Butterfinger PB Cups!

Coming soon! I'm thinking these are either going to be awesomely amazing or tragically disappointing.

Dear Readers, Forgive My Ignorance

I'm trying to figure out how to write this post without totally offending a certain candy company while giving a left-handed compliment to another. There's no easy way around it. I'm just going to have to dive in and suffer the consequences.

There are some confections in the candy world that get mocked. Often, it's because they're made of "mockolate," or fake chocolate. These greasy, oily chocolates are often very inexpensive and holiday themed. I avoid these like the plague.


So when I recently received a large box full of samples from what I thought was the offending company, they sat around for longer than usual before I actually tried them. Then, one night, desperate for something sweet, I popped open a box of Palmer's Peanut Butter Crispy Yums.
I was shocked. They were tasty! They weren't at all the mouth-coating, flavorless chocolates I feared. I looked at the ingredients. Real milk chocolate. Real peanut butter. Real molasses. (And yes, admittedly, some partially hydrogenated bad stuff, too.) But the taste was there. The little pillows were filled with smooth peanut butter studded with little crispy bits. I was impressed. This company seemed to be taking a step in the right direction.
But then I looked at the logo. It didn't seem right. No, something was amiss. I did some Googling.
Holy cats.
After all these years, I've been confusing two candy companies. There's Palmer's Candies, out of Sioux City, Iowa, and R.M. Palmer out of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Oh my.
So, here it is, folks, my admission of guilt and my apologies for any negative "Palmer" references. Please tell me I'm not the only person in the candy universe who's made this mistake. On the bright side, there are two other types of candies waiting to be sampled. I hope they're as good as the Crispy Yums.

Happy Easter!

I hope the Easter Bunny was good to everyone this year. In the House of Yum, the Easter Bunny went kind of easy on the candy since he knows that the Sugar Baby has a second appointment this week to get some cavities filled. Apparently he did a lot of shopping at Trader Joe's, too, as there were TJ's gummy bunnies, malted milk eggs, peanut butter eggs and jelly beans in the basket, along with some Lindt chocolate carrots. And with that, we say good-bye to candy season as things start to wind down. From here on out, our holidays are mostly candy-free and more focused on burgers and potato salad. It's the circle of life, folks.
But what about you? What was in your Easter basket?

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared

The Easter Island heads contemplate a piece of Snickers Peanut Butter Squared, which they have mixed feelings about.

I don't like to feel like I'm being duped, which is kind of how I feel about the new Snickers Peanut Butter Squared. While the candy comes in a traditional bar wrapper, it's actually two square pieces. For portion control reasons, this is a good idea; you can have one now and one later. With a traditional Snickers, you can't just eat half without getting chocolate and caramel everywhere. But of course, in this format, there is less candy than if it was a single bar, which makes me feel like Snickers is pretending to be all cool with a new candy shape, but instead, they're really trying to save on costs.
In any case, the taste. Imagine a Snickers with a layer of peanut butter wedged in there. It sounds better than it is. Don't get me wrong. It's yummy enough, but the mouth-feel is awfully thick. What it comes down to is this: the regular, run-of-the-mill, plain old Snickers is quite nearly the most perfect mass-market, drugstore candy bar out there. I appreciate the attempts at different flavors and sizes, but why mess with a good thing? Keep the peanut butter for Reese's. I'll have my Snickers old-skool style.

My Sweet George: Chocolate Caramels

Like I said a few days ago, I have candy stashed into every corner of my house right now. It needs to get out of sight for a while, until I get back into my pre-birthday rye bread-for-every-meal-and-elliptical machine routine.
But first, I had to try one of the samples I received from My Sweet George Divine Candies. I was sent a bag of assorted candies--Cherry Pecan, Macadamia Nut, Coconut Almond, Lemon Butter, Peanut Butter, and Sea Salt Dark Chocolate caramels. Each piece is handmade and individually wrapped. The presentation is cute and homey. You can definitely tell these aren't machine-made.
Now, as you know, caramel isn't my favorite, but over the past few years, I've developed a taste for it, so I went into this with an open mind. I was particularly excited that it was chocolate caramel, something you don't see very often. I just tried the peanut butter. It was a layer of chewy chocolate caramel atop a layer of salty, crumbly natural peanut butter. It was, I dare say, really, really good. A great combination of sweet/salty/chewy. It was extremely satisfying, and I could've totally been happy with one piece, but I was so intrigued by the lemon butter.
This piece reminded me more of taffy. It had a slick oilyness to it and smelled of fresh lemons. The chew was soft, like taffy, but my teeth are beginning to protest. Apparently I'm pushing my 40-year-old chompers to the limit tonight. As for the taste-- normally I don't like lemon and chocolate together. I love lemon on its own, but I find that it often doesn't pair well with chocolate. In this case, it was surprisingly good. The zestiness was a nice contrast to the dark chocolate, giving it an almost savory appeal.
Here's what I like about these candies: 1) They're homemade. 2) They're satisfying and, according to the website, one non-nut piece is about 70 calories (or two Weight Watchers points). 3) They're different.
A pound of caramels (about 26-28 pieces) is $25. The website is a bit wonky; there isn't an order form directly on the website and the information about the actual candy is buried beneath info on their T-shirts and tote bags. And I'm unclear as to whether or not they actually have a store front.
But so far, so good. The two flavors I've tried are excellent. I'll be trying the others later this week-- after I get over to the gym.

