A Cool Candy Thing

Nothing can help you cap off your holiday cheer like the heads of your favorite holiday characters mounted on sticks... Oh wait a minute, these are just Pez dispensers, my bad.  I guess this would be a fine thing to get for the holidays, as long as you ignore my earlier comment about them looking like the dismembered heads of famous holiday characters.  I've never really thought about Pez dispensers as dismembered heads before, and now that I do, I'll never be able to look at them the same again.  Maybe they should create a line of famous people who've faced the guillotine.  Maybe a series of Pez dispensers based on some of the characters from the Tudors television series.

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Pineapple Ration Cake

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to sample an official Canadian army ration pack.  I posted all about my experiences sampling it, and for the most part my opinion was mixed (You can read more about it here).  I had several people mention to me, online and in person, how much they enjoyed reading about my experience.  Most of the people that commented to me were, or are, members of the armed forces in various countries.  A few friends of mine who happen to be in the armed forces were so taken back that they offered me even more ration packs to review if I wanted.  Since I figured writing ration pack reviews again might be repetitive, both because I've already done it, and someone else is doing it better than me (click here to check that out).  I decided that I would instead try several experiments using ration packs.

The first experiment that I thought I would try is to take the elements of several ration packs, and try to make it into something else, something better maybe.  Since this is my first time trying this, I decided I would go for something that was in my skill set.  I decided that I would try and create a (slightly) more epic dessert out of some of the dessert ration packs.  The first thing I had to do was collect my ration packs. For this I was granted access to a ration pack stash, it was amazing.  It was like shopping at the  most boring grocery store ever, since everything was either in a nondescript foil pack or plain cardboard box.  While looking through the packs I was inspired for what I wanted to create, pineapple upside-down cake.

To make this sweet treat I would need fruit, some kind of syrup or sugar, and some kind of cake.  The fruit was the easiest to find as canned (bagged in this case) fruit is a staple of ration packs.  For this project I figured that a mixed fruit salad would work best.  This would give me pineapple, cherries, and even some peaches, just to mix it up a bit.  For the syrup/sugar, I went with a maple dessert bar that comes drenched in a maple syrup.  This would provide me with the syrup, and maybe some cake as well.  I also picked up several packages of date squares, these might give me the crust/crumble to make for a perfect cake base.

So with ingredients in  hand I got started.  My plan was simple, I started by draining the fruit, and laying at the bottom of my loaf pan in a pleasant pattern.  For this cake I used 3 packs of mixed fruit salad. The biggest problem I had in this case was the lack of pineapple.  There was some, but not nearly as much as I'd hopped for.  I put the cherries down, and ended up using more peach than pineapple, but I think that's OK.

About 3 hours before starting, I took out the maple cake, and started to drain it.  I let it sit for the 3 hours so most of the maple  would drain from the cake.

I also scrapped all of the crumb/crust from the date squares, and set them aside to dry out for a little while.

Once the fruit was placed in a nice pattern, and the maple cake drained all of the maple syrup. I added the maple syrup to the fruit.  At this  point I wasn't happy with the amount of syrup, so I added a bit of the juice from the fruit as well.  I put the fruit in the oven to let the syrup thicken a little bit.  Once it had been bubbling for a few minutes, I took the fruit out of the oven.

While  the fruit was cooking, I smashed up the  maple square and added it to the crumb from the date squares.  At this point all of the cake ingredients were much dryer than when I had taken them out of the packages.  This was a good thing because I figured they would  instantly absorb the syrup from the fruit.   My first thought was to ad some butter to the cake crumbs to help them stick together, but Allison mentioned that this would be cheating since ration packs do not come with butter.  As the fruit was ready, I took it out and carefully layered on the cake crumbs.  I had to be careful not to push the cake into the fruit as it might ruin the design, but I wanted the cake crumbs packed down enough so they would hold together.

