an enjoyable muffin. I'll give it extra pointers as it survived a battering journey, and didn't taste stale even though I ate it the day after. It could have done with being a tad more rich in the chocolate flavour department, perhaps with more dark in the mix?

If you have to decide between this and a tesco-direct bakery muffin, go for M&S. It's worth the extra cash.

(On a side note, my sister says the Costa chocolate muffins are good too, and -wait for it-, have a melty middle as well. I'll have to get one of those to review and compare sometime!)

Summary:

Mark out of 10: 8

Cost: ?

Nutrition:

Calories (kcal) - 470   Sugars (g) - 39.0    Fat (g) - 23.3   Saturates (g) - 5.2    Salt (g) - 0.75