M&S Christmas Brownie Pops
We’ve been fortunate this Christmas, with samples of festive treats coming from Superquinn and now Marks & Spencer. They sent us a bag with some party food, sweet Christmas treats and a festive soup.
Mini Chicken Kievs (€6.79) – these little breaded kievs can be oven baked. I’ve been ranting on here recently about how off-putting huge plates of breaded food are; but small amounts mixed in with other, more colourful snacks, can be lovely. The M&S Kievs are very good quality, but as always happens with Kievs, the garlic butter leaked out all over my baking tray. Anyone have any tips on how to stop this happening?
Christmas Soup (€3.29) – this turkey and vegetable soup aims to recreate the flavours of Christmas dinner with dumplings made of stuffing. The soup resembled a chicken and veg soup, if a little gloopier, but the dumplings were quite unpleasant and soggy. This one is not for me. A shame, because a percentage of the profits from this and other selected Christmas foods are donated to homeless charities (Shelter and Focus Ireland).
Party Prawns (€5.19) – These prawns are wrapped in filo pastry and were very tasty. I served them with wasabi mayonnaise (it’s very complicated: mix wasabi and mayonnaise!), as I am protesting the automatic addition of sweet chilli sauce to bloody everything at this time of year.
Dipped Brownies (€5.29) – These are great. Little squares of brownies, covered in either caramel flavoured flakes or dried raspberry pieces, on a lollipop stick. The brownie was properly rich and chocolatey, and the lollipops make them perfect for little kids (no sticky hands).
We were also sent Mince Pies, Stollen Bites and a Classic Christmas Pudding. Peter has nabbed them and will scoff and report back. Like a lot of food from M&S, everything was of a very good standard, but quite pricey. The price tag on the Kievs in particular seemed very steep. However, M&S are running a 4 for 3 offer on party food so it’s worth it if you’re buying for a sizeable crowd of guests.
Friday 17 December, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Ive never figured out how to keep the kievs from leaking, so i’ve always cooked them in those underused cake tins.
Friday 17 December, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I bought a good selection of party food last year when it was on offer and froze most of it (check before buying what can be frozen). Was great as a treat or for last minute guests during the year!
Saturday 18 December, 2010 at 9:35 am
Make sure the kievs are very well chilled up to the last minute, so that the butter filling is very hard. Then preheat the oven to 20 degrees more than the instructions say. Turn the oven down to the recommended temperature as soon aw you put in the Kievs, and cook for the recommended time.