Easter's on its way!

Hey Easter Peeps! It's been a while, I know, but rest assured: candy is still always on my mind. Of course, the big day is coming up and I've been on the lookout for something new and fun to try this Easter. I was very excited to find coconut Hershey Kisses. I liked these a lot. They don't have an overwhelming suntan lotion flavor like many coconut-flavored things tend to have, and they had bits of toasted coconut mixed in the cream filling, which gave them a nice texture.
Last week I had wisdom tooth removed, so the night before I thought I'd finish off my last meal with some Cadbury Mini Eggs. Man, was I disappointed. For some reason, the candy shells weren't crunchy. I don't know if it had anything to do with the freak warm weather we were experiencing or what, but it didn't make for the chocolate orgy I had been anticipating.

And last but not least in my Easter stash is a Lindt Gold Bunny. This is my favorite bunny to give and receive. The chocolate is smooth and creamy and, although it's hollow, it's got pretty thick walls. This year, Lindt is doing something that's really cool. They're donating 10 cents for every bunny purchased to Autism Speaks, a science and advocacy organization. They're also donating $1 for every free Lindt Easter e-card sent. Check it out at www.lindtgoldbunny.com. 

Air Supply

All I have to say is, thank goodness the Sweets & Snacks Expo took place last week, because it has been so dull out there in candy land lately. You know it's bad when I don't even get excited to go into supermarkets in other states because there just hasn't been anything new on the shelves lately. So I present to you:

A big batch of new products! Hooray!
The first thing I ripped into from my show samples was a bag of Hershey Kisses Air Delight "aerated milk chocolate." The bag describes them as, "The Hershey's milk chocolate you love gently blended for a light, airy texture that melts effortlessly in your mouth."

There are several "aerated" chocolates on the market: the British Aero, Bubble Chocolate, and I'm sure there are others. I used to particularly like Nestle Choco'Lite, but that's been gone for a while now.
So how do the Kisses stack up? It's kind of hard to tell, actually. The weather's been really warm here, and so it's difficult to tell if the Kisses are really that much more melty naturally, or if it's just from the heat. They taste good enough. I mean, it's Hershey's chocolate; it's exactly what you'd expect. But I think because they're small, as opposed to a bar, you just don't get that big, airy experience. These are fine. Would I pick them over regular old Hershey Kisses? No. But would I refuse a handful from a candy dish? Of course not!

Pumpkin Spice Kisses: Blech.

Some things to know about me:

My favorite color: Orange

My favorite holiday: Halloween

My pet: A black cat

My favorite pie: Pumpkin

My favorite spice: cinnamon (only in sweet foods, though; can't stand it in savory foods)

One of my favorite memories from a previous job: Creating "Cubicle Trick-or-Treating"

In short, I love Halloween and I love pumpkin. So when I heard that this year's Target special edition Hershey Kiss was Pumpkin Spice, I packed the Sugar Baby up in the car and hauled our behinds over there quicker than you can say "Don't let me forget diapers."

Candy Blog and The Candy Enthusiast both have positive reviews of them, so I feel like a real loser saying this, but I really didn't like them. It wasn't the taste, though. No, these had a really nice, spicy bite and you could even taste the pumpkin, which I thought for sure wouldn't be the case. But what I didn't like was the texture. It's as if they took really smooth white chocolate and dumped gritty, dusty spice into it. I'm really disappointed. But I think they'll be good with some sort of cake or cookie. Maybe melted between two flat chocolate cookies. Sigh. Well, there's always the Christmas Kisses. What'll it be this year? I'm rooting for sugar cookie.

Hershey Kiss Sighting

Alexandra did some sleuthing at the evil Wal-Mart and found Caramel Apple Hershey Kisses. Can't say these excite me, but I'd be willing to give them a whirl.

In other news, I just received the Halloween edition of the Oriental Trading catalog. There are pages and pages of Halloween candy, including these which I just don't understand:

Fa-Boo-Lous Nutty Candy Corn. "Each bag contains approximately 1 oz. of tasty nuts and candy corn." Huh? That just doesn't sound too good to me. Then again, I'd take those any day over any of the following:

Mint Maggots ("A humorous breath freshener!")

