Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

[FrogPrincesse]

I love the chocolate croissants and their “airiness” (I use the egg wash and bake them in a regular oven). I always keep some in the freezer. They are much better than the vast majority of the ones I can buy already baked.

Edited May 31, 2018 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

I to noted the airy-ness.    I wonder if they are too easy to over-proof.

 

they did look Poof-ey before they went into the oven

 

in the wintertime my kitchen is a bit chilly due to the wood strove around the corner

 

might be 50 in there ...    looking forward to trying them then

 

or taking them out of the freezer later in the evening.

They do look a touch overproofed IMHO.

[rotuts]

Soooo Tasty

 

so Ill give the other two

 

a much later Proof

 

if I can stay up that late

 

[rotuts]

Ive now worked w the Other Two from the TJ's 

 

PoChocolat today :

 

 

I fairly sure the two PoC's were out of the freezer for 8 hours for the above

 

Kitchen temp :  more or less 70 F an average for those hours.

 

I did not take a pic when I though they began to rise

 

the above baked :

 

 

 

I used the CSO on steam bake , and put the above in not long after I started the CSO

 

I think these came out

 

after 325 F Steam-Bake at about 22 min.

 

as The Guru of all Eats stated : 

 

change one variable at a time

 

 

Aaron Franklin    " Franklin BBQ "

 

you might see some Eps on PBS !

 

its BBQ  not PoC's

 

still delicious

 

[FrogPrincesse]

They look a bit flat. Here is what mine look like typically:

 

 

Edited June 2, 2018 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[rotuts]

@FrogPrincesse

 

inteeresting

 

do you use a ' wash ' before they rise ?

 

how do you bake them ?  

 

what do they look like before they go in the oven ?

[FrogPrincesse]

13 hours ago, rotuts said:

@FrogPrincesse

 

inteeresting

 

do you use a ' wash ' before they rise ?

 

how do you bake them ?  

 

what do they look like before they go in the oven ?

I follow the instructions from the box, exactly as written. The egg wash is right before they go in the oven, 20-25 min at 350F.

 

[Hassouni]

Do Trader Joe's do a similar plain croissant? I don't always want a pain au chocolat, but I will rarely turn down a perfectly crisp, flaky croissant.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Hassouni (log)

[ElsieD]

4 minutes ago, Hassouni said:

Do Trader Joe's do a similar plain croissant? I don't always want a pain au chocolat, but I will rarely turn down a perfectly crisp, flaky croissant.

 

 

Yes they do.

[blue_dolphin]

5 minutes ago, Hassouni said:

Do Trader Joe's do a similar plain croissant? I don't always want a pain au chocolat, but I will rarely turn down a perfectly crisp, flaky croissant.

 

 

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

 

Yes they do.

 

They are called mini croissants.  They are smaller than some, but not overly tiny.  I always keep them on hand and highly recommend them.  

Here's one from a lunch I posted a while back:

 

They also have frozen almond croissants from time to time. 

[Katie Meadow]

One, three, buckle my knees. Those croissants look pretty good. Meanwhile I've made a new discovery: TJ's dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I'm not a fan of Reeses: both the milk chocolate and the filling seem awfully plasticky, and really I just can't stand milk chocolate. The TJ's variety are thankfully quite small. The PB filling would be better if it was a bit less sweet, but the chocolate is good and dark, and I admit, I am addicted. 

[rotuts]

Im very much a fan of fruit deserts , w flaky pastry or crumble.

 

I had high expectations for this :

 

 

came out like this :

 

 

the pastry was decent , w large granules of sugar for crunch .  nice

 

the filling was a disappointment , unless you like a few unripe peaches in your tarte

 

" for added crunch "

 

took the container back for a refund.

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[Maison Rustique]

22 hours ago, rotuts said:

Im very much a fan of fruit deserts , w flaky pastry or crumble.

 

I had high expectations for this :

 

 

came out like this :

 

 

the pastry was decent , w large granules of sugar for crunch .  nice

 

the filling was a disappointment , unless you like a few unripe peaches in your tarte

 

" for added crunch "

 

took the container back for a refund.