Baking the cake crumbs didn't take too long since they were already cooked.  At this point I just wanted to heat them up, and let the crumbs absorbed some of the syrup.  I probably let it stay in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, then it was ready to serve.

I thought since my military friends were nice enough to give me the ration packs, I would let them sample my creation.  Overall it was a success.  I was worried that the crumb bottom would completely fall apart, but it didn't, I was even able to flip the cake over while  serving it to reveal the fruity bottom/top.  The syrup was perfect and it held the crumb together fairly well, and held the fruit together perfectly.  Everybody was happy with the results, and I was given the best compliment I think you could receive for this experiment.  “This is probably the best thing that's ever come out of a ration pack.”

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This Week In Candy

2014 is coming to an end, and what a fun year it's been.  I've traveled to some amazing places, and sampled some pretty amazing candy.  This week I'm going to be looking over this year's candy reviews and I'm going to pick out some of the highlights.  What was my favorite candy that I sampled this year?  What candy stood out for me?  Were there any candies that I feel will be the trendy candy of 2015?  I have a lot of re-reading of my own reviews to do this week, but if you have a favorite treat that you tried this year, let me know.

This week I'm also going to be posting a blog to follow up an earlier post I did on the subject of military ration packs.  I've decided to expand my knowledge of military ration packs and try out a few experiments.  This week I'm going to attempt the impossible, make ration pack food into something spectacular.  Some say it can't be done, I hope to prove them wrong.

This week on Snack Facts (our Instagram feed), we're going to look at cereal.  Classic cereals, cereal history, and cereal origins are all the subject of our daily facts this week.  If you want to keep up with snack facts you can follow us on Instagram, if you're not on Instagram you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page, as well as our Twitter feed.  You can also follow our Facebook page and Twitter feed for daily news and fun links about the candy and snack food world.

This week's review comes from my recent visit to Dubai.  I found it pretty difficult to find many United Emirates traditional candies, but I searched out a little and I found today's new review.  It's pretty much what you'd expect from a place like the UAE, and it doesn't disappoint at all.  Click here to check out this new review.

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A Cool Christmas Gingerbread Thing

All this month I've been posting all about some crazy and un-orthodox gingerbread house making gadgets.  Today I'm going to bring up another possibly sensitive subject, gingerbread things other than men/women, and houses.  Would Christmas be the same if you didn't have a gingerbread house?  Would the festive season work if there wasn't a large cookie house to destroy?  I would like to argue that yes, yes it would.  In fact this gingerbread train not only looks great, but it also has a coal car in the back.  What's so great about a coal car you may ask?  It's simple, that's a great place to fill up with all kinds of Christmas treats.  This way you not only have a gingerbread creation to enjoy, but you also have an awesome candy bowl that you can eat.

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This Week In Candy

As of last Thursday night I have not had internet, television, or telephone service at my home.  This has forced me to head out to my local hangout/food establishment to work.  This was something I had always planned on starting so that I could focus on writing a bit more and get out of the house now and again.  It's proven to be a big success, however I've also hit a few glitches with updates and blog posts.  As I iron out these problems I think I'm going to continue this trend, as long as the folks here don't get sick of me and kick me out.

I guess the  big news right now is the Christmas/Chanukah season.  I hope all you guys are having a great holiday season, and I hope it's full of sugar plums and christmas treats.  My plan is to keep it low key, but that plan almost never works out.  So baring that, I hope to have lots of friends around and lots of good food to  munch on.

Last week on Snack Facts we looked at the classic holiday treat, the candy cane.  This week we're going too look a little more broadly at holiday treats, and we're going to feature some random holiday snack facts.  You can check out all our awesome Snack facts on our Instagram feed, and if you don't have Instagram, you can also find it on our Twitter Feed and Facebook page.

Today we're also posting the last of our selection of Christmas candy reviews.  Reese has always impressed me with their holiday treats, and once again I'm not disapointed at all.  Click here to find out why I loved these chocolate bells so much.

