This is going to be LONG, so bear with me :)…read more
I like to support small businesses, so after seeing Facebook ads repeatedly for So Delight, I purchased 4 items for the holidays :)
The first item I tried was...
~ CREAM BALAH EL SHAM:
These reminded me of small eclairs (oblong cream puffs, perhaps?) but with honey and nuts on top instead of chocolate. The cream inside is as close to perfect as you can get - not too sweet, remained light and fluffy, great flavor, and the outer pastry held it's form and was quite tasty in it's own right.
I wish my grandmother was still alive - she would have absolutely loved these. However I did bring some by for a friend to try and got to watch her and her husbands eyes go wide when they tried them. I promised I would get them the contact info for So Delight as soon as I got home. So I am not biased - these were reallllly good!
**sidenote** After leaving a few sitting for the past couple days, the sweetness soaked into the dough but still kept ALL the same flavors and texures. They didnt get hard or taste 'off' like old pastry normally would. I think I like them even more now lol
After these we tried...
~ FETEER CREAM w/HONEY:
Dense cream filled with nuts and raisins, inside a sweet phyllo wrap (with honey and nuts on top). It begs to want to ooze (yet does not) when heated in the microwave for about 30 seconds. The honey on top pools slightly when heated up. It turned the philo outside into this lightly sweet and sticky wrap surrounding the cream, nut, and raisin contents. You won't often catch me eating dessert with my hands but I was slowly nibbling at the wrap lol
This was good and ticked all my favorite boxes yet was not my most favorite of the items ordered.
THAT honor belonged to...
~ SWEET CHEESE KUNAFA DOME:
I don't know what it is about this dessert. As much as I refuse to stop sneaking slender slices of the cheesecake (we will discuss that in a moment) it is the Kunafa dome that has me utterly enraptured!
Imagine if phyllo and cheesecake had a baby... THAT is the miracle of Cheese Kunafa. Instead of traditional layers of phyllo, these are somehow shredded (??) yet maintain their buttery delicate texture and taste. Slightly dense in form, with cheesecake filling between the two outer layers, topped with sweetened syrup to help hold its form... It is the definition of heaven of Earth. This one hasn't left my office. I refuse to share lol It's here watching me type, with a paring knife to cut slivers of it off to snack on.
100% chance that I will order this again, in a larger form (in case I have to share haha) for pretty much any event I have an excuse to buy dessert for.
This and the...
~ BASQUE CHEESECAKE:
This remarkably creamy cheesecake has no discernable crust. If you look up the word 'delectable' in the dictionary, a picture of this cheesecake will be there.
Where do I even begin? This was my first time trying a Basque cheesecake and... yes, I was leery. It looked good, the concept was interesting (ie. 'burnt cheesecake') but I am pretty fussy about my cheesecake density, flavor, consistency, etc. Okay, I border on 'cheesecake snob', I admit it.
The Basque cheesecake is dense enough to hold form, creamy but... more like a whipped style - light, delicate. Instead of tasting like the usual standard creamy cheesecake, the consistency is closer to a flan perhaps? It's exquisite. I'm not entirely convinced I can just go back to a New York style cheesecake after this. And seriously, why would I even want to???
The cheesecake also came with chocolate topping. I was expecting syrup or such, like from a bulk supplier... HAHAHA Nope. The chocolate topping tastes like a milk chocolate fudge. It even set a bit and I had to heat it up to pour it. It's delicious!
This was our dessert for Christmas night, and I had to swear to the neighbor (he had to leave early) that I would bring him a slice the next day. I also had to promise to save a slice for my friend and her husband, who are excited to try it as well (and also are cheesecake connoisseurs).
All in all, this experience (and one of the wonderful company owners, who I got to meet during drop-off) made me very glad that I went outside my comfort zone and placed an order online. I highly, HIGHLY suggest trusting them with your tastebuds. I will 100% be ordering from them again (they have entrees and I need to try those!) and if anyone has any questions about what we ordered, feel free to reach out to me and I will respond :)