Candy Blood Bags

Road Kill Gummy Candies

Barf Bags ("Gross has never been so sweet!")

Toe Jam Cotton Candy

Guest Review: Alexandra Goes Nuts!

My cousins just returned from Hawaii and brought back Hershey Kisses with Macadamia Nuts. The Kisses have a whole (maybe a half) piece of the nut in the center and throughout the chocolate is finely chopped macadamia nuts. Yummy! Bad news, you can only get them in Hawaii!

The Return of the Candy Corn Kisses!

Okay people, it's official: the fall candy has arrived in stores. I saw lots o' boxes of candy corn at the grocery store and in today's newspaper, there was a flier from Rite Aid advertising none other than the Candy Corn Kisses of mystical lore. Be sure to stock up!

Cookies For the Easter Bunny!

Well, here you have it, gang: a whole mess of cookies made with the Lemon Creme Hershey Kisses I got a few weeks ago. They aren't very pretty but they are mighty tasty. I took a recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" and tweaked it a bit. If I were to make these again, I'd add lemon zest to the batter and I'd put the dough in the fridge for about an hour before baking so that I could roll it into balls instead of the amorphous blobs we have here. But alas, there's only so much one can do with a toddler pulling on your pants saying, "Cookie!Cookie!Cookie!Puppies!YEAH!"

Hopefully the Easter Bunny will like these so much that he'll leave me a little basket, too!

Lemon Sour Crème Cookies
(adapted from Mark Bittman’s Butter Drop Cookies)

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp.
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 egg
½ cup sour cream
Lemon Crème Hershey Kisses


Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in bowl. Place butter and sugar in the mixing bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low until blended and creamy. Add the lemon extract and the egg and beat on low until well combined. Add about half the flour mixture, beat for a moment, then add sour cream. Beat for 10 seconds, then add remaining flour to make a soft batter that can be dropped from a spoon.

Drop rounded spoonfuls onto buttered baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are browned. While the cookies are still hot, insert an unwrapped Kiss onto the top of each cookie.

These, Not So Much

There's something plain and simple and nice and celebratory about a bowl of Hershey Kisses. No, they're not fabulous chocolate, but still, they're good and they make people happy. The Hershey Kiss Trio, however, doesn't have the same effect as evidenced by this still-full bowl. I put these out when the von Schokolats were here, and then I also had them out when I had a house-full of people. And guess what? They're still sitting here.

The "Trio" name comes from the fact that they're white, dark and milk chocolate. Sounds good enough. But there's just something unappealing about these. They're very creamy. Maybe too much so. And they don't have that basic, chocolatey Hershey taste to them. I don't know. I can't figure it out. It's not that they're bad. It's just that they're not good.

Lemon Creme Kisses! Orange Creme Kisses!

I woke up this morning to a bright, shiny new day. A day frought with possibilities. A day with absolutely Nothing. To. Do. Nothing. It seems we've done it all this week. We've been to the library, the grocery store, Playtime Village. We've visited friends, we read "Rainbow Rob" five thousand times. What were we going to do? Then I remembered that the Sugar Baby's music teacher suggested that we get a harmonica for hours of noisy fun. So we hopped in the car and went to Target where, before walking in, I promised myself: no unnecessary purchases. Here was my list:

1) Harmonica

2) Baby wipes

Of course they hit you with the $1 bargain rack as soon as you walk in. They had some nice Sesame Street board books, so the Sugar Baby got two to entertain him as I walked around the store. "Focus!" I told myself. I got the wipes. Then onto the toy department where I tried to carefully scan the signs so I wouldn't have to walk down every aisle and be tempted by the really cute shovels (we're supposed to get snow tomorrow) and the art kits and the bath toys. I found a harmonica for $1.99. A Made in China, lead paint and loose chokable parts harmonica. It was that or the $8.99 Made in China, unpainted, more secure parts harmonica with music book. Guess which one I bought?

