Not too long ago, I was shopping in one of the local grocery stores, and I stumbled upon a tin of cookies that I had never seen before, and that looked very fascinating.
The tin said that they were Apple-Caramel French cookies, and I thought that they would be an interesting treat to try.
The brand of the cookies is Les Cookies de La Mère Poulard, or the Cookies of Mother Poulard. After some quick research, I discovered that Mother Poulard was a famous French chef, mostly notably for her omelette and her kind and generous hospitality. In fact, her cooking was even considered a tourist attraction during her life!
As to why her name now adorns cookies, I am unsure, and perhaps the company that makes the cookies is trading on her name, but her picture is definitely on the tin.
When I got home with the tin of caramel-apple cookies, I decided to pair it with a box of instant coffee that I had waiting. This coffee, from the McNulty company, is IBrew Mocha Black Coffee.
The coffee comes with 30 sticks to the box, and like most instant coffee, you just add water and away you go!
The side of the box says that the coffee is from almost exclusively Brazil and has a strong chocolate scent.
Well, when I opened up the package to pour it into my mug, the chocolate scent was extremely evident. In fact, it smelled like I was in a chocolate factory!
As I waited for the kettle to boil, it was so hard to escape the scent of chocolate in my kitchen!
Finally, the water was ready, and I poured it into my mug.
Interestingly, the scent of chocolate became much more subdued after the addition of water.
After making the coffee, I placed a small package of the Les Cookies de La Mère Poulard Apple-Caramel cookies on a plate and prepared to enjoy my afternoon snack.
The coffee itself has a light chocolate flavor, much different than the scent when you first open the package. The chocolate flavor is balanced with caramel notes, and just a hint of nut flavor. The bitterness is not great, and there is a nice, pleasant aftertaste that lingers on the tongue.
Of course, the cookies were also there to be eaten! Now, the tin of Les Cookies de La Mère Poulard that I purchased was close to its best before date, so please take my experience with a grain of salt.
The cookies were not bad. They were a little dry and crispy, but with a firm bite. There was a gentle apple flavor, but there were caramel pieces in the cookies. The caramel did not have a strong taste to it, but it added a bit of sticky and chewy texture to the cookie experience.
The cookies were also a little bit softer and crumblier in the inside, compared to the crunchier exterior.
The pairing of the McNulty IBrew Mocha Black coffee and the Les Cookies de La Mère Poulard Caramel-Apple cookies was nice. The coffee was smooth to drink, and the cookies tasted good when dipped and dunked in the coffee. I will definitely be enjoying the rest of the coffee and the biscuits!