This Week In Candy

Hey everybody, we're back from India.  It was a really epic adventure, and I really learned a lot about the culture, the beauty, and in particular the food of this great place.  We traveled mainly in the northern parts of the country, starting in the mountains, and working our way as far south as Agra.  The diversity of foods in this huge country is amazing, and we tried to sample as much as possible.

That means that this week we're going to be posting a lot about this trip.  First of all we're going to write up a post in this very blog giving you our overview of our culinary experiences.  We hope to have that online this Thursday.  We also managed to record a special on the road episode of Junk Fud On The Road at the end of our trip.  We hope to have that edited and ready to go ASAP (we also owe you guys an episode of Junk Fud News from last month, which we'll record this week). We're also going to start posting 4.5 (I believe) episode series of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! this week, all about some of the strange (and even tasty) things we tried on this trip.

The one thing we're not giving you this week is Snack Facts, we're a little busy sorting through everything from our India trip, but it will be back next week for sure.  But if you need a daily fix of us, I'm talking to you mom (and likely no one else), just like every other epic trip, we're ending this one with a review-a-thon.  As you might have guessed, an all Indian candy review-a-thon.  Speaking of which...

Today's first entry into our Indian review-a-thon is in a treat category that I didn't expect to find in the middle of summer in India, chocolate bars.  I thought that considering this is one of the warmest countries in the world, that chocolate might be hard to find, but I was wrong.  Indians love chocolate, and it's found all over the place.  The big popular brand is Cadbury, as is demonstrated with today's review.  Click here to read today's new review, and to keep up with our Indian review-a-thon you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, or just visit this page every day.

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Candy In The Media

I sure hope my flight home goes better than this.

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A New Candy Critic T-Shirt Thing

Gummy Bear Love T-shirt by candycritic
Browse Gummy T-Shirts

We just made a t-shirt from our fun little love poem all about gummy bears.

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This Week In Candy

Well we're still in India... I assume.  Frankly I'm writing this in advance and I can only assume that we're in India having a good time. You probably know better than me since you can check our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr) and check if everything is going as well as I'd hoped.

Last week I told you all about the stuff we would and wouldn't be posting while we're gone, I'm assuming that everything is going to plan.  I also assume that I've eaten too much food, and that I've been coned into eating food that's too hot.  It's always like that in places that serve spicy foods, they tell you it's "not too hot", and then you end up scorching your insides. Worst of all is I'm too Canadian (polite) to spit it out, so I just suffer.

We'll be back soon with more tales to tell, for now you can enjoy a video of Indians trying American candies:


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Candy In The Media

I have no idea what's going on in this commercial.

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A Bright, and Not Squishy, Candy Thing

If I owned this light, it'd probably have a bite in it after the first week.

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This Week In Candy

Hey everybody, this week we're in India, likely eating way too much spicy food, which in my mind is any spicy food. We're going to be away for a while, so that means two things, a few things at Candy Critic will be off till we're back, and there's likely a bunch of posts on our social media about what we're discovering on this trip.

The stuff that's off for the next few weeks is as follows:  There will be no updated reviews while we're gone, however there will likely be a bunch of Indian candy reviews when we get back (assuming that Allison lets be get a bunch of candy).  Snack Facts (our Instagram feed) will no longer be daily, instead it'll be random, and it will contain random facts we learn as we're on our Indian adventure.  We're also not going to post any new episodes of Junk Fud (our podcast) or Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!. When we get back we'll have a new episode of Junk Fud On The Road about this trip, and we might find some fun things to try for future episodes of Chris, Whey Would You Eat That?!!.

What will we have for you while we're gone?  Well this post's gone up, and This Week In Candy will continue to post while we're gone, although these have all been written in advance.  We'll also continue to post our cool Candy Thing posts on Wednesday, and Candy In The Media on Friday (while we're gone it's a tribute to Indian candy commercials).  Most importantly I'm sure we'll be posting on all of our social media about the food and fun times we're having on this trip.  You can follow our adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and when we get back we'll post a blog with a recap of everything we've learned on this trip.

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Candy In The Media

I'm hoping every well in India has a bucket of Coke at the bottom, although I seriously doubt it.

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Marshmallows Vs Circus Peanuts (Part 1?) The Rice Krispie Challenge

Are Circus Peanuts marshmallows?  This is a question that crossed my mind recently.  I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a marshmallow expert and her opinion was that Circus Peanuts are not.  One person that might disagree with that Circus Peanuts are not marshmallows is John Holahan, the creator of Lucky Charms. The story is that he chopped up Circus Peanuts into a bowl of Cheerios, and Lucky Charms was born (I tried doing this myself, and you can read about it here).  According to the advertising, Lucky Charms contains marshmallows, so therefore some might consider Circus Peanuts to be marshmallows.