 

 

 

I had better luck with this. The first one was so good that I picked up another when I went back. Sorry you got one that wasn't ripe. 😞

[rotuts]

Trader Joe's Chicken enchiladas :

 

http://freezermealfrenzy.com/2018/04/trader-joes-chicken-enchiladas-review/

 

 

these are decent in a pinch.   I added some TJ's Wisconsin sharp cheddar  and some ' windowsill ' green onion tops and some green tabasco

 

micro'd  intil bubbly , a little torching , then the GO and GT

 

decent for so little work.

[blue_dolphin]

I tried the awkwardly named Trader Joe's Uncured Ham & Swiss Cheese Flaky Croissant Dough Squares . They're sold frozen in a box of 4 and each one is individually wrapped. So far, I am not greatly impressed. I could perhaps improve my cooking method but the texture of the ham wasn't great so not sure it's worth the effort. 

They're frozen squares of a laminated dough, topped with small cubes of ham and shredded cheese.  They don't need an overnight proof like some of the other croissants but the directions say to unwrap and let them sit out at RT while the oven pre-heat to 350°F.  In my case, that was 10 min.  Longer time or an O/N thaw in the fridge might have helped it cook more evenly.

They're supposed to bake @ 350°F for 16-20 min.  The first one I did at those temps in the CSO for ~ 22 min on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  It was getting overly brown on top but still raw-ish looking on the bottom.

Second round was @ 325°F for ~ 25 min with the parchment directly on the rack, no pan. 

Here it is out of the oven:

 

The bottom looks much better than the previous one, though still a bit underdone:

 

I've done a dissection here so you can see that below the top layer, only the edges are nicely cooked and the middle is still quite doughy.

This was edible, except for the very middle but I like such things to be a treat and this was not.

 

Since I've got 2 more left, I will try the O/N refrigerator thaw and also baking one on a pre-heated baking stone but I probably won't purchase more.

[pastrygirl]

3 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I tried the awkwardly named Trader Joe's Uncured Ham & Swiss Cheese Flaky Croissant Dough Squares . They're sold frozen in a box of 4 and each one is individually wrapped. So far, I am not greatly impressed. I could perhaps improve my cooking method but the texture of the ham wasn't great so not sure it's worth the effort. 

They're frozen squares of a laminated dough, topped with small cubes of ham and shredded cheese.  They don't need an overnight proof like some of the other croissants but the directions say to unwrap and let them sit out at RT while the oven pre-heat to 350°F.  In my case, that was 10 min.  Longer time or an O/N thaw in the fridge might have helped it cook more evenly.

 

If it's croissant dough and has yeast, I think not only a thorough defrost but a bit of proofing time would definitely help.

[rotuts]

@blue_dolphin

 

what a shame.  looks like something that could be quite tasty !

 

I tried these :

 

 

sorry for the glare  .  they demo'd a similar chcc-dipped ccokie a week or so ago and I always try to wait a day or so   those were Soooooo Goooood

 

these were also very very good.  

 

no pic of the individual cookie , I inhaled them

 

looking forward to the brother or sister of this one.

 

cookies like these  I do not need !

[ElsieD]

3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I tried the awkwardly named Trader Joe's Uncured Ham & Swiss Cheese Flaky Croissant Dough Squares . They're sold frozen in a box of 4 and each one is individually wrapped. So far, I am not greatly impressed. I could perhaps improve my cooking method but the texture of the ham wasn't great so not sure it's worth the effort. 

They're frozen squares of a laminated dough, topped with small cubes of ham and shredded cheese.  They don't need an overnight proof like some of the other croissants but the directions say to unwrap and let them sit out at RT while the oven pre-heat to 350°F.  In my case, that was 10 min.  Longer time or an O/N thaw in the fridge might have helped it cook more evenly.

They're supposed to bake @ 350°F for 16-20 min.  The first one I did at those temps in the CSO for ~ 22 min on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  It was getting overly brown on top but still raw-ish looking on the bottom.

Second round was @ 325°F for ~ 25 min with the parchment directly on the rack, no pan. 

Here it is out of the oven:

 

The bottom looks much better than the previous one, though still a bit underdone:

 

I've done a dissection here so you can see that below the top layer, only the edges are nicely cooked and the middle is still quite doughy.

This was edible, except for the very middle but I like such things to be a treat and this was not.

 

Since I've got 2 more left, I will try the O/N refrigerator thaw and also baking one on a pre-heated baking stone but I probably won't purchase more.

 

Gee, and they sounded so good!

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

Gee, and they sounded so good!

 

I read several positive reviews online before I tried them so maybe I'm overly picky but I do have a thing about uncooked dough and I can't see how these will cook through following the package instructions. 