Sweet, sweet Friday

I had a banner day on Friday. 1) I was writing a nostalgia piece about a bakery from my youth-- a bakery that made the best doughnuts and giant chocolate chip cookies ever. They closed four years ago. By some sprinkling of magic fairy dust, I discovered that the bakery had re-opened just two months ago. I am pleased to report that the cinnamon doughnuts and the cookies are even better than I remembered and I'm now able to pass this tradition on to the Sugar Baby who ate such a huge cookie that he had a stomach ache. And 2) I came home to find a giant box of all sorts of candy on my doorstep. The National Confectioners Association will be hosting their Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago next week, but unfortunately, I won't be able to attend due to No-Nuts' college graduation. But the good news is, I now have 25 pounds of all sorts of new and exciting candy to share with you all thanks to the kind folks at the NCA. So between the new/old bakery and the candy extravaganza, my diet is pretty much shot. Luckily the Reese's Kid and the Carry On Candy Girl will be here for a week to help me taste test.
In the meantime, I couldn't wait to try the Reese's Minis. I suppose I should've saved them for the Reese's Kid, but I only have so much willpower. The package says, "Conveniently Unwrapped Mini Cups." These are ideal for the Sugar Baby, who often forgets that Reese's have a cup wrapper and doesn't remember until he realizes he's chewing paper.
For contrast, I decided to compare them to Palmer Peanut Butter Cups. Now, in the past I've been known to comment on the fact that Palmer "chocolates" don't really contain any chocolate. This, again, is the case. The ingredients are: sugar, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, peanut butter, whey, lactose, cocoa, peanut flour, skim milk, salt emulsifiers and vanillin. Compare that with the Reese's which contain: milk chocolate, peanuts, sugar, dextrose, cocoa butter, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, PGPR (an emulsifier) and TBHQ (a preservative).
Hmmm. It's safe to say that neither is a health food. Both contain partially hydrogenated oil, or as I like to call it, the devil's fat. Just because Reese's contains milk chocolate doesn't mean I should go getting all snotty about the Palmer peanut butter cups.
So here's the breakdown: the little Reese's Minis were cute and would be great for cookies. As for just plain eating, though, I prefer the larger cups. It's strictly a textural thing. I like the thick rim of chocolate on the normal sized cups.
The Palmer cups were actually not bad, especially considering the fact that I expected them to be gritty and nasty. Would I take them over the Reese's? No. But it would be interesting to a more in-depth blind taste test at some point. I'll put that on my list of things to do. In the meantime, here's a little teaser of just some of the candies I'll be talking about this week:

• Mike and Ike Bubblegum
• Wonka Whipped Wingers Gummies
• Necco Wafers Chocolate
• Starburst Summer Fun Fruits
• Ferrara Chocolate Milk Chocolate Strawberry
• Goetze's Double Chocolate Bullseyes ...
• and much, much more!

Easter Sugar Crash 2010

Well my goodness gracious, I'm wiped out. These candy holidays can really take a toll on a person. So much build-up to the big day and then CRASH! Too. Much. Candy. Must. Have. Salad.
In any case, let's tie up a few loose Easter ends.When life (or the mailman) gives you a See's Easter candy catalog, you make puppets. That's what we've been doing for weeks. Cutting and taping pictures of chocolates onto popsicle sticks. The Sugar Baby asked me to draw sad faces on them. (I'll be accepting donations for his future therapy via PayPal.) He currently has them all nestled inside his lunchbox and he sleeps with them. Trader Joe's offered milk chocolate peanut butter eggs this year. What can I say? They were good, but nothing can ever compare to a Reese's egg with its perfect balance of sweet and salty. Really, there's no reason for any company to ever make a chocolate peanut butter candy because Reese's will always win out.
The Sugar Baby got these adorable bottles of bubbles in his Easter basket. They look like Peeps and the bubbles smell like them, too. Fun!

