Butter, Is It Better

Butter is an odd ingredient. I feel like most cookie, cake or general baked treat needs butter to work well. However I imagine that most baked treats don't actually use any real butter at all. From what I know, butter is not really shelf stable, meaning anything made with butter runs the risk of going rancid or mouldy. Yet, when it comes to baked goods, a buttery flavour is something many people really enjoy, myself included. I'll often talk a lot about how buttery a particular cookie or cake is, when trying to decide if I like it or not (the more buttery the better). Having said that, rancid butter is awful, so I probably wouldn't actually want to eat real butter in most of the treats I review. It's a bit of a conundrum really.

Check out my latest cookie review that happens to be butter themed.

I'm Not Happy With Icing, The Oreo Filling Challenge

I decided that the cream in the middle of the Oreo wasn't good enough, even when you flavour it. So my goal is to find out what else could work in an Oreo, the results are both positive and surprising.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Thing That You Should Buy - Grandpa Witmer's Old Fashioned Nut Butter Mixer

It's rare that I post something on this blog that is at all useful, however I would argue that every house in the world should have one of these.

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It's The Video Where I Eat Strange Foods - Tamago Gani (Dried Little Crabs)

I'm going to make a statement that I think a few of you will not like, in fact many of you  might completely disagree with me, there are no good seafood snacks on the market. I can't think of one fish flavoured snack or candy that works. The only exception is candy and snacks that are shaped like seafood, but to not taste like seafood. If I'm wrong, please tell me what I should be trying.

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Most Memorable Candies Reviewed In 2016

2016 has been a pretty big year of change for us at candycritic.org.  Actually it's been a return to lack of change, if you look at it technically.  This is the year we returned home after 6 years away.  The goal, to get back in touch with my Canadian roots, with a few stops in the US to make sure I haven't missed any other North American things.  Because of this change, our reviews have been pretty eclectic as well.  We've had candies from all over the world, but over the last few months, a focus on North America.

I feel like my palette has evolved with living abroad and I look at North American candy a little differently. Sometimes I think I see it as more nostalgic (particularly during the holidays) and sometimes I see it as so advanced and confusing.  It really depends on my mood, and the candy.

This post is all about looking back at old reviews.  I've picked 5 that are not the best or worst, but some of the most memorable reviews of 2016. They're each memorable for different reasons, some good, and some bad but all made me happy that I was a Candy Critic.

Worst Candy - Remember in that paragraph above where I said that this list does not contain the "best or worst" candies, well I kind of lied. This durian candy might be the worst tasting candy I'd eaten all year.  It was so bad that it was memorable, and that's why it's on this list.  If you're not familiar with durian, it's a fruit found in Asia.  This fruit smells so bad, that many airlines will not let you bring them aboard.  I can only describe the smell as being similar to sweaty gym socks, rotten onions, and burning tires.  The connoisseur of this fruit claims that although it smells really bad, the flavour is smooth and creamy. The problem is that the smell is so pungent that it's really hard to taste anything but the gross smell.  Needless to say, these candies while being very gross, pretty much match the fruit perfectly.

Click here to read the Durian Cream Filled Chocolate review.

Craziest Chip That Worked -There seems to be a trend these days of making sweet flavoured potato chips.  Sweet and savory in the potato chip world is nothing new.  When I was a kid I remember tasting my first chocolate covered potato chip, and although it was a delicacy, it was around.  Today we see chocolate covered pretzels and sweet flavoured potato chips at our local corner store.  The chocolate covered snacks work most of the time, the sweet flavoured chips aren't always as successful. These chips not only worked, but they worked in a very unique way.  They combined two flavours that worked together, butter and honey, then mixed them with potato chips.  The butter works with potatoes as well, but this is the first time I've seen it matched with chips, and it works. These chips not only tasted great, but they made me think about new possibilities in potato chip flavours.

Click here to read the Lay's "Honey Butter" review.

Strange And Memorable Candy - I don't know how much I liked, or disliked this candy, but I seem to remember about the adventure of trying to find it.  This candy was bought as a result of me trying to find candy in India.  It was one of our last adventures when we were living abroad, and I wanted to find something that represented our trip to India.  These stick out to me because they remind me of our secondary mission in India, to eat as many different varieties of mango as possible.  That mission was a great success, even thought this candy wasn't.