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You Say Hello, And I Say Dubai...

After spending 4 days in Dubai, I can say one thing for sure, Dubai is a really strange place.  It's not strange in the regular ways things are strange, it's not creepy strange like Las Vegas, or it's not scary strange like Halloween.  Dubai on the surface is a very nice place, in fact it's one of the cleanest most beautiful cities I've ever seen in my entire life.  The thing that makes it strange is all about cultural geography, or lack there of.  Dubai is the kind of city that really has no culture of it's own to speak of.  Traditionally it's simply a small village in the middle of the desert, but with the amount of money that's been thrown into building massive buildings and malls, it could also be almost any place in the world as well.  A good way to understand how this city is different is to look at the snacks, food and candy of Dubai.

The one thing that strikes you about Dubai when you're shopping for food or eating at a restaurant is the huge selection.  The selection of foods in Dubai aren't unfamiliar to most westerners either.  Restaurants such as The Cheesecake Factory, Tony Romas, and Olive Garden can be found just about anywhere.  Even Canadian chains like Tim Horton's and Eggspectations can be found in Dubai.  If you're traveling from just about any corner of the globe, you'll find a bit of home in this city.  This also extends to candy as well, at the grocery stores I visited I found plenty of Hershey's, Cadbury, and Nestle chocolate.  I also found just about every brand of gummy and hard candy. I felt like a kid in a candy store, literally.  There was one thing however that I really had to hunt for, local foods.

 If you want to taste a bit of the true UAE culture, Dubai may not be the best place to visit.  The foreign chains have all but eliminated the local cuisine from the tourist path. There are a few restaurants that seem local in the old section of town, but its hard to tell.  The main parts of the city, the malls and giant buildings, have no restaurants that clearly show off UAE cuisine.  The only time I can say that I was pretty sure I ate something close to traditional food is when I took a desert safari.  At this safari we ate food that seemed pretty close to what you would expect for this part of the world.  Things like eggplant dips, cooked meats, curries, and flat breads.  I'm not convinced that this food was 100% authentic, since it's geared towards tourists, but the theme seemed fairly close.

The only other oddity about the food is the strict rules regarding food.  For the most part gum is not encouraged, or completely banned from indoor facilities.  You can't ride a subway or walk through a mall blowing bubbles. Food and drinking is also banned on their public transportation system as well.  While these rules may seems harsh, the results can't be argued.  The city is one of the cleanest I've ever seen.

The other strange rule regarding food, for westerners at least, is the lack of bacon.  This is a Muslim country and according to the Muslim religion pork is a no-no. They do compensate with beef and turkey bacon (I didn't see any chicken bacon, strange no?), as well as other beef replacements.  The good thing is the quality of the beef and other meats is fantastic (although it's expensive) so you don't really find yourself missing too much. And if you're really craving some pork, some grocery stores to sell it. 

Dubai is really a great city, it has just about anything you might want to eat, except maybe something local.  While I did miss the local food, I was very well distracted with all of the huge selection of North American and western restaurants and foods.  Candy wise I found a few interesting things that I probably can't get in many other cities, like camel milk chocolate and awesome chocolate covered dates, but I really had to search for them. I did however find some classic bars that I haven't had in a while, so I left a happy boy.

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Candy In The Media

I never thought of the guy from Hootie and the Blow fish as a Christmas crooner, but he really pulls it off.  Whenever I think about Christmas songs like this I gag a little, then when I'm sitting down on a cool December's night I can't help but feel a little warmer when they're playing.  There's just something so relaxing and warm about songs like this.  I personally can't wait to sit in my living room with a mug of hot cocoa, enjoying the smooth sounds of Christmas with the smell of a Christmas tree filling the room.  Good job Hootie guy, you made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My only complaint, not enough mention of candy canes.

