I haven’t written for a while, not having bought anything new for some time. However, I was in Tesco the other day, and took the opportunity to photograph a couple of products I’ve tried in the past – but I have no wish to buy them again.
Like me, you probably miss some favorites. In my case shortbread and Jammy Dodgers (in themselves a poor substitute for Crawfords Honey Creams, which are no longer available) are top of the list! So I was sucked in, I admit it, one day and bought a packet of Prewetts No Wheat Jammy Wheels and another of Tesco’s own brand Free From Shortbread from the free from shelf in my local store. And when I got them home, I wasted no time in tearing open the packet and making a cup of coffee to go with them.
As you can no doubt tell, I was disappointed. Both products were edible – barely – but both missed the mark in a big way.
Starting with the jammy wheels, the first disappointment was the fact that 90% of them were in little pieces. I know that it’s difficult to get gluten free products to stay together, but I still think a better stab could have been made of it. This, however, wasn’t the worst of it.
The biscuits having fallen apart in a big way, revealed a small button of “jam” in the center, which didn’t even attempt to fill the central part of the sandwich. The actual biscuit part had a very strange taste which was strongly flavored with bicarbonate of soda. Quite unpleasant.
I didn’t throw the rest of the pack away, though I was strongly tempted to do so, because I try not to throw food out if I can avoid it. They were priced at £1.49 for a 200g pack, which would have been quite good for a gluten free product if the biscuits themselves were nice.
I then opened the shortbread. I love shortbread – that crumbly buttery and not overly sweet biscuit which is just wonderful dipped in coffee or just eaten au naturel. I’ve often found (before I was gluten free) that even cheap shortbread is still very tasty, and it has always been one of my favorite treats.
It seems to me that shortbread shouldn’t be that hard to make with gluten free flours, but whether it is or not, the baker responsible for creating the Tesco Free From shortbread recipe didn’t even get close.
At least when you open the pack the contents are intact. The biscuits inside are a bit anemic looking, but that’s ok – there’s no need for shortbread to look particularly golden and inviting, so long as it tastes good. Unfortunately, it fails the test.
I took a bite, ready for the typical buttery crumbliness, and got a mouthful of dry, floury and faintly oaty but otherwise tasteless stuff. Nothing like shortbread at all. This was sad, but I thought it might be better if dipped in my coffee – which would surely get rid of that floury texture which sticks to the tongue so much – unfortunately, this had no real effect except to make the biscuit wet, even if dipped long enough to run the risk of losing part of it.
Again, I was reluctant to throw these away, and I managed to finish the packet over a period of 2 weeks, though it was much like a daily penance. The price for these was £1.25 for a 200g pack.
I won’t be buying either of these again.