Click here to read the Mango Papdams review.

Candy Most Likely To Make Me Enjoy Licorice - This candy represents two things for me.  First of all it's a step towards me trying to gain a taste for licorice.  In the last few years, living abroad, I decided to try and change my palette in two ways, one to gain a taste for licorice, and secondly to try and tolerate hotter foods.  Both of these have been fairly successful so far, and I felt that the fact that I kind of liked these chocolate covered licorice candies was proof.  The second thing these candies represented to me was those chance meetings where things go really well.  Allison was in New York at some meetings (I tagged along), and there was a small reception.  I talked to a few people at this reception, often about candy.  I met one man who was from Iceland, and I mentioned to him that I'd never eaten candy from Iceland before.  He mentioned that he happened to have a giant bag of Icelandic candy with him to share with anybody who might be interested.  I ended up leaving with a big bag of puffin eggs and a great story.

Click here to read the Freyju Djupur Sukkuladihjupadur Lakkris (Also known as Puffin Eggs) review.

Most Surprising Variety - It's very rare that a "normal" candy makes my list of most memorable, but these Skittles really worked well.  First of all I first tried them in the fall, actually I first tried them while walking through Gatineau park in Quebec while walking a trail during the fall.  Gatineau park is world famous for the beautiful fall colours, and this day did not fail.  I was walking along eating these Skittles and the flavour just worked so perfectly.  Even though a few of them aren't orchard fruit from where I live. The fruit choice was perfect, and the timing was perfect.  This doesn't always happen when I'm eating candy, but when it does it's truly magical.

Click here to read the Skittles "Orchards" review.

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A New Butter Friendly T-Shirt

Butter Not Margarine Shirt by Bewareshirts
Browse Butter T-Shirts online at Zazzle.com

We just finished designing this awesome new t-shirt that will allow anyone to proclaim their love for the tastiest fat in the world, butter.

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Hagelslaging

Every time I try and explain hagelslag to my friends who have never tasted it before, there's a great misunderstanding.  This misunderstanding comes from the idea that hagelslag and cheap candy sprinkles are the same thing.  Before I even start this article I want to explain one thing, they are two very different things.  A good quality hagelslag may look like sprinkles, but they're much more chocolaty, and much softer.  This is important because if you were to put sprinkles on toast with butter, sprinkles don't melt, however hagelslag does.  Hagelslag also adds a chocolaty flavour to the butter and toast, where as cheap sprinkles do not.

For the experiment today I've tasted 5 different varieties of hagelslag mady by De Ruyter.  The hagelslag purists will probably argue that only two of the varities I'm tasting today are real hagelslag, however I'm curious about how this treat can be expanded. To taste test each variety I took two slices of bread cut into 6 sections.  One of the slices had been toasted, while the other had not.  I'd put butter on each section, and then quickly added a generous sprinkle of hagel.  I'd also left one piece on each slice with just plain butter, mostly because I only had 5 varieties of hagel to choose from.

The first variety of hagelslag that I sampled was the Melk (or milk chocolate) variety.  If you ask any hagelslag purist, this is really the way to go.  I would tend to agree, as you'll see by the end of this article.  This is a pretty safe place to put the bar when it comes to hagelslag, as it's tasty, and it melts just perfectly on the toasted bread.  I will say that when you compare the toasted bread to the non-toasted bread, toasting is a great improvement.  I'm not sure how the purist stand on this subject, but I don't think I'll be eating much more hagelslag on un-toasted bread in the future.

The next variety I sampled was the Puur (or dark chocolate) variety.  Now you can see from the photo that these hagelslags (?) are much darker than the milk chocolate variety.  Unfortunately this is about the only difference I could really taste.  I was so convinced that there was no difference that I decided to taste test the Melk and Puur hagelslag without the bread, to see if I could find any difference.  As it turns out there is a subtle difference between the two, however with the butter and bread this difference doesn't come through at all.  I will say that I don't dislike the Puur hagelslag, however it's a little disappointing that it's so similar to its cousin.  A nice dark chocolate flavour probably would have worked very well with salty butter and crunchy toast.

