‘Tis the season to rigorously sample Christmas produce and report back our findings – it’s OFM’s special festive taste test.
We asked pastry chef and Junior Bake Off’s Ravneet Gill to test a range of seasonal cakes, biscuits and crisps, and she bravely rose to the occasion. Here are her findings …
Aldi novelty nutcracker musical biscuit tin
£9.99, 400g, aldi.co.uk
These are standard chocolate chip cookies, made with oil, no butter. The musical tin is cute but I personally would not give it to anybody.
★★
M&S Food all butter shortbread projection tree tin
£8, 230g, Marks & Spencer
These smell amazing. They are great, buttery, crumbly biscuits, but I’m deducting points for the kitsch light-up tin.
★★★
Sainsbury’s chocolate presents biscuit tree tin
£5, 200g, sainsburys.co.uk
The tin is really sweet, but the biscuits taste of nothing. They’re fine if you want that satisfying biscuit crunch, but not much else.
★★
Asda Delish gingerbread and caramel snow cake
£12, serves 16, asda.com
Three layers! Tastes like spice, ginger and sticky toffee pudding. Nice cake, not dry. It would be good on the table at an office Christmas party.
★★★★
Tesco Finest sticky toffee cookie tin
£8, 390g, tesco.com
It’s a nice tin – quite chic. Hmm, the biscuits have quite plasticky packaging. And they’re hard to bite into. I can’t finish that. It tastes like treacly molasses.
★
Selfridges spiced salted caramel biscuits
£7.99, 200g, selfridges.com
I like the cardboard packaging. They taste like a crispy, crunchy, milk chocolatey biscuit. They feel expensive – I’d give these to a friend that I liked.
★★★★★
Waitrose sweet snowman cupcakes
£4.50 for four, waitrose.com
They look nice for a party. The cupcake is moist and soft, which I like. But the icing is very sweet. Not something you’d want to eat if you had the choice.
★★
Fortnum & Mason Christmas merilossus biscuits
£21.95, 600g, fortnumandmason.com
These are beautiful. I’d love that as a gift. If you like spiced flavours, they’re for you. Absolutely delicious.
★★★★
BEST BUY
Aldi Specially Selected Belgian chocolate and salted caramel cake
£14.99, 967g, aldi.co.uk
Excellent cake. I’d warm it up and have it with cold cream. It’s super sweet, but for a party it ticks all the boxes.
★★★★★
Marks & Spencer dark chocolate chilli tortillas
£2.50, 150g, ocado.com
I feel like you could buy them in an expensive deli. I’m going to give them five … Wait. It’s burning my throat. Ugh. Oh, no. I hate the chilli.
★★
Co-op Irresistible camembert and black garlic crisps
£1.75, 150g, coop.co.uk
Smelly cheese. Really in your face. I like that. The crisps are thin and would go very nicely with dips. I would serve these.
★★★★
Tesco Finest mature cheddar and apple chutney crisps
£1.35, 150g, tesco.com
Quite powdery. But the flavour’s really good: oniony-chivey and sour-creamy. It’s got a zing. Delicious. If you had people coming round, they’d be good.
★★★★
Waitrose turkey and stuffing tortilla chips
£2, 200g, waitrose.com
When you open the packet it wafts pine and rosemary, but they taste bland – a chalkiness of tortilla and an undertone of herb. No.
★
Aldi Specially Selected camembert, chilli and honey crinkle cut crisps
£1.15, 150g, aldi.co.uk
These smell like the pastry of a mince pie. Texturally they’re fantastic, but the taste is grotesque. Sweetness overpowers the whole crisp.
★
Lidl deluxe parmesan and truffle crisps
£1.25, 150g, lidl.co.uk
Yeah! Truffle and cheese! If you like truffle you’ll love this. I love truffle, so I’m very happy. It’s powerful but not sickly.
★★★★
Ravneet Gill’s latest book is Baking for Pleasure (Pavilion, £26). All items blind-tested
