I found
Weissela's Chocolate-Covered Soft Gingerbread Cookies as I was waiting in line to check out from
Trader Joe's.
They're imported from Germany and cost around $5 online, but in true Trader Joe's fashion, they were offered for about
$2 for a 200g package of 7 cookies.
When I think chocolate-covered soft gingerbread cookies, the first thought that occurs is "That sounds really good!" Unfortunately, these remind me a bit too much of fruit cake.
Picking one up, I wondered "Where's the gingerbread?" The top and sides of the cookie are covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate while the bottom is a thin white wafer disc that resembles a soft rice cracker in texture (except the wafer is made with flour, potato starch, and salt). I surmised that the disc and the chocolate helped to keep the gingerbread inside from drying out too much.
Inside, the gingerbread retained some moisture and was interspersed with bits of various nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and cashews accordingly to the ingredients, though I struggled to find the distinct flavors of any particular nut). There was a decent, but not strong, spiced flavor of gingerbread.
What made me think "fruitcake" was the inclusion of sweetened apricots and candied orange peel in the gingerbread. They lent a tangy sweetness that might have been nice when paired with just dark chocolate, but was a bit weird with gingerbread
and dark chocolate. Like fruitcake, there's a bit too much going on here. The orange flavor in particular was fairly prominent and merits adding to the cookie's name.
Overall, my notes on Weissela's Chocolate-Covered Soft Gingerbread Cookies read:
"Reminds me of fruit cake. Not particularly moist. Kinda weird. At least there's dark chocolate."
Nutritional Info - Weissela Chocolate-Covered Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Serving Size - 1 cookie (29g)
Calories - 120 (from Fat - 40)
Fat - 4.5g (Saturated Fat - 1g)
Sodium - 50mg
Carbs - 18g (Sugar - 11g)
Protein - 2g
This is German "Lebkuchen" which besides a few hard baked varieties (mainly for decoration than eating), which resemble the gingerbread you know are almost always soft. You can find them in all kinds of stores at Weihnacht (Christmas), but can be hard to find outside of the season. Nuremberg is known for lebkuchen, but my favorite comes from Ulm.
ReplyDeleteGerman gingerbread is delicious (very popular nowadays in Britain thanks to German supermarket chains like Aldi). It has an almost meringue cookie texture to me.
ReplyDeleteThis was nothing like a meringue cookie. It was more like a crumbly soft-baked cookie, but on the dry side.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's supposed to be drier.
ReplyDeleteAw, I don't like that. Hard and dry I understand. But soft and dry? Not so much.
ReplyDeleteSoft gingerbread cookies are so good. But they don't need nuts, orange, apricot or chocolate. Why must everything be coated in chocolate?
ReplyDelete