Crumbl Cookies review #12 - Iced Oatmeal, Triple Chocolate, Peanut Butter Snickers and Key Lime Pie

Crumbl Cookies: Iced Oatmeal, Triple Chocolate, Peanut Butter Snickers and Key Lime Pie - March 26, 2022

For this week's lineup, my original two flavors to try were the Iced Oatmeal and the Triple Chocolate. I make oatmeal cookies reasonably often and while I like them (and am more favorably disposed to them than peanut butter cookies), I don't rave about any particular oatmeal cookie. Until now. 

This Iced Oatmeal was delicious, in both flavor and texture. I'm not even sure I can describe why I liked it so much but I did. It was the right thickness, it was moist (most oatmeal cookies tend to be on the drier side) and chewy but not overwhelmed by oats. The cinnamon undertone was perfectly balanced with the light icing glaze. I'm glad it wasn't a frosting but a glaze as I think one of Crumbl's more typical thick layer of frosting would've been too much for this cookie. The light glaze was perfect.

Going in, I thought the Triple Chocolate would be my favorite but nope, it wasn't. In fact, I wasn't impressed with the Triple Chocolate at all. For some reason, the chocolate cookie itself didn't taste like anything special. This is another cookie that goes into the category of something I can make myself and don't need to buy at Crumbl. In fact, I think I prefer the Levain copycat for a chocolate cookie than Crumbl's version.

But wait, there's more. By now you know when you see me buy a 4-pack, I'm taking them as a gift for someone else. I ended up having to make an unexpected (and unwelcome) 300-mile drive out of state. The only silver linings were I got to meet up with an old friend and I brought her a 4-pack of Crumbl.

It gave me a chance to try the key lime and the peanut butter snickers cookies. I also added the Iced Oatmeal and the traditional milk chocolate chip cookie.

I didn't take a close up of the peanut butter snickers because I only had a sliver and you know how I feel about peanut butter. It was more of a dry texture than the moist, chewy, cakey texture so it wasn't going to score high on my taste bud scale regardless.

I had higher hopes for the key lime as I saw so many people raving about it online, the same way I raved about the banana cream pie. So I thought I would give it a try and see if it would overcome my usual bias against creamy desserts. I'm also not a key lime fan. Sadly, this cookie is no banana cream pie. The cookie itself seemed tasteless as was the topping. Someone had recommend squeezing the slice of lime over the cookie before eating and that probably would've given it more flavor. But my friend took the lime garnish off and sliced up the cookie for us to share and I wasn't about to tell her how to eat a cookie. But this was meh at best for me. I don't need to get key lime again, even with a squirt of lime or not. I didn't like the cookie base itself, much less the topping.

Crumbl Cookies review #11 - Sea Salt Toffee and Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar

Crumbl Cookies: Sea Salt Toffee and Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar - March 18, 2022

The Gold Coin Vanilla Sugar is literally their vanilla sugar cookie with a chocolate gold coin on top. That's fine with me as I love their Vanilla Sugar and I wasn't interested in more than 1 other flavor in this week's lineup so I was glad to get the vanilla sugar again.

The other cookie I wanted to try was this sea salt toffee. It was pretty good as well, especially eaten warm while some of the toffee was still melty and soft. Even at room temperature it was good. I liked it mostly because it seemed like their regular milk chocolate chip, just with toffee pieces and sea salt added. A good cookie although now that I've tried it, I don't need to have it again if there are other flavors I want to try the next time it comes around.

Crumbl Cookies review #10 - Cornflake Marshmallow and Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Crumbl Cookies: Cornflake Marshmallow and Cinnamon Toast Crunch - March 8 and March 12, 2022

Crumbl announced "cereal week" for this particular week's line up. All the specialty flavor cookies had some kind of cereal incorporated into them. I'm not a cereal fan so I thought this would be a good week to skip. Except I didn't. All in the name of research (of course), I decided to try the Cornflake Marshmallow cookie. Someone had described it as like a Rice Krispie treat and I like Rice Krispie treats so I figured it would be a safe one to try. 