It's a difficult thing to really nail down, but recently I was inspired.  I thought the best way to find out if Circus Peanuts are in fact marshmallows is to compare them physically.  Sure I could do some science like stuff and compare the ingredients, but I have a better idea.  Why not try and find out if Circus Peanuts act like marshmallows.  After all if it has feathers and quacks, then it's a duck.

For my first experiment I've decided to see if Circus Peanuts work in a recipe that's tied closely with marshmallows, Rice Krispie Treats.  I'm going to make two batches of Rice Krispie Treats, one with normal fresh marshmallows, and one with an equal amount (in weight) of Circus Peanuts.

The first thing one notices when comparing the two ingredients is the way they melt.  Or more to the point, the way Circus Peanuts don't really melt.  The marshmallows melt very evenly and turn into a creamy liquid.  The Circus Peanuts do melt a bit, but they're much more globby. They also take a bit longer to melt.  In fact when I started melting the Circus Peanuts I was convinced they wouldn't melt at all and the experiment would be a bust fairly soon.

The thing is, the Circus Peanuts did eventually melt, but I'm not certain it's because of a gelatin breaking down in the heat, I'm thinking it has more to do with the sugar melting.  This means that if you're trying this experiment at home yourself, keep an eye on your Circus Peanuts because if it's the sugar melting than it's likely going to burn fairly quickly.

Eventually I managed to get both to a decent enough consistency that I could add the Rice Krispies.  With the marshmallows it only takes a few stirs to get them to blended perfectly with the Rice Krispies.  The Circus Peanuts were a bit more of an effort.  I also didn't end up needing as many Rice Krispies for the amount of Circus Peanuts I was using.

Putting the marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats into a pan is sticky, but fairly easy (particularly if you're liberal with the butter).  The Circus Peanuts were a bit more challenging, but manageable.  I should mention that I was really surprised that the Circus Peanuts worked this well, I thought they wouldn't make it our of the pot.  I eventually managed to flatten both batches of Rice Krispie Treats, however the marshmallow ones looked much more blended.

After letting them cool for about half an hour, it was time to taste.  The marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats were smooth, and each bit of Rice Krispie was coated in a fine coating of melted marshmallow. They were also very chewy, not hard.  The Circus peanuts were certainly not as well coated, and most interesting is that they were kind of hard.  It was as if the Circus Peanuts turned into a slightly chewy hard candy.  The Circus Peanuts stuck together a lot better than I thought they would, with only a few loose Rice Krispies in the bottom of the pan.

Flavour wise I was pretty happy with both treats.  I've always loved Rice Krispie Treats made with marshmallows, in fact they're my favourite way to eat marshmallows. The Circus Peanut Rice Krispie Treats were not bad either.  The cereal gave the normally strange texture of the Circus Peanuts a bit of a crunch, which is good.  It also killed the flavour of the Circus Peanuts a bit, and that's not a bad thing either.

While we  certainly can't say that marshmallows and Circus Peanuts are exactly the same, I wouldn't say that the difference is totally clear either.  At this point I would say that Circus Peanuts might be a marshmallow, but of a different breed.  I may have to try a few other experiments before I say for sure. Fortunately both Circus Peanuts and marshmallows are very abundant.  My only problem is coming up with more experiments.  I'm thinking next I may try and roast them on an open fire.

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A Take Care Of Your Lips Candy Thing - Part 4 - Candy (Seriously Just Candy)

If you want to kiss a candy fanatic, this is the way to do it.

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The Latest Episode Of Junk Fud On The Road Is All About Belgium

In this latest episode of Junk Fud On The Road, Chris and Allison take a look at a land that's known for some of the best junk food in the world.  In fact it's the birthplace of a junk food staple.

Click here to listen to past episodes from the Junk Fud podcast.

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This Week In Candy

The food poisoning from last week is finally gone.  I can't say that we're 100% healthy, but we're (Allison got sick too) getting stronger every day.  We're also finally eating regular meals, and regular desserts as well. This is perfect timing, because we're just about to head off on our next adventure, India.  I've never been to India before, but it is a foodie destination, and there are lots of sweet treats that I'm very excited to try. I can't say that I'm not a little worried about getting food poisoning again, but I'll just have to be a little bit careful.  Anybody out there have any suggestions on must try treats in India?

This week we're making up for lost time.  First and foremost we're going to post a new episode of Junk Fud On the Road.  It should have been online two week's ago, but talking about food when you have food poisoning is no fun at all.  Because of the food poisoning incident, we won't have a new episode of Junk Fud History this month.  