At this point, I should've headed straight for the check out, but no, I had to go to the candy aisles. Let me just say, Target has got it going on as far as Easter candy is concerned. They had some really cool things. Very, very cute chocolate farm animals, edible Easter grass, Lindt bunnies, chicks and lambs ... all sorts of stuff. I really hope the Easter Bunny goes there for the Sugar Baby's basket. Anyhow, as far as new stuff, I found Wild Cherry M&Ms (I hate cherry, so someone else is going to have to try those) and then, taa daa! Orange Creme and Lemon Creme Kisses. I got the lemon ones. They're very similar to the Candy Corn Kisses that Target had at Halloween in that they're white chocolate. I was kind of hoping they were chocolate with fruit filling, but I knew they wouldn't be. Anyhow, the lemon ones are white and yellow and have a very citrusy, *fresh!* lemon taste, followed by a sweet, sugary white chocolate creaminess. They're good. Not what I'd want if I was hankering for chocolate, but they're tasty. They'll be yummy on top of some lemon Easter cookies.

In the end, I ditched the Sesame Street books, taking a whopping $2 off my bill.

New York Cheesecake Kisses

Back in early January I commented on how I found New York Cheesecake Kisses at evil Walmart, but decided not to buy them because the bags weren't on sale. Yes, I'll pay $3 for a tiny individual piece of chocolate at some hoity-toity chocolatier, but I won't dish out $3 for an entire bag of Kisses. What can I say? I'm penny wise, pound foolish. Well, I found the candy bar-sized packet at Target for 99 cents, so I jumped on it.
Hello, YUMMY! Usually I don't like chocolate and cheesecake mixed together. I find that the chocolate overpowers the cheese, which is a delightful enough taste in itself. But these are darned tasty. Good thing I didn't get the bag, because I'd surely eat the whole thing.
I haven't been to evil Walmart in a while, so I don't know what their Valentine selection is like, but Target's was pretty good. They had a nice variety of bulk candy, hearts, and molded chocolates. They had a plastic champagne bottle filled with Champagne Hershey Kisses, which I'd love to try, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that they'll be around for the after Valentine's Day sale.
And just as a side note: it's ValentiNe's Day, not ValentiMe's. Ooooh, that's like nails on a chalk board when I hear people say that.

Candy Corn Kisses Mania!

I've been getting lots of e-mails from Candy Yum Yum readers saying that the Targets in their neighborhoods are selling out of the Candy Corn Kisses. This has got to be one of the most exciting things Hershey's has done in a long time. I wonder if they'll bring them back every year? And maybe in other stores?

On another note, please stand by as I'm experiencing some technical difficulties. I have LOTS to report, though, including pictures of my birthday candy haul, my most recent paintings and one very, very exciting present.

Update on Candy Corn Kisses

I was flipping through the Target flyer this weekend when I saw an ad for the Candy Corn Hershey Kisses, and it said "Exclusive to Target!" So if you're looking for them, apparently there's only one place to go. In the same circular, there was an ad for "Ghost Dots." It was hard to tell from the picture, but these look like little boxes of Dots that glow in the dark-- the Dots themselves, not the box. Weird. I don't know how I feel about glow in the dark candy. Seems kind of like Homer Simpson swallowing nuclear waste.

Candy Corn Kisses!

Like I said in a previous post, I was running dangerously low on candy supplies, so this weekend when I had to make a dreaded Target stop, I decided to see what they had. They were just starting to put the Halloween candy aisles together, so there were only a few things stocked. Nothing exciting. But as I was walking to the checkout, there was a display of Hershey Kisses on sale, including these: Candy Corn Flavored Hershey Kisses. I thought for sure these would be beyond gross, but I had to try them.

The wrapping is really cute: silver, orange and yellow swirly stripes. When you open the bag, you definitely get a very distinct aroma. Maybe some people will think "candy corn," but I instantly thought "Butter Rum Life Savers." Interesting, because I really like BR Life Savers. The kisses themselves are really cute: a layer of yellow, then orange, then white. How do they taste? Very sweet, very buttery. Unlike a regular Hershey Kiss, you wouldn't want to eat a whole handful of these. But I liked them more than I thought I would. These would be fabulous as the decoration on cupcakes or chocolate cookies, which is what I plan on doing with them!