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A Cool Christmas Gingerbread Thing

Over the last few weeks I've been posting various gingerbread house gadgets that help you make the perfect gingerbread house.  Some might argue that cookie cutters that cut the perfect shaped house pieces, or anything else that helps you make the perfect house might be cheating.  Frankly, I've been on the line about that, in some ways I think it's great to have a gadget to help you make a better gingerbread house.  However I understand that some purists might see the harm in not using your hands, and making a few mistakes, so you can learn how to build your very own cookie built architectural dream house.  Today's gadget on the other hand pushes things way too far.  I think if you're going to build a gingerbread house, it's probably cheating to have a cake pan that's chapped exactly like the gingerbread house.  While I can see the fun in using this mold to make a house out of cake or Jello, I think if you plan on using this mold for any kind of cookie like house, you're cheating.

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This Week In Candy

Today is the first day in a few weeks that I feel like myself.  I had a two week long cold that didn't knock me out, but it made me feel pretty tired every day.  But candy news and fun waits for no cold, and I spent the two weeks working on all kinds of fun things.  First of all, I had a quick 4 day weekend in Dubai, I took lots of pictures, and sampled a few fun candies.  I'll have a full write up on the trip later this week.

Recently, we also posted a question on Twitter to a few famous chefs, we asked them "What's the best candy to cook with?".  Overwhelmingly chocolate and cocoa ranked number one on the list.  Many of the chefs commented on how well chocolate works in both sweet and savory dishes.  Second favorite seemed to be candied fruit, which can also be used for many different savory and sweet dishes as well.  Probably the most surprising answer I got was the suggestion of using Red Hots candy in savory cooking.  I could see how it might work, but I think it would be a really tough challenge.

Also, all this week and last week we've been telling you guys about some of the cool candy themed t-shirts and greeting cards we have available at our store.  They make a great gift for any candy fan in your family, and all the profits go to keep this site up and free.

This week on Snack Facts, we're looking at the most famous of all Christmas candies, the candy cane.  We have a new candy cane fact going up every day on our Instagram feed.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also find the snack facts on our Twitter and Facebook feeds as well.

Finally, in continuing our line of holiday themed candies this month, today's new review is of a classic holiday chocolate that I would often find under the tree this time of year.  While the chocolates themselves don't really have a holiday theme, they're very much tied to the holidays for me.  Click here to read our Quality Street review.

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Candy In The Media

Man this is a depressing song.  I've learned two things about Dolly Parton listening to this song.  First of all she really gets sad around Christmas time, I mean she's really not that happy at all.  Secondly, I get the feeling that like many people, Dolly Parton does not like hard Christmas candy.  I wonder if she had the same experience as I did.  When I was a kid my mom would put out hard candy at Christmas and most of it wouldn't be touched, then it would sit in the bowl for months, forgotten. Eventually I'd be desperate enough to try and eat some but by then it would have hardened into a solid lump. I'd try and break pieces off, and I'd inevitably cut myself on the hard candy scaring my hands and my interest in Christmas candy forever.

(Thanks to Mark for his song suggestion)

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A Cool Christmas Gingerbread Thing

This seems like something that could be old fashioned, but it might be modern as well.  When I was a kid, and my grandmother used to make a gingerbread house, but she didn't use any kind of cookie cutter, she used a knife and some cookie based architectural skills.  This cookie cutter on the other hand looks like something she would own, but I'm not sure that they had gingerbread house cookie cutters in my grandmother's day.  So I'm asking any cookie historians out there, are gingerbread cutters a new thing, or have they been unearthed in great pioneer settlement archaeological digs?  Was my grandmother a classic baker, or was she just too cheap to buy cutters?

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This Week In Candy

As you read this post I'm presently somewhere in Dubai.  I'm not sure where, but hopefully I've managed to post a few pictures of some of the treats I've discovered and keep any sand out of my ice cream.  So what does this mean for things at candycritic.org this week?  Well the new review is going to be a little bit delayed.  I should be back soon, and I'll try and post it as soon as I get back.  Also next week I'll be sure to post something about this trip, as I'm sure Dubai has some fun and tasty sweet treats.

