Review: Picard 12 mini cheesecakes

Recently, Albert Heijn has started selling frozen food from the French brand, Picard, and the product range varies from appetizers, meals, cakes, and desserts. In the freezer section, the selection has increased a lot by the addition of the new Picard products. It kind of lessens the pain of losing all the delicious food from Marks & Spencer, since their departure from the Netherlands. I have seen many things that I would love to try out, especially the pastries and desserts. One box caught my eye the most and it was the Picard 12 mini cheesecakes (€6.99).

picard mini cheesecakes caramel lemon raspberry chocolate plated




In the box, there are four different flavors of cheesecake of which you get three. Each flavor is separately packaged, so you can also decide to only serve one mini cheesecake with a scoop of ice cream on the side and keep the rest of the mini cheesecakes in the freezer instead of serving all four mini cheesecakes at once like I did. The four different mini cheesecakes (caramel, lemon, raspberry, and chocolate) look amazing and it is almost like something that I would get as dessert in a fancy restaurant. 
   
After taking the mini cheesecakes out of the wrapper, you need to put them on the plate that you are serving them on and let them defrost in the fridge for two hours. I didn't read the serving instructions, so I let them defrost in the box. The mini cheesecakes become soft and sticky, so it gets a little bit harder to move them around and keep their beautiful shape. I used a knife to carefully push and lift them out and as you can see in the picture above, I was quite successful in keeping them in perfect shape.
 picard mini cheesecakes caramel lemon raspberry chocolate albert heijn supermarket freezer section box

picard mini cheesecakes caramel lemon raspberry chocolate close up plated

Raspberry

It has a raspberry jam top layer, a traditional cheesecake center, and a "speculaas" (=spiced biscuit) crumb crust.   

Caramel

It has a rich caramel fudge top layer with chewy caramel bits, and a soft caramel cream center that blends with the thin and soft crust on the bottom.    

Lemon

It has a lemon jam top layer with lemon zest, a lemony cheesecake center, and a buttery crumb crust. 

Chocolate

It has a chocolate fudge top layer, a soft chocolate cream center that blends with the thin and soft layer of chocolate cake on the bottom. 

 What do I think?

The mini cheesecakes all taste wonderful, as every element is perfectly made and the flavors of the top layer, the center, and the crust on the bottom blend well together. The lemon and raspberry mini cheesecakes have more distinguishable layers, while the caramel and chocolate mini cheesecakes taste more like chocolate bonbons with a soft shell and a creamy center.

I started with the caramel mini cheesecake and it had a similar rich caramel flavor like Werther's Original caramel candies. I went for the lemon mini cheesecake next, as it is one of my favorites. It has a zesty, lemon flavor and a nice buttery crust. I followed with the chocolate mini cheesecake and I was blown away by the rich chocolate flavor and the soft texture. It practically all melted in my mouth. I ended with the raspberry mini cheesecake and it had a well-balanced sweet and sour flavor, while strawberry jam would probably be on the sweet side. So, raspberry was the right choice. It was also a smart move of me to end with the raspberry mini cheesecake, as it has the strongest flavors.  

Although the price of the box of Picard mini cheesecakes is on the steep side, it is money well spent. A dessert in a restaurant can be about €10 and with this, you can serve a plate with four different flavors of mini cheesecakes with restaurant quality to three people. 




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