KR's Dessert Jars & Cookie Bars

Normally, this blog deals with eating out, typically in full service restaurants.  However, we all know food is everywhere in many shapes and forms.  Hence, I've intermittently included various other things like one-time pop ups to home-based operations.  Recently, I was contacted by KR's Dessert Jars & Cookie Bars based out of a commissary at Core Kitchen in Langley (available for delivery as well).   As their name suggests, their main products are dessert jars resembling trifles to cookie bars that are part cookie, part cake where a surprise filling awaits you.

I was supplied a selection of their wares including the Sneaky, Limonetta and Mr. Nutty.  Aptly named, the Sneaky cookie bar featured a chocolate chip dough with a Mars bar stuffed inside.  Suffice to say, this had some ooey gooey caramel action going on, especially if you warm it up in the microwave before enjoying.  Possibly my favourite, the Limonetta ate like a lemon loaf with lemon curd inside.  It was the most cake-like in texture being moist while the lemon curd was tangy and sweet.  As for Mr. Nutty, it was obvious what was inside the chocolate chip cookie base - Peanut M&M's.  Loved the crunch and of course the nuttiness of the peanuts.

Also based on the chocolate chip cookie dough, we had both the Chunky Monkey and the Peanut Spoon.  The Chunky Monkey would be their most basic cookie bar being essentially a large chocolate chip cookie.  Outside was slightly crunchy and chewy while the inside was soft and almost cake-like.  The Peanut Spoon added Resse's mini-peanut butter cups inside that made it peanutty and sweeter.

Consisting of triple chocolate dough, the Oozing Lava featured a chocolate ganache centre, which oozed like lava when microwaved.  Yes, it was like a lava cake, but with a much firmer exterior.  This was very rich and chocolately.

Featuring the same triple chocolate dough, the PB&J was exactly its namesake with peanut butter and jelly inside.  One might think this would be really sweet, but it really wasn't.  The dark chocolate cookie was flavourful with just the right amount of sweetness.  Also encased in chocolate chip dough, Take a Break sports Kit Kat Ganache.  It makes the cookie bar a bit sweeter and offers a light crunch from the wafers.  Finally, the Birthday Cake bar is based on a white chocolate chip & macadamia nut dough with funfetti.  Due to the ingredients, this was the sweetest one, but definitely had all the elements of a birthday cake dessert.

Onto the dessert jars, we had Strawberry Shorty, Nocciola, El Chocomello and Blue Meow.  I think of these more like jarred trifles with layers of cake, custard, compote and other things.  I personally loved the Blue Meow the most as the lemon custard helped cut through the sweetness of the blueberry compote and moist vanilla cake.  Although it looked like it would be super sweet, the Nocciola was more chocolaty and nutty with hazelnut cream, hazelnut chocolate spread, custard and chocolate cake.  The same could be said about the El Chocomello as the caramel custard was indeed sweet, but the dark chocolate cake helped balance it off.  The sweetest of them all was the Strawberry Shorty with strawberry compote, vanilla custard and vanilla cake.

I'll post one more picture of the cookie bar with the insides exposed.  This one is the Sneaky with the Mars bar.  I didn't heat this one up, so the caramel would be more liquidy otherwise.  As you can see, there is quite a bit of filling, so the cookie bar will taste like its namesake.  In fact, I really enjoyed all of the cookie bars and would definitely be ordering some more in the future.  As for the dessert jars, I enjoyed them too, except they are on the sweeter side, so you need to have a sweet tooth.  I'm glad to be introduced to these products. Wished I tried them earlier!

*Products were complimentary*

The Good:

- Loved the texture of the cookie bars, soft and cake-like but also cookie-like too

- Interesting flavours

- These cookie bars are large!

The Bad:

- Enjoyed the dessert jars, but the Strawberry Shorty was a bit too sweet for me