So Yumsters, what was in your Easter baskets? Do tell!

The Perfect Gift for the Reese's Kid

I went onto the Hershey's website in early December and tried ordering the World's Largest Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for the Reese's kid. Suffice it to say that it was a nightmare process (all sorts of pain in the neck issues) and I had all but given up on the idea. But then I gave it one more try and successfully sent two 1-pound packages to the Reese's kid and his big brother. As you can see, he is visibly excited by the thought of 16 ounces of pure chocolatey peanut buttery goodness.
In other peanut butter and chocolate news, a friend sent me a big bag of homemade peanut butter cups for Christmas. They lasted all of about five minutes on Christmas Eve.
What kind of candy did you have at Christmas?

Trader Joe's PB&J Bar: Chocolate + Potato Chips

Knock on wood-- we're doing better here at the House of Yum. Wait until you see what I made for the Sugar Baby's party at school tomorrow. I'm just waiting for it to set up.
In the meantime, let's talk about this here Trader Joe's PB&J candy bar. I've looked at this numerous times, but it never really sounded very good to me. PB&J just says sandwich, not sweet. But then, on a whim, I decided to get one a few weeks ago, and just yesterday got around to trying it.
Sweet Caesar's Ghost! What a fantastic bar. The chocolate is creamy, the peanut butter rich (with crunchies in it) and the jelly firm and fruity. This was a candy bar that made me say "Wow." It shouldn't have come as a surprise, really, since I loved the Trader Joe's Lumpy Bumpy Bar.
It wasn't until after I ate it that I read the box. Here's the description:

"PB&J are sandwiched between milk and dark chocolate then sprinkled with crushed potato chips. Potato chips? Yes, crisp, delicious potato chips. This means you have it all-- sweet and salty, smooth and crunchy. Lucky you!"

Lucky me, indeed. Potato chips! No wonder it tasted so good. The mention of milk and dark chocolate is perplexing, however. It seemed like it was all dark chocolate to me. Maybe if I'd read the box I would've paid closer attention.
At around $2 a bar, this isn't every day eating. And at a whopping 300 calories, it's more like a once a year treat. But this, my friends, just may be a contender against Chocorooms for the candy of the year. We'll have to see.

Candy Yum Yum's Stance on the Peanut Butter Crisis

I feel the need to say something about this whole peanut butter/salmonella situation. All I can say is, this too shall pass. (But the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the Chinese government had a hand in this to take our attention away from the melamine debacle.)
In any case, just don't eat any peanut butter for a while. Then, when all is good again, we'll have a giant peanut butter and chocolate party!

UPDATE: Carl has a much more informed opinion than I do. You might want to check out his comment for a more balanced approach. Thanks Carl!

Let them eat cake!

This weekend we went to a block party and fortunately I was part of the group that was assigned to bring dessert. I've had this recipe for "Peanut Butter and Chocolate Candy Cake" sitting around forever, so I thought I'd

finally try it. The recipe said it was like a Tasty Cake, and I have to agree. Basically it's a layer of vanilla cake with a layer of peanut butter and a layer of chocolate. I overmixed the cake batter so it was a bit chewy and I used all-natural peanut butter which, let's be honest, just isn't as good as they chemical-loaded kind. Still, they were good and worth a second try.

Now that's a brown bag lunch!

The other day I was pondering the idea of favorite foods and was trying to determine what mine was. When I was little, it was spaghetti. I could eat pasta from morning til night and never tire of it. I still love pasta, but is it my favorite? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really love a good sandwich. I'm open to lots of different kinds: tuna on rye, turkey with stuffing and cranberry on a roll, roast beef with horseradish sauce, I could go on and on. So what could be more perfect than a chocolate sandwich?!

Yes, you read that right. Look at this German goodie: it's called Eszet Schnitten and it's thin wafers of either dark or milk chocolate. Apparently the thing to do is to spread some bread with butter and top it with a chocolate wafer, but I went a few steps further. I bought some fresh bread at the bakery and slathered on peanut butter, than the chocolate, and grilled it up in some melted butter. Oh my! I thought that I'd prefer the milk chocolate because I don't usually like dark chocolate with pb, but this was an exception. The dark definitely won my heart. Yes, this is a heart attack on a plate, but for an occasional treat, why not? I can think of some other great combinations, too, like banana, marshmallow, pastrami ... oh wait, no forget that last one. I have two pieces left, so I'm willing to entertain your ideas. What kind of chocolate sandwich should I make?