Paul A Young Billingtons Simnel Brownie Review
After being met with rave reviews, much as the Marmite XO bar was, I wade in to the fray with a less than glowing review due to purely personal taste. The Paul A Brown Brownie is amazing and I love it to bits. This one is like making a hot cross bun into a brownie. And there’s a reason I don’t eat hot cross buns either and that is one of pure personal taste.
I am sure many of you, my dear readers, will have fond memories of hot cross buns. Perhaps it is the taste of one, fresh out of the toaster, perhaps still piping hot, spread with a bit of butter and slowly bitten in to. The way that you first were greeted with the delightful smell of the hot cross bun, then the delightful textures and finally that heady mix of fat and sugar which drives our brains insane. I, regrettably have no such memories.
I have said many times – I’m not a fan of fruit in my chocolate and while Hotel Chocolat have converted me a bit, I’m still adjusting to my new found fruit-in-chocolate eating. It’s the raisins you see – I can’t take it when they are squidgy. I like them chewy but squidgy… well, all I can think is that I had a bad experience when I was a kid.
For those of you who were drooling at the thought of a toasted hot cross bun though, read on:
This brownie is an intense chocolaty hot cross bun. The chocolate brownie is trademark Paul A Young with the dense, thick, gorgeous flavour they always are but this time with an added depth of flavour from the sugar. The crust on top is speckled with marzipan at irregular intervals, giving everyone something to squabble over. The scent of the cinnamon and nutmeg are unmistakable as they rise up to greet your nose just before you pop a piece in your mouth and experience the fruit, marzipan and chocolate all combining together.
I’m confident that a lot of people are going to like this brownie. Heck, I think I’m the only person so far who has said she isn’t a massive fan of this brownie. So I know this is going to be a winner for Paul and he certainly deserves it. For those of us who just can’t take squidgy fruit in out brownies, there is still the caramel pecan and the plain brownie available so there’s just lots more for us!