Erk, no. I should've read Crumbl's description more closely (or read it at all); then I would've known it had peanut butter. No. Just no. The cookie wasn't terrible if you like peanut butter. I also mistakenly thought this would be served warm (also no) and for some reason, despite seeing the sample cookie at the store when I ordered, I thought that crunchy topping would be just that - a topping. Instead, it was the whole cookie. Sadly, this was not the cookie for me. In fact, I didn't even finish it, a Crumbl first for me, and an unfortunate waste of money and calories. But it just wasn't worth it to finish the whole thing so I didn't. Lesson learned. Read the descriptions on the website before buying. Wouldn't get again. 

You'll notice from the post title that I went back to Crumbl again the same week. I was traveling and there was a closer Crumbl nearby where I stayed so, before making a 7-hour drive back home, I stopped off at the Crumbl and this time got the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That was the cereal the cookie was topped with but since it was just the topping, I figured the actual cookie itself would be more what I like about Crumbl cookies.

Fortunately, I called that one correctly. This was delicious. More like a snickerdoodle not rolled in cinnamon sugar but with a light frosting. When warm, the texture was just a tad too soft and a smidge underdone but when at room temperature, it was perfect.

I'm still not a fan of cereal but it was easy enough to pick off the cinnamon toast garnish and enjoy the frosted cookie itself. If cereal week comes back with the same offerings, this would be the only one I would get.

Crumbl Cookies review #9 - Hazelnut Sea Salt and Snickerdoodle

Crumbl Cookies: Hazelnut Sea Salt and Snickerdoodle - March 1, 2022

After the nutella-stuffed churro cookie, I was a little leery of this cookie as I didn't want another overwhelmingly cinnamon cookie topped with Nutella instead of stuffed with it.

Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded as this didn't have a cinnamon base. Instead it was a nice brown sugar cookie topped with Nutella. While it's hard to go wrong with that combo and I enjoyed the cookie, this also fell into the category of "I can make it myself". And you know I prefer the Crumbl cookies that maddeningly defy copycats and are worth the $4.27 a cookie (plus tip).

Onward to the snickerdoodle. I love snickerdoodles and this one was also really good.

However, when warm, it was just a little too mushy and underbaked as you can tell from the picture below. Uh, yeah, that's the bite I took in the car before I left the parking. (What??)

However, once I let it cool to room temperature, the texture was much better. Still a trifle soft but that's okay.

I like this (room temperature) texture and the flavor was good. I also liked the thickness of the cookie and the chewy-cakeyness of it. I do have a high bar for snickerdoodles though, especially since I have several good recipes for them that I enjoy making. So I'm glad I tried the Crumbl snickerdoodle but I don't see this being a repeat purchase if there are other flavors on the menu that I want to try when this makes a reappearance.

BTW, I don't mean to sound negative or unenthusiastic about either of these or any of the others I've blogged and will blog about. I actually need some of these to not be repeats so I can try other flavors and not gain the Crumbl 20, lol.

Crumbl Cookies review #8 - Cornbread, Cookie Monster, German Chocolate

Crumbl Cookies: Cornbread, Cookie Monster and German Chocolate - February 21, 2022

L-R: Cornbread, German Chocolate, Reese's Pieces, Blue Cookie Monster

Whenever you see me post a 4-pack, no, I didn't decide to say the hell with my A1C levels and eat more than a day's worth of empty calories in the form of multiple Crumbl cookies. (Although I'm not judging anyone who has, just sayin'.) But it does mean I was going to see friends and bringing them some. Remember my French Laundry post? I was staying with my friend, Karen, and her significant other, Brad, in their guest house. Being Filipino, I couldn't show up empty-handed to avail myself of their hospitality. Normally I would bake something to take but a storm was brewing in the Sierras on my original travel day and I ended up leaving a day early which was supposed to be my baking day. So a hasty stop at Crumbl was in order to get a 4-pack instead.

While I did get the 4-pack pictured above, I also got a single cookie of the honey cornbread cookie because I wanted to try it and it would've been tacky to show up with a 4-pack box that had a cookie missing. So I got my own.

