A Few More Tasty Treats From Exeter Food Festival

I think it's quite obvious from the purchases I made yesterday (full review of my fantastic day at Exeter Food Festival here) that I have a very sweet tooth. With the exception of the delicious bag of nuts from Mr Filbert's, everything I bought was sweet. Which means I've eaten a lot of cake and chocolate in the last couple of days!!

This afternoon I couldn't resist trying the chocolates from Shute Fruit...

These truffles are made by mixing their homemade jams/preserves with melted chocolate. First up was the raspberry one, covered in coconut...

This had a great tangy raspberry flavour and a rich, fugdy texture. The coconut coating also provided a nice crunch to cut through the richness. Loved it!

Next was strawberry...

I'm not a huge fan of strawberry flavoured things, so wasn't expecting to completely love this (hence only getting one of this flavour to try) but actually it didn't taste much of strawberry at all! The lack of strawberry flavour was, for me, a good thing, as it allowed the incredibly rich chocolate flavour to shine through. Like the raspberry, this truffle also had a fudgy, almost sticky, texture. So good.

Finally, ginger...

My Mum had already tried this one, and said that while it had a nice texture, it didn't have a particularly strong ginger taste. I have to agree. It had an interesting texture - with pieces of ginger in it as you would get in a ginger preserve, but apart from when you bit into the ginger bits, you wouldn't necessarily know you were eating a ginger truffle.

Overall, these were all really good quality chocolates. I adored the raspberry one. 10/10. I could eat those over & over again! It took me a while to decide on my second favourite, but I think, for the flavour of the chocolate, the strawberry won it - although not necessarily for strawberry lovers! The ginger truffles were also nice but could've done with a stronger flavour. Yum.

This evening  (and indeed last night!) I also tried the white chocolate chip chocolate brownie tray bake from Olivers Bakery in Crediton...

Last night I ate some of this warm with double cream...

and this evening just room temperature on it's own...

Both versions of this were absolutely amazing. However surprisingly for me, lover of all things rich & creamy, I think I actually preferred tonight's version of the brownie as is. It's delightfully gooey and fudgy as it is, that covering it in cream is unnecessary. Plus when heated it seemed to thin a bit, and I preferred the rich firmness of it at room temperature. Delicious. I wish they were online! If anyone lives near Crediton I definitely recommend both their cupcakes and their brownies!!

Despite how it may seem, I have also eaten some savoury-ish foods today. Earlier on I posted about the smoothie I had for breakfast and the peanut butter & banana muffins. I ended up having two muffins, spread with blueberry jam, as "lunch" (as well as 2 slices of white toast with the huge leftover chunk of Taleggio cheese mid-afternoon, ahem).

Dinner was an easy but popular dish in our house - Cheesy Mustardy Broccoli Pasta Bake...

the top is normally slightly browner than this, but we were too impatient/hungry for the cheese to brown properly! This was my first portion...

I inevitably went back for a second portion almost the same size! I love this - the slight tang of the mustard cuts through the cheese sauce, and the pasta overload gives lots carby goodness! The above pasta + the brownie tray bake = a very good end to the day! :)