The next hagelslag that I sampled was not so much sprinkles as curls of chocolate.  One would think that as a chocolate fan I would have enjoyed this even more, but strangely I didn't.  I found that the quality of the chocolate wasn't that great, it's not bad, but it didn't seem to melt that much on the toasted bread.  Melted chocolate on toasted bread sounds like a great idea, unfortunately this doesn't deliver.  Because it's just curled chocolate, it also doesn't have the same novelty as the traditional hagelslag either.  The chocolate quality just didn't deliver, and the novelty wasn't that impressive.  I think I may save a few of these and put it on the next chocolate sundae I make for myself instead.

Much like the dark chocolate traditional hagelslag, these dark chocolate curls were also a disappointment.  They had a very subtle difference in flavour from their milk chocolate cousins, but again with the toast and butter this difference was totally lost.  I think De Ruyter could have gone for a really dark bitter chocolate instead and that would have worked so well.  I imagine that this dark chocolate is probably in the 50% area at best, where I think a 80% cocoa chocolate would have done wonders.  This also suffered from the same problems as the milk chocolate curls in that they didn't really melt that much on the toast.

This is probably the point of the article where I'm going to lose a whole bunch of you.  Of the five different kinds of hagelslag that I sampled for this article, this was probably my second favorite.  While the chocolate curls, and the dark chocolate hagelslag disappointed me, this didn't.  It surprised me in so many ways that I was actually pretty impressed.  First of all the flavour took me back to my childhood, and that's because these tasted exactly like Fruity Pebbles cereal.  Secondly the creativity to make fruit flavoured hagelslag is pretty daring and out of the box.  Finally the texture and flavour worked really well, particularly on the toasted bread.  I'm sure after writing this I'll never be allowed in the Netherlands again, but what can I say, I love fruity treats.

Hagelslag is probably the least known, and under appreciated treat to come out of the Netherlands.  I'm not really sure why we don't see hagelslag on every store shelf around the world.  It could be because of the deluge of cheap sprinkles sold all over the world, or it could be that the Dutch just don't want to share.

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A Cool Candy Thing

8-Bit Popcorn Tee Shirt by candycritic
Create a t-shirt.

Since we're featuring popcorn this week on our Instagram feed Snack Facts, I thought it would be a good idea to show off a t-shirt I designed a while back featuring the best popped snack ever thought of by the human race.  Popcorn is one of my go to snacks, and for some reason I can't resist the stuff whenever I'm watching a movie (at home or at a theater).  Best of all is how versitile this snack is, you can put sweet stuff on popcorn, salty stuff, and best of all, it tastes best with butter.  I mean what other snack tastes so much better with butter.  So show your popcorn pride, and pick up a T-shirt.

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Friday Candy Video

I don't think you'll ever see a modern company use the words "butter drenched" and "nutritious" in the same sentence.  While I do believe that popcorn is one of the healthier snacks you can enjoy, I don't think anything drenched in butter can be considered "nutritious".

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Popcorn, The Worlds Most International, Well Known Snack?

In my travels all over the world, sampling every snack I could get my hands on, I've noticed that one snacks is more prevalent globally than others.  Certain brands are most certainly available all over the place, M&Ms, Kit Kat, and Mars Bars, are pretty common no matter where you go.  But this hasn't been that way until very recently.  For example, when I traveled through Singapore airport last winter I ventured into the M&Ms store. There they told me that this store was the first place in the country to sell M&Ms, and that store's only been open for a few years.

There is one snack food that I've seen in every country I've ever set foot.  As far as I know this snack food is available everywhere in the world (although I could be wrong since have yet to travel to every country).  This snack food is popcorn.

Popcorn has been around for a very long time.  In fact some archaeologists have found evidence of popcorn going back more than six thousand years.  These early findings were found in Peru, and it makes sense.  At the time this culture used corn as a primary food source, so it only makes sense that they would explore different varieties and different ways to prepare it.  In North America popcorn became popular during times of crisis (the wars or during the depression).  When food was becoming expensive (or had to be rationed) popcorn was a great inexpensive way to snack.

Today we see popcorn everywhere, and I imagine that it has a lot to do with the reasons why it gained in popularity in North America.  Popcorn is cheap and easy to transport, so in places where corn may not be easy to grow, you can still have popcorn.  The shelf life for popcorn can be months, so transportation is very easy.  Finally preparation of popcorn takes a little oil and some heat, and that's it.

