As fall goes by and Thanksgiving quickly approaches, we all have our eyes and our stomachs set on one dinner. Sadly, we only have one week at home over break to spend time with our friends and families, and we only have one week to eat all of the delicious fall foods that make the season so special.
Penn State’s markets had some sweet fall treats to hold its students over until break. Here are my personal rankings.
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese – 6/10
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The Philadelphia brand of cream cheese is well-known and identifiable. What I didn’t know, though, was that they rolled out a pumpkin-spice cream cheese for the fall months.
While it wasn’t my favorite, it was very creamy and had a beautiful orange color. It had basic pumpkin spice flavors and was more sweet than I was expecting. To me, it was more analogous to frosting than to cream cheese, but I would highly recommend trying it on a cinnamon-raisin bagel.Â
- Pumpkin Cheesecake – 4/10
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The Cheesecake Factory Brand, if you weren’t aware, has products in Penn State’s markets. While shopping around for fall treats, I noticed fruity, traditional and chocolate options. There was also pumpkin spice.
This slice of cheesecake was not what I had anticipated. It was less sweet than I believe a cheesecake should be and had too much pumpkin flavor. I also considered the cheesecake filling to be too soft and the crust to be mushy. The crust had an amazing cinnamon flavor, though.
- Pumpkin Roll – 10/10
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Oh my goodness. The pumpkin roll was so delicious.
The cake was light and airy (so moist, too) and the frosting was amazing. It was the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness in the cream cheese frosting.
The dessert had the perfect ratio of pumpkin to spice to sweetness and the powdered sugar brought everything together. It was so good.
- Apple Fritter – 9/10
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Even though it doesn’t have the highest rating, the apple fritter was my favorite. It smelt so strongly of maple, before even opening the box and that scent brought me so much warmth and joy.
It tasted amazing, too. The apple fritter had the perfect density you expect from this type of dessert with a perfect amount of sweetness and an amazing glaze.Â
My one concession, however, is that I could not taste the apple strongly enough in the apple fritter. I discovered that warming up the pastry for 10 seconds in the microwave fixes everything. It makes the fritter itself so much lighter and sweeter and somehow, it makes the apple taste more apparent.Â
- Pumpkin Pie – 2/10
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Take this with a grain of salt. I don’t typically like pumpkin pie to begin with, so I’m not necessarily the best critic here.
The pumpkin pie wasn’t sweet enough for me, but it also didn’t taste like a true pumpkin pie. I also experienced a weird aftertaste that reminded me of dish soap.
A positive word, though, the crust was good. As a baker, I respect a solid, traditional pie crust and this pie definitely had one.
I hope you enjoy your fall treats!