Haagen-Dazs Artisan Collection Spiced Pecan Turtle
The Haagen-Dazs Artisan Collection is a recently new offering of 5 flavors from Haagen-Dazs. For each flavor Haagen-Dazs collaborates with an artisinal chocolatier/jam maker/confectioner to produce an ice cream inspired by the products.
At Target I recently picked up two flavors, and have a review of the Spiced Pecan Turtle flavor. This is described as
Working closely with Christohper Elbow Artisinal Chocolate, we created an ice cream recipe inspired by their spiced pecan turtle. Together we combine chocolately spiced pecans and swirls of caramel blended into rich chocolate ice cream.
The first thought I had after taking a bite of this ice cream was, "Whoa, this tastes like Christmas." I don't know what it's called, but there's some type of dense chocolaty dessert spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orange, and possibly other spices in the same family. If you know what I'm talking about (and hey, I don't even know what I'm talking about) then you know basically what this ice cream tastes like.
It's hard to give a review of just the chocolate base because the flavor from the spiced pecans permeated the entire pint. I assume it is the same pretty good chocolate base that Haagen-Dazs normally uses.
The caramel swirl was non-existent. I could see it, and it shows up in some of my pictures, but it was so thin and watery that it mixed right in to the ice cream and the flavor was completely lost. The caramel element was definitely needed, I mean this ice cream is based on turtles candy, so the caramel swirl should have been the thick sticky caramel found on the inside of these treats.
The spiced pecans were good, and even had a bit of a kick to them. Haagen-Dazs does not list the specific spices used, and neither does the Christopher Elbow website. I imagine this is to protect the formula, but it's kind of frustrating. If I had to guess, I would say there is definitely some cayenne powder or something similar that gives a bit of a kick and also cloves, which give it the Christmasy vibe. Probs some cinnamon and nutmeg too, because you can't have cloves without cinnamon and nutmeg. Ahhhh, it's totally bugging me that I can't confidently nail down these spices! Because the base was chocolate, I couldn't really differentiate the flavor difference between the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate coating on the pecans, which was a bit of a bummer. Also, the pecans were a bit soggy, and I wish they would have retained some of their crunch to give this flavor more textural variation.
If I had to design an ice cream based on these spiced pecan turtles I would either make the caramel swirl much thicker or I would do a caramel base with a fudge swirl.
I think this review falls into the category of reviews where I say lots of negative things about elements of the ice cream, but overall it was a decent flavor experience. Also, this is the first time I've seen anything of this flavor profile, so kudos for that. Lot's of brands/scoop shops have a spiced chocolate, but it mainly leans toward cayenne and leaves out the cloves. I'm not a huge fan of the spiced chocolate Christmas stuff so I probably won't pick this one up again, but I think people who do like that sort of thing will love this flavor.
At Target I recently picked up two flavors, and have a review of the Spiced Pecan Turtle flavor. This is described as
Working closely with Christohper Elbow Artisinal Chocolate, we created an ice cream recipe inspired by their spiced pecan turtle. Together we combine chocolately spiced pecans and swirls of caramel blended into rich chocolate ice cream.
Elbow is a really funny last name.
The first thought I had after taking a bite of this ice cream was, "Whoa, this tastes like Christmas." I don't know what it's called, but there's some type of dense chocolaty dessert spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orange, and possibly other spices in the same family. If you know what I'm talking about (and hey, I don't even know what I'm talking about) then you know basically what this ice cream tastes like.
It's hard to give a review of just the chocolate base because the flavor from the spiced pecans permeated the entire pint. I assume it is the same pretty good chocolate base that Haagen-Dazs normally uses.
The caramel swirl was non-existent. I could see it, and it shows up in some of my pictures, but it was so thin and watery that it mixed right in to the ice cream and the flavor was completely lost. The caramel element was definitely needed, I mean this ice cream is based on turtles candy, so the caramel swirl should have been the thick sticky caramel found on the inside of these treats.
The spiced pecans were good, and even had a bit of a kick to them. Haagen-Dazs does not list the specific spices used, and neither does the Christopher Elbow website. I imagine this is to protect the formula, but it's kind of frustrating. If I had to guess, I would say there is definitely some cayenne powder or something similar that gives a bit of a kick and also cloves, which give it the Christmasy vibe. Probs some cinnamon and nutmeg too, because you can't have cloves without cinnamon and nutmeg. Ahhhh, it's totally bugging me that I can't confidently nail down these spices! Because the base was chocolate, I couldn't really differentiate the flavor difference between the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate coating on the pecans, which was a bit of a bummer. Also, the pecans were a bit soggy, and I wish they would have retained some of their crunch to give this flavor more textural variation.
If I had to design an ice cream based on these spiced pecan turtles I would either make the caramel swirl much thicker or I would do a caramel base with a fudge swirl.
I think this review falls into the category of reviews where I say lots of negative things about elements of the ice cream, but overall it was a decent flavor experience. Also, this is the first time I've seen anything of this flavor profile, so kudos for that. Lot's of brands/scoop shops have a spiced chocolate, but it mainly leans toward cayenne and leaves out the cloves. I'm not a huge fan of the spiced chocolate Christmas stuff so I probably won't pick this one up again, but I think people who do like that sort of thing will love this flavor.
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