Quordon muffin Co. Jam Roly Poly muffin

Having been largely disappointed by these Quordon Mufins, I wasn’t anticipating any major amendments in the quality of this Jam Roly-Poly muffin. I made a mistake. I opened the packet, and a sweet vanilla aroma wafted forward. Tempting me in, the muffin broke into my mouth with the aforementioned moist, springy texture and a hit of vanilla flavour came from the crumb, before the pocket of jam burst into my mouth and added a subtle natural fruitiness that complimented the sponge to good effect.

Neither aspect was dominant, and fused together in my mouth to give a really satisfying translation of the pudding, and captured its pleasurable qualities in an alternate form.

Quordon Muffin Co. Sticky Toffee muffin

First off today, sorry for being away so long, its been a long, hard fortnight at work which had forced me to take a momentary brake from blogging. Now on more important things, I have returned to Quordon muffins and the limited edition puddings range for this latest taste test.

My hopes with these muffins have diminished proportionately with each one I have tried, so came to this one with a slight hesitancy and low expectations. The texture again had a denser consistency, which, with its moistness, gave the muffin a delightful gooeyness and decadence that was really appropriate, and befitting of the conceptual flavour. The warmth of pudding captured in the rich aroma, but lacked the buttery essence. Biting in, it had rather one-dimensional toffee taste that’s pleasant but has no depth or development. Sweet but without the necessary creaminess, and a lack of the essential dates gave it an experience that was closer to a synthetic confectionary rather than what it aspired to.

Essentially, it captures the generic mass produced taste of Sticky Toffee pudding, but finally one of this Quordon range actually has a stronger flavour. With these desserts being such an integral part of our British food heritage, it would be preferable if a little more care and attention was taken in with these mass produced ‘interpretations’. For Shame again.

Quordon Muffin Co. Spotted Dick muffin

On the back of my recent review of Quordon’s Apple and Custard limited edition, I decided to have a go at their Spotted dick variant. I have a tendency to be a bit wordy so here’ something a little more economic: swap apple with sultana and you have your review.

Really.

Quordon Muffin Co. Apple and Custard muffin

The recent trend in ‘Classic British’ style products has filled our shelves’ with everything from designer brand Union jack t-shirts to Royalist tat, most likely thanks in-no-small part to Wills and Kate‘s wedding, the growing hype for the 2012 London Olympics and a bunch of old Etonians in being back government (not that I can comment on politics, after all I blog about junk food). Those associated quaint habits have clearly influenced recent product innovations, attempting to capture (re: cash in) the spirit of both “the good old days” and the national psyche.

I don’t really mind this, so long as there’s a bit of humour and some irony is involved, and this creation is pleasingly perverse as it combines an American –style Muffin with a classic British pudding of stewed Apple and Custard. The packet highlights the concept with the bold union jack colour scheme and London-road sign label proclaiming the ‘Best of British’

With suggestions for it to be eaten either warm or stright from the pack, I chose the latter option.Taking the cake from the wrapper, I was met by the combined aromas of the baked product with a subtle light ‘apple’, and distinctly reminded me of the apple flavour Nutri-grains.

I found it very soft and moist, and thankfully free of that clingy cream of tartar mouth feel that can tarnish commercial bakery products. However, its taste didn’t emphasise either the apple or custard greatly, and only had a subtle suggestion of the fruit coming with the small pieces in the muffin itself. The custard filling felt lost, due to the moist softness of the surrounding muffin and its comparative viscosity. In fact, if I tried to serve similar, I would get an ear-full that it doesn't constitute a liquid. But I digress.

The pleasingly substantial size along with the delightfully soft light texture and mouth feel made it an enjoyable experience, but I was left underwhelmed by the flavour. If it was slightly better developed and had a greater influence Quordon could really be on to something with these re-imagined classics.