If my internet connection holds out, then the Snack Facts posts should be going up as usual.  This week we're looking at chocolate, a topic near to my heart right now since I'm presently working on a book about the history of chocolate.  I've decided to share a few quick facts that I've picked up researching this book.  As always you can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, and if you don't do Instagram you can also see the posts on our Twitter or Facebook feeds.

Our other posts this week will all be about Christmas/the Holidays, because it's one of the best times of year to talk about food.  Candy, and snacks have been an important part of my holiday seasons, and I'm always excited to see what the big red man has left me to munch on.  In our Cool Candy Things post I'm continuing to post about awesome gingerbread things.  For Candy In The Media all this month I'm looking at famous Christmas songs that feature candy or sweet treats.

Sorry no new review today, but I'll let you know when it's up later this week.

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Candy In the Media

In an attempt to merge this week's two main themes, Cadbury and Christmas, I searched out Cadbury Christmas commercials.  What I found was pretty interesting.  As it turns out last year was the first time Cadbury had ever produced a commercial for the holiday season.  They've been using print advertising for Christmas for a very long time, as shown by this example:

But this was the first time that they ever produced a commercial for television with a Christmas theme in the more than 180 years that the Cadbury company has been in existence.  You have to give them some credit, television hasn't been around for 180 years.  The first television transmissions didn't start to happen until the 1930s, about 80 or 90 years ago.  Still, Christmas advertising has been a big thing on television for a long time, and it's taken Cadbury, one of the most important global candy brands, many years to come up with a Christmas advertisement.

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Cadbury Proof - Part 2

Photo by Adam Montpetit www.behance.net/amontpetit

Almost 5 years ago I posted a blog about the purchase of Cadbury by Kraft (You can read it here).  I said in this post that I would save a Dairy Milk wrapper that was purchased when Cadbury wasn't owned by Kraft, then in one year I would compare the bars and see if there were any changes made.  Life got in the way and I wasn't able to write the article in one year.  Then after having moved several times, I lost the wrapper.  However, after having moved again recently, I was going through my file drawer and I came across the Dairy Milk wrapper from almost 5 years ago.  It reminded me that I should check up on how Cadbury/Kraft was doing.  See if they've made any great advancements, as well as check to make sure they're not lowering their standards in any way.

Since I'm not living in Canada right now, the place where I bought the original bar, I had to ask around and see if anybody would be willing to help me out by purchasing and photographing a Dairy Milk bar for me in Canada.  Fortunately my friend Adam (check out his awesome photo website here) was happy to oblige.  Probably both to help, and also to have an excuse to eat some chocolate after his photo shoot.  The first picture on this post is of the current state of the Dairy Milk bar in Canada, the photo directly above is of the wrapper from almost 5 years ago.  The wrapper itself has gone through a bit of updating, but I must say not much.  The two glasses of milk are still there, and the logo is almost exactly the same.  The colour of the package may have changed a bit, but that could also be a lighting thing.  The Dairy Milk font has changed a little, and the biggest change is the addition of the giant chocolate jug.  So far this is fairly promising.

Photo by Adam Montpetit www.behance.net/amontpetit

Upon comparing the ingredients, I'm happy to report that the order that they appear is still the same, and there appears to be little or no change to the ingredients.  This doesn't mean that there is definitely no change at all.  Companies are required to list what ingredients are in a bar, not how much of each ingredient is in a bar.  That means that notionally they could lower the amount of cocoa in the bar, and keep the wrapper the same.  The only reason they would have to change the package is if the change affected the ratio of ingredients.  The ingredients are listed from most found in the bar to the least.  So the amount of cocoa would have to change to the point where there was either less cocoa than soy lecithin, or more cocoa than cocoa butter for a change to be required.