I'll report back after I try thawing them O/N

[Thanks for the Crepes]

14 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

I read several positive reviews online before I tried them so maybe I'm overly picky but I do have a thing about uncooked dough and I can't see how these will cook through following the package instructions. 

I'll report back after I try thawing them O/N

 

Yes, a lot of times now, you have to ignore package directions and follow your own better judgement, Am I just old or did package instructions seem to be more on point with recipes that were really good that were aimed at getting you to buy more of their product? Seems to me like kids who don't cook come up with the instruction on the packages now.

 

I've handwritten and saved many an excellent recipe from older packaged of products that caused me to buy a lot more of that product over decades. This seems never to happen anymore. 

 

Marketing people for food products, get up to speed and do your research! Tell us how to cook and use your product like used to be done, or otherwise, it will just look like a rip-off!

 

I do love TJ's and wish I could get back there, but as hard as it is to get ANYWHERE and the fact they don't have a lot of things I need, I haven't been there in several years.Their frozen ready-to-cook selections usually can't be beat with a big stick.

 

They have the BEST frozen pizza I've ever had! Many imported from Italy. They have absolutely spoiled me for any other frozen pizzas, which are not worth eating IMO, no matter how much you pay, and TJ's are cheap to boot.

 

I also love their cheap and tasty cheese enchiladas, the ciabatta bread from a local bakery, the fact that I got an intact brussels sprout stalk  (I grew these one year in Memphis, but had never seen them in a store before) from there around Thanksgiving one year, the friendly and genuine employees and on and on.

 

I  TJ's, but they and many other distributors/manufactures need to up their game on research for their product preparation and labeling. Go back to how it used to be and you could win many customers.

[caroled]

@blue_dolphin, Have you thought about redistributing the filling on the H&C square? it's been my experience that when any ham product has been frozen, they release a good bit of the water that was added during the hams production. The extra surface coverage might allow for more of the moisture to bake off rather than collect underneath the filling and allow for a more even bake of the pastry.

[blue_dolphin]

On 7/29/2018 at 9:52 PM, caroled said:

@blue_dolphin, Have you thought about redistributing the filling on the H&C square? it's been my experience that when any ham product has been frozen, they release a good bit of the water that was added during the hams production. The extra surface coverage might allow for more of the moisture to bake off rather than collect underneath the filling and allow for a more even bake of the pastry.

Thanks for that tip.  Unfortunately, everything's frozen in place and the topping is the last bit to thaw - even after an overnight in the fridge,  the dough had softened but the ham and cheese were still stuck together. 

 

On 7/26/2018 at 12:34 PM, ElsieD said:

Gee, and they sounded so good!

I do have good news to report, though.  After the overnight thaw in the fridge, I could tell that alone wasn't going to improve things very much to I followed @pastrygirl's suggestion and gave it some proofing time at room temp - success!  The pastry was baked through nicely.   With the last one, I decided to follow the method for the other TJ's frozen croissants and let it sit out at room temp to thaw and proof.  Also very successful so I'd just use that method. 

After the overnight thaw/proof @ RT:

 

Baked for 20' @325°F convect-bake in the CSO on a pre-heated stone.  Not sure the stone was necessary but after the raw dough experience, I figured I'd use it.  

 

As Paul Hollywood and Mary would do:

No soggy bottom!

 

And the dough is cooked all the way through.  That's just a bit of melty cheese there. 

 

I don't know if this method improves the texture of the ham bits but it didn't offend me the way it did in the first one. 

 

[rotuts]

@blue_dolphin

 

Nice !

 

I suppose Im not going to die eating ham that's been on the counter over night

 

[blue_dolphin]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@blue_dolphin

 

Nice !

 

I suppose Im not going to die eating ham that's been on the counter over night

 

You can thaw o/n in the fridge and then give it ~ 2 hrs or so to warm up and proof.  That would minimize the danger zone time.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for my posts and contact the authorities if I disappear 🙃

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

You can thaw o/n in the fridge and then give it ~ 2 hrs or so to warm up and proof.  That would minimize the danger zone time.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for my posts and contact the authorities if I disappear 🙃

"Well officer it's like this - I don't actually know who she is or where she lives - but she's got the most fabulous cat and I know for a fact that she ate ham that had been out on the counter overnight." "Can you help me find her?"