This is NOT a chocolate brownie! (Tesco Chocolate Brownie)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Tesco Chocolate Brownie
Date:	26/09/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap at £1.12 if you happen to like them

Disadvantages: Doesn't taste like Chocolate Brownie, strange texture and flavour

I'm always looking for something different to give my granddaughters' after their dinner when they stay with me at the weekend, so when I spotted this fairly large Chocolate Brownie Tray Bake last week I snatched it up and thought what a lovely treat this would make.

I must say I'm rather disappointed with it as it's the most un-Brownie like product I've ever eaten! I'm sure Tesco have just overcooked their standard chocolate cake mixture and packaged it as a Brownie, as they must surely be aware that Brownies are far more highly regarded than plain old chocolate cake!

For a start it's very, very dry. So dry in fact that after taking a single bite I told my granddaughters' to wait a while so I could make some custard to cover them. The Brownie is extremely claggy too and has a strange stale dough consistency that isn't pleasant in the slightest.

I didn't find the Brownie to be sweet enough either and this added to the cloying texture, perhaps a little more sugar would have lightened the cake slightly and made eating it a more enjoyable experience. The chocolate flavour is rather dark and a little over exposed in my opinion, it's a rich flavour which ordinarily I'd enjoy but it doesn't suit the nature of this cake and I swear I can taste flour underneath the chocolate.

One thing that was sadly lacking in this Brownie were chocolate chips as there were very few in there. Those that did appear in the cake (and to me it remains a cake, however often I refer to Brownies in the review) were rather hard and of such poor quality that they didn't melt in my mouth at all and simply gave a gritty texture to the odd mouthful of Brownie which contained a chip.

With custard it was unfortunately no better. I found it was perfect for my two year old granddaughter as the cake mashed into the custard to create a thick chocolate and vanilla paste. As an adult I could barely bring myself to try a spoonful and when I did I realised it was even worse that eating the Brownie on its own!

This was absolutely nothing like a Chocolate Brownie and for the first time ever chocolate cake got wasted in my house! The two older girls' simply didn't like it and chose an ice cream instead, I didn't eat more than three small pieces of mine and even though the toddler enjoyed hers I wouldn't want to give her too much as just 100g of this Brownie contains over 18g of fat, which is a huge amount.

This is the third disappointing Tray Bake I've had from Tesco now and I definitely shall not purchase another.

Summary: Not recommended by me or the girls'!