McDonald’s has come and gone with breakfast pastries over the years but they’re back now with a trio of items that we gave a try. Keep reading to see how the Apple Fritter, Blueberry Muffin, and Cinnamon Roll stacked up.
To accommodate the three different items, we’ll switch things up a tiny bit and throw three mini reviews at you, starting with the Blueberry Muffin.
McDonald’s describes their Blueberry Muffin as:
A soft and fluffy muffin baked with real blueberries and topped with a streusel crumb topping that goes wonderfully with a Premium Roast Coffee.
The Blueberry muffin definitely has the appearance of a high class muffin, dressed up for a night on the town in its above average brown label baking liner. We’re getting a little bit of an upper scale bakery feel here, trying to look the part of a Starbucks or Panera Bread muffin, but definitely missing the mark when throwing it in the plastic carton.
McDonald’s is clearly attempting to get people to buy coffee with these bakery items, so I can understand why they are throwing the kitchen sink of sweetness in these delectables, starting with the rich and abundant streusel crumb topping on the blueberry muffin.
The Blueberry Muffin had a nice, moist texture, and was relatively blueberry abundant. The muffin was definitely a shareable size, hitting the upper limit an individual without a hangover could devour. McDonald’s seemed to have heated up the muffin a little bit too much, causing the granular streusel to somewhat melt into the muffin top. This lack of texture brought the overall experience to a mid tier muff.
McDonald’s Blueberry Muffin: 6/10
McDonald’s describes their Apple Fritter as:
A classic fritter made with cinnamon and apples fried to a golden brown and covered with a sweet glaze icing.
The Apple Fritter was the lone item of the three to come in the bakery style sleeve, instead of a plastic carton. This appearance is definitely classier, but due to the McDonald’s staff heating the fritter up to oblivion, I had a hell of a time getting the pastry out of the sleeve, due to item congealing to all available surfaces.
The Apple Fritter was dense and packed a lot of weight. If the NHL ever restarts, they may be able to use these as pucks to help supplement costs. Again, like with the Blueberry Muffin, the Fritter was large enough to share if you could cut through the thing.
Is Fritter just a hip way to say donut? Seemingly that’s what this item is supposed to be going for, only the taste was way too muted to justify the 510 calories. The cinnamon was there but the apple flavor was out to lunch. The local McDonald’s making these items seemed to be thrown for a loop that anyone would actually order these, so I’m pretty sure their prep might have been fudged along the way. Regardless, a bland Fritter is a waste of calories even for me.
McDonald’s Apple Fritter: 3/10
McDonald’s describes their Cinnamon Roll as:
Served warm and loaded with cinnamon layered between buttery, flaky pastry dough that is drizzled with a delicious cream cheese icing.
Although they must not have been extremely popular to the masses, I remember eating my share of McDonald’s Cinnamon Rolls throughout my earlier years. I even remember the odd brain like appearance of the CinniMelts as well. So at least McDonald’s has some logical experience around a cinnamon roll.
The Cinnamon Roll, was the clear winner for me here. Exactly as described, the luxurious taste of butter was intermingled through the dough. There was a generous portion of the cream cheese icing that was a grand compliment to the roll. The Cinnamon roll was a grandiose and was the lone bakery item that I would consider hunkering down and bearing the 560 calories for.
I’m not sure if it’s from the past experience or just that the Cinnamon Roll was the hardest to screw up as far as the prep work involved, but this one is a keeper. Like the other McCafe Bakery items, this thing is big and could easily be shared with your roommate, maybe even throw in their cousin too. Out of the three, this one gets the FFG seal of approval.
McDonald’s Cinnamon Roll: 8/10