Trader Joe's Peach Raspberry Crisp

Peach crisp? With raspberry, you say? I thought we were doing fall stuff this week. Ah, well, there are still a few stragglers from summer slipping through for review. This product is undoubtedly on its way out for the season, but it was still available this past weekend, so...here goes.

At first, I started poking around at the cobbler with my fork wondering where all the fruit was. It seemed mostly just bready crumble and whatnot. But once you get down to the bottom, there's not only some fruit, there are entire peach slices. Yes, there's a raspberry jelly—like a purplish glaze throughout, but I thought the entire thing was fairly peach forward. I mean, there must be an entire can of peaches in light syrup poured into this pan. Of course I don't know if they used canned peaches here. The ingredients just say "peaches," but since they're drowned in all manner of sugar and stuff, they remind me of slices that come canned in that sweet thin sauce.

Sonia thought the overall flavor was more raspberry-ish, despite the raspberries not being as obviously represented in terms of whole fruits floating around in the mixture. I guess raspberries can have a fairly pungent taste that could theoretically overpower peach in a cobbler like this. At any rate, you can taste both fruits and the whole mess is sweet, fruity, and there's plenty of crunch from the wheat and oat based crumble.

It's even better served hot. And it's better still when served hot with vanilla ice cream on top. Or so we assume. We really didn't try it a la mode because we didn't have any ice cream on hand when we tried it. Oh well, there's always next year.

It's an enjoyable dessert that hits that sweet tooth sweet spot nicely and doesn't feel too over-the-top sugary. I mean oats, berries, and peaches are downright healthy, right? It's practically diet food...as long as you don't glance at the added sugars.

$5.49 for the four serving box, found with the baked goods. We might buy Trader Joe's Peach Raspberry Crisp again. We'll both go with eight out of ten stars on this one.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake

And NOW it's time for the pumpkin spice parade to proceed. Sheet cake with cream cheese icing and some pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger doesn't sound too outlandish to me. Sounds like a downright delicious fall flavor, in fact.

And it is. Remember that vanilla bean sheet cake? Of course you do. There's also a lemon one we haven't tried yet. Anyway, it was pretty tasty thanks to the generous amounts of sweet vanilla icing on top. We've got just about that same amount of cream cheese-based frosting here and a very similar soft, moist texture.

The pumpkin spices are nicely blended, not too strong and not too subtle. The pumpkin puree gives the cake a distinctly squash-ish vibe underneath the indulgent dessert flavors. It works the same way pumpkin pie works, but you know, more bready than that, like a classic pumpkin roll except flat instead of cylindrical and swirly. The cream cheese frosting is sweet and tangy, buttery and velvety. There's a generous amount of it on the cake. I thought Sonia would say there's too much, but she raved about it. She and I agree that the overall effect is satisfying, scrumptious, and distinctly autumnal.

$5.49 for the six serving dessert, found with the other baked goods. We would buy Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Mini Sheet Cake again. Eight out of ten stars from me. Perfect ten from Sonia?? I didn't see that coming. Wow.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.