Curiosity and a craving for sweets are not very good advisers when shopping at the supermarket. When you also have a sweet tooth by nature and you feel that you have to be up to date with everything that is going on in the gastronomic world, resist the poster of Novelty!! -with its double exclamation- in the zone of Mercadona cookies it is extremely complicated.
Roig’s chain is the focus of much criticism but we would be very naive if we denied the attention it raises at any slight movement. It is hard to resist to, at least, try those new products that come and go from its catalog, even if it is to criticize them knowingly. Or to become a faithful almost addicted consumer who later laments his unexpected disappearance on networks.
If you work professionally in the gastronomic and food communication sector, you almost see yourself obliged to be aware of what is cooked on its shelves. Although I confess that, in this particular case, the first time a bag of the Hacendado cookies filled with cocoa cream and hazelnuts entered the basket, it was because pure curious gluttony.
Now I try avoid at all costs the aisle from which the innocent bags have earned their permanent place in the Mercadona catalogue. Because, as the famous slogan of the well-known brand of potato snacks says, when you open the bag you can’t stop. So what they cloy What is not written.
The product in question is clearly a version Farmernever better said, of the Nutella biscuits that the Ferrero brand launched years ago in its catalogue, giving more outlets to its popular cocoa and hazelnut cream.
Mercadona’s version is produced by Griesson – from Beukelaer GmbH & Co. KG Werk in Kahla, Germany, quite a cookie giant. The composition and presentation is very similar, even imitating the format of the container in a thick plastic bag with opening of airtight zip closure, supposedly to be able to preserve the freshness of the interior once it has been opened. Assuming they’re not eaten in one sitting, of course.
In both products, the figure of 40%, which implies that it refers to the percentage of the filling cream. You only have to read the list of ingredients to verify that Hacendado biscuits contain 5% hazelnut paste, and that, in fact, they are made with a mixture of vegetable fats that include palm and that they are one sugar bomb. Of course, they have less saturated fat and sugar than Nutella, although the difference is minimal.
Each package contains 172 g of biscuits, with the same number of units meticulously counted, 12 in all, being the consumption portion recommended by the manufacturer of two pastes per occasion. At a price of 1.40 euros per package, they do not seem very expensive, but if we look at the cost per kilo, things change. A 8.14 euros per kilo of cookies, easily multiply the cost of other cookies in the catalog.
Although they are found alongside the so-called breakfast biscuits, such as the typical María, Digestive or toasted wholemeal type, these biscuits are clearly a sweet conceived more as a desserta bite of confectionery as a mignardise industrial, for very light consumption and occasional.
The cookie dough is crispy but sandy, type of butter paste -without butter-, which again refers us to its character as a dessert and not as a cookie to dip in the bowl of milk. Although that dairy flavor is missing, it is a rich dough, whose main problem is precisely in its delicacy; If the bag has been heavily handled and abused, it is not uncommon to find a cookie massacre when opening it.
The star of this product is, of course, the filling. It is pure industrial cocoa and hazelnut cream, I would say that with more nutty flavor than Nocilla, quite close to the flavor of Nutella, or at least its white brand. It’s very creamy, and if the room temperature isn’t too cold, you can end up with sticky fingers by squeezing too hard.
A sweet that cloys, but difficult to resist
These cookies have the contradiction of being as gooey as they are addictive. Those of us who are already accustomed to less sweet sweets will be better able to resist the temptation to eat more than one or two at once; The problem is that its small size and the high palatability that it shares with the pure spreadable cocoa cream make it not difficult to fall into excess.
If you are one of those who could perfectly eat a pot of Nutella or Nocilla by the spoonful as if it were yogurt, approach these cookies on your own responsibility. They are so small, they have so much cream and they fill the palate in such a way with their flavor and creaminess, that without realizing it the little bag will be empty.
At home we soon learned the lesson when the gourmand with whom I live, declared a fan of Nocilla -also Nutella, although it is more of the national product because “it tastes less like hazelnuts”-, devours them as if they were pipes. As many nutritionists always recommend, what is not bought, is not eaten.
I leave here the emmer pivot code of the book, so that you can copy it directly in the articles
The best recipes from Direct to the palate (Kitchen)
In DAP | Homemade Nutella recipe: how to make a healthier and more flavorful cocoa and hazelnut cream
In DAP | Mercadona puff pastry: who makes it, why do you like it so much and nine recipes in which to get the most out of it