I'm also happy to report that they haven't changed the size of the bar either.  I've traveled around and seen "updated" Dairy Milk bars in the shapes of bubbles, and these bars were a few grams lighter than the Canadian Dairy Milk bar.  I was worried that the folks at Kraft had decided that this "new" shape would be the norm all over the world, and that they would shrink the size of the Dairy Milk bar.  But as the bar Adam purchased shows, 42 grams, is exactly the same weight as the one I purchased several years back. It would appear that Kraft is doing well and leaving this classic bar alone.

While I am very happy about the fact that the Dairy Milk bar hasn't changed in Canada, I'm not completely happy with the way Kraft has dealt with Cadbury products.  I was optimistic when the purchase happened that Kraft would try and make Cadbury products more universal.  I was hoping that they might try and move some Cadbury products into new markets and share the wealth.  Caramello Koalas should be available to everyone around the world, not just Australians, and Crunchy bars should be on every store shelf around the world.  Most importantly Cadbury should be available to my neighbors to the south, the Americans.  As far as I know Cadbury is still a specialty item in the US, and that's a shame.  It's about time Americans knew what great chocolate bars taste like, and maybe add a bit of competition into what I consider one of the weakest in quality of chocolate bar markets.

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A Cool Christmas Gingerbread Thing

There are really two ways to look at these gingerbread house molds.  You can see them as cheating, I mean you don't have to cut any gingerbread, or create any textures using icing with these molds.  All you have to do is jam you gingerbread into them, bake, and in no time you'll have the pieces for a detailed and textured gingerbread house.  You also don't have to worry about cutting your pieces perfectly.  How many times have you had to fix a gingerbread house on the fly because you made one wall too short?  So maybe these are the cheaters way, but maybe they're also a door to a really creative candy neighborhood.

Why not make a gingerbread house, then make a jelly house, and next to that a chocolate house.  These silicon molds don't limit you to just one material, you can make a house out of anything you like. At the very least out of something that goes fairly solid.  And why limit yourself to desserts, why not take a little mashed potato, and bake these in the oven till the mashed potato goes hard?  There's really lots of choices for you to make the tastiest neighborhood in your neighborhood

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This Week In Candy

Last week we were all about potato chips, this week we're going to look at one of our favorite chocolate bar manufacturers, Cadbury.  On Thursday we're posting the second part of our long await look at how the purchase of Cadbury by Kraft has affected the brand.  It was almost 5 years ago when Kraft bought the British company, so lets see if they've improved anything.  This week we're also featuring Cadbury in our Snack Facts feed on Instagram.  Check back daily for a new fun fact about how this company came to be a global powerhouse.  If you're not on Instagram you can also check out the feed on our Twitter, and Facebook feeds as well.

Speaking of Snack Facts, we've decided to try a new format for the feed for this week (and probably next week as well).  If you follow us and you love the new format, let us know, you can also let us know if you hate it as well.  We're also thinking about doing a special edition of Snack Facts in the new year with contributions from anybody that might follow us.  So if you know something interesting about a popular snack or fast food, send us a message.

On top of all of all of this Cadbury insanity, we're also going to start with some of our Christmas/Holiday Seasons stuff.  This week on our "Cool Candy Thing" post we're featuring gingerbread making things.  We're going to continue featuring gingerbread things until the end of Christmas, so strap in.  This week's "Candy In The Media" post features both Cadbury and Christmas.

Finally, in the next few days I'm off on another adventure.  If possible I'll post a few shots of any great snacks I find along the way (Check Facebook or Twitter).  I'll also post a round up of all the cool treats I discovered on this adventure, along with a few photographs, on this blog when I get back.

To go with our Cadbury theme week, this week's review is from one of Cadbury's most famous line of chocolate bars, the Dairy Milk bar.  The Dairy Milk bar rarely if ever completely fails, but some are better than others.  Click here to read our latest Dairy Milk review.

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