01 February 2012

Veggie veggie fruit fruit - S'mores Brownie

My missus, and the Gazette’s resident reviewer of all things Disney and vegetarian, is back this month with something sweet... Take it away, Aileen!
Hello Main Street Gazette readers! Today I am here to talk about something a little bit different. Normally I focus on vegetarian entrees that you can find around Walt Disney World but I have a confession…I love dessert! In fact, I spend most of the trips we take trying to find unique sweets to sample. With that said, let’s spend a little time with the S’mores Brownie from Sunshine Seasons.

I am a huge fan of s’mores. I worked for the Girl Scouts, who are credited with making the first s’mores, for 7 years. For those of you who have never heard of them, they are a traditional campfire dessert made of chocolate and roasted marshmallows in between two graham crackers. With that background, I was extremely excited to try this brownie. The dessert itself is quite pretty in its presentation with bits of graham cracker baked in, chocolate drizzle and a marshmallow on top. The brownie is slightly crispy on the outside and chewy inside. This is my favorite type of brownie, but if you prefer something fudgier, you could be disappointed. As for graham cracker pieces, this sweet treat is seriously lacking in its inclusion of this element. I had hoped that there would be graham cracker in every bite, but in truth, they only covered the top of the brownie. The marshmallow was ok, but I was somewhat disappointed that it had not been toasted in any way, and I ended up eating the marshmallow separately. The chocolate drizzle was a nice finishing touch.

I do have to let you know that this is not a strictly vegetarian dessert. When I knew I would be reviewing this brownie, I took a second to e-mail Walt Disney World (specialdiets@disneyworld.com) to check if there were any animal products used in the making of this treat. Chef James Kleinschmidt at The Land Pavilion in Epcot promptly e-mailed me back and explained that the brownie contains egg and therefore only meets the ovo-vegetarian standard. Emailing with special dietary concerns and questions is a quick and simple way to get all of the specifics you need.

Overall, I enjoyed this dessert but I would not say it was amazing. I wanted to be reminded of campfires and taste gooey marshmallows and melting chocolate. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what I got. Instead, I received a really good brownie with a hint of s’mores.

4 comments:

Adam and Andrew said...

Sure it has eggs and milk....but did he mention if the marshmallow had gelatin? (most marshmallows do) Making it not vegetarian by any standard. Boo. :/ Always foiled by marshmallows.

Unknown said...

Yep, most marshmellows are made with gelatin.

Unknown said...

I really do know how to spell ;) .

marshmellows=marshmallows

Aileen Sheehan-Wilson said...

Adam, Andrew and Heidi,

You are correct, marshmallow often has gelatin and the Chef did not mention whether or not it was included in this dish. The only thing I can conclude is that since he classified it as ovo-vegetarian item, he felt it wasn't necessary to explain that other animal products may be included in the marshmallow. However, that is only speculation.

In the end, that was a great catch from all of you and I should have remembered that little tibit about marshmallows when I sent the original e-mail to Walt Disney World.