Cornbread

I wanted to try this cookie because I've had cornbread cookies before from Momofuku and liked them. I expected to like Crumbl's. And I did. The honey butter spread on top was a perfect contrast to the warm cookie. Ironically, the only part I didn't like was the honey drizzle on top. I don't care for the taste of honey straight out of the jar. Not a big fan of it mixed into other things as a flavor but I could deal with that better than the pure honey drizzle over the cookie 

And yes, as expected, the cornbread cookie has a slight "grit" from the cornmeal. If that's not your jam, you may not like this cookie. For me, I thought it worked well in (hello) a cornbread cookie.

We ended up trying pieces of the other cookies when I arrived at Karen and Brad's. I didn't get a picture of the Reese's pieces one as I didn't try it. That turned out to be Karen's favorite and she assured me it was good. Brad's favorite was the cornbread cookie. I'm glad I had bought my own as I would've felt like a terrible guest, partaking of one of my host's favorite cookies and making him share it, lol.

Cookie Monster

None of us cared for the Blue Cookie Monster Cookie. This seemed like just a semisweet chocolate cookie with an overly sweet frosting. I know a lot of people raved about this cookie and the raves were to the point where I wondered if I was eating the same cookie they were. I didn't care for it as I prefer milk chocolate and I thought the cookie was a little dry and the frosting was too sweet. I wouldn't get it again.

German Chocolate

I did enjoy the German Chocolate one though. The chocolate cookie was cakey and thick, perfectly able to hold up the traditional German chocolate topping of coconut and pecans. It was delicious. I only had a piece though as by then, I'd reached max Crumbl capacity. But this goes on the list to get again if there aren't any other flavors I "need" to try that week.

Crumbl Cookies review #7 - Chocolate Caramel and Birthday Valentine

Crumbl Cookies: Chocolate Caramel and Birthday Valentine - February 17, 2022

On paper, this chocolate caramel cookie has all the feels for me. I love a good chocolate and caramel combination and I don't mind the salt flakes sprinkled on top to offset some of the caramel sweetness and chocolate richness.

So I was a little surprised that I didn't love this cookie as much as I expected. It was good, don't get me wrong. But this tasted like the kind of cookie I could make on my own by using a good chocolate cookie recipe (and by using high quality chocolate), melting some Kraft caramels to pour on top and sprinkling with fleur de sel. What my picky taste buds have gotten spoiled by with Crumbl cookies are the ones I can't make as well as they can, namely the thick, chewy-cakey cookies with the good-but-not-overly-sweet frostings. This wasn't quite in that category. It belongs to the "good but I can make it myself" classification.

Now, the Birthday Cake Valentine is a whole 'nother story. I loved this cookie. Love as one (*I* in particular) can love an amalgamation of butter, sugar and flour. It's pretty similar to the Vanilla Sugar, hence why it has my love.

I was initially leery at first and had to make sure they didn't get too cute with those heart sprinkles though. I don't mind the scattering on top of the frosting but didn't want that in my cookie. Fortunately, the purist in me was satisfied they left the cookie well enough alone.

Perfect texture, even when warm, as it wasn't mushy, underbaked dough but cakey-cookie perfection. Definitely getting this one again when it comes around.

Crumbl cookie review #6 - Peanut Butter Buckeye

Crumbl Cookies: Peanut Butter Buckeye - February 11, 2022

I just got done saying in the last post that I try to limit myself to only 2 different cookies/flavors at Crumbl each week because there's only so much exercise I can do to offset these empty calories (but what a way to go) and I have to at least try to exercise some restraint.

But anyone with access to a calendar can see this is the third cookie I tried in the same week. Why a peanut butter one when I keep saying I'm indifferent to peanut butter? Well, it was mostly because I was with my niece and she loves peanut butter. I figured it was a good chance to try a piece of a cookie I wouldn't ordinarily get and she could enjoy the rest.

That turned out to be a good call. If you're a peanut butter lover, you'd probably like this cookie. If you're a peanut butter and chocolate lover, you would probably love this cookie. I fall into neither camp. The chocolate cookie part was fine, albeit a bit rich. But what killed this cookie for me is the peanut butter "patty" on top is literally one big thick disc of peanut butter. You can't even bite it without the rest of the piece sticking to your teeth and trying to leap into your mouth with the rest of the bite. Needless to say, that wasn't enjoyable. I think this cookie would've been much better had the peanut butter been less stiff and more creamy, like a frosting versus a slice of peanut butter cut right out of the jar. This goes into "no need to get again" category.