Bonne Maman Caramel Sea Salt Butter Galette

As I've said before, I absolutely love the Bonne Maman brand and the association of continental holidays it brings. I'm pretty familiar with the lovely conserves they make and I also like the chilled desserts they do, like mousse au chocolat and creme caramel, but I've never seen their biscuit range before. When I spotted these lovely, continental looking galettes in Sainsbury's, I was eager to give them a try.

The range comes in four fairly simple flavours: Traditional French Butter, Chocolate, Lemon and Poppyseed and Caramel Sea Salt. They all looked extremely tempting but I plumped for the caramel sea salt as I'm really into savoury and sweet combos at the moment.

A nice feature about these galettes is that they are individually wrapped in twos. I always like products that come in this format as it's great for portion control and stops you munching your way through an entire packet of biscuits. It also means your biscuits stay fresh and they would be good for taking out and about with you. Admittedly, you only get ten biscuits per box and at £1.50 they are at the higher end of the market. However, these are a more premium biscuit in my opinion and I'm happy to pay for quality over quantity.

The ingredients are certainly good quality with fresh eggs and simple ingredients. Each galette also contains 29% fresh butter and there are no oils in them like most biscuits. This is really evident upon opening them as they have the most delicious buttery smell with a lovely sweet caramel backnote.

The're also very attractive in appearance, despite the basic look. Perfectly round with a nice caramel glaze providing a subtle sheen, they're a good size with a satisfying snap. The service has an interesting look with its maze of cracks and lines. The texture is spot on thanks to the butter too. Soft and crisp at the same time, they don't crumble everywhere yet have the most delicious buttery mouthfeel.

They have a lovely buttery taste with a subtle yet still very detectable caramel flavour with a faint saltiness to it. These are not particularly sweet and actually have quite a simple taste but this is a good kind of simple. They still feel very rich and indulgent but with no sickliness at all.

I had these outside with a cup of coffee and it really was a very nice break in the day. These feel very continental and sophisticated and I will definitely be purchasing these again in the future.

Price: £1.50
Available: Sainsbury's

Pros: Simple yet indulgent. Lovely buttery and caramel flavour. Good quality ingredients. Individually wrapped packs.
Cons: Butter content makes them slightly fattier than other biscuits.

Score: 8/10

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Conserve

Bonne Maman is a regular staple in my house and it is pretty much the only brand of jam I am loyal to. Whenever I open a pot of these fruity, flavourful conserves, I am whisked away to France and the memory of lazy continental breakfasts.

Usually I opt for the delectable raspberry or strwberry as these are so perfect, it seems silly to deviate. But as Bonne Maman have increased their presence in the UK, it is becoming easier and easier to get hold of some of the more interesting flavours they make and when I saw this wild blueberry conserve, it wasn't hard to get me to ditch my usual choice.

I absolutely adore blueberries so had high hopes for this product. The packaging is the same as all the other Bonne Maman jams - cute, rustic with a homepsun charm. Just seeing this little jar on the breakfast table instantly cheers me up and transports me to a sunnier, more relaxed way of life. For me this, these little jars are as iconic as the Heinz Ketchup bottle or the Cadbury purple colour.

And speaking of dark purple colours, this has a very seductive and inviting appearance. There were absolutely loads of mini little berries swirled through out the deep depths of purple. The smell from the jar was also incredibly inviting - it smelt sweet and fruity and the 50g of blueberries per 100g was evident.

One thing I love about Bonne Maman is the texture - it's not a solidified mass of jelly like British jams but is much more liquid and oozes seductively out of the jar. Spreading this onto a M&S Berry Bagel made the bagel even more luxurious. Bonne Maman jam spreads so easily and drips luciously over the edges creating a lovely sticky, indulgent mess.

Biting through bagel, my mouth was filled with the most glorious fruity explosion. It's hard to convey just how fruity this conserve is -it's not sickly sweet and the fruit completely holds it's own. Every bite of the bagel was jam packed with flavour from the conserve and as I licked the last sticky juices from my fingers, I knew this is a flavour I'll be buying again

Price: £2.69
Available: All major supermarkets

Pros: Super fruity, great texture, simple, natural ingredients (Blueberries, Suagr and citric acid - nothing else)
Cons: Like all jams it's pretty high in sugar

Score: 8/10