Popcorn is also a very versatile snack, it can take salty, sweet, or even spicy very well.  This allows any culture the ability to take this food, and make it their own.  I have to admit though, most of the time when I see popcorn it comes covered in a butter like substance.  I imagine that the theater culture is what provokes the idea that popcorn is best with butter.  It's not only in the theaters, but also on the big screen that has created the connection between popcorn and the movies.  Many films that show people in theaters will include the popcorn bucket as a prop.  I'm sure someone seeking out a conspiracy theory might find this to be a little ironic.

Popcorn is truly a universal treat, and I think there are several reasons why.  It's versatile, cheap, stores well, and it's been around for a long time.  In all my travels I have yet to find a country that doesn't have popcorn available either at a theater or from a street vendor.  Sometimes the flavours, and toppings vary, but the basic snack is always the same.  I think that popcorn might be the most popular snack in the entire world.

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It's National Popcorn Day!!!

Sometimes I prefer to have my popcorn covered in sweet caramel, other times a little salt and butter is just right.  On some occasions I'll even go for a wacky flavoured popcorn, but not that often.  I'm convinced that popcorn is one of the more versatile treats, but did you know it's also good in tea.  Some strong green Japanese teas have popcorn in them to help reduce the bitter flavour.  Try it yourself some day, if you have some tea that's a little too bitter for you, throw in a few pieces of popped popcorn when you start brewing, you'll be amazed by the results.

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Spreads - Butter

I just finished an art piece for bewarethecheese.com's fine art gallery "Senses". For this piece I had to photograph, and eventually eat more than 40 different spreads.  I've decided to post a little something about each spread that I sampled. 

Did you know that the melting point of butter is around 40 degrees?  Butter is probably the most common thing that I put on bread, although I don't put it on bread all of the time.  I pretty much just put it on either plain toast, or toast with jam, but I eat both of those very often.

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The Best Way to Eat Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Part 4 With Butter

All this week we will be presenting you 5 great ways to enjoy your chocolate hazelnut spread fix.  Sure I could have simply said "5 great ways to enjoy your Nutella fix", but there are so many more brands of this stuff and I figured this would be a little more fair.  For the most part people only really think about eating this stuff spread on bread, or sometimes in a crepe, but I've discovered some other great places to smear this stuff.

This idea isn't as much a "new way" to eat chocolate hazelnut spread, but instead an addition to the classic way.  It's a simple addition, and maybe most of you already do this.  Allison is fanatical about making sure that every piece of bread she eats has a layer of butter on it.  She even goes so far as to butter her chocolate hazelnut spread toast with butter.

The thing is, it's actually really tasty.  For those of you out there that really like sweet mixed with salty, this is something you really should try.  It's simple enough to make, and it changes the flavour of this classic combination so much.

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What's In Theater Food?

According to this article the FDA wants theater concession stands to display the nutritional value of their treats.  I have to say what's fair is fair, and if candy bars, fast food restaurants and many other food producers have to display them then theaters should not be excepted.  However, I don't want people to freak out when they notice how much fat and carbs are in these treats next time they go to the theater.  I want you to ignore the ingredient lists and continue eating as usual. I want you to do this because if you're deluding yourself into thinking that any of the concession foods are healthy then the shock might do more damage than the butter on your popcorn.

Click here to read the article.

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Happy National Popcorn Day

This evening I have a plan.  My plan is to invite my buddy Alex over to my house, purchase a large amount of junk food, and watch cartoons and movies.  Now to make sure this day is appropriately festive, I'll have to make sure that popcorn is served.  The problem is decided what kind of popcorn treat I should deliver.

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Health And Butter

For many years I've heard so many conflicting theories about the health of butter and other fats. This post on Boing Boing has got to be one of the best "Will eating a half a stick of butter a day make you smarter?"

Click here to read more.

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Chocolate Lobster

I just got an e-mail from the folks at the Bath Sweet Shoppe all about their chocolate lobsters. Now according to them “Out Chocolate Lobster Dinner, while awesome, does not contain actual lobster.” But it looks really cool either way. I like the extra accessories the most; the butter, corn, and lemon are all candy and edible too. Apparently it also comes with a bib, which would be good for me… actually with the way I eat snacks I could probably use a bib all the time.

Click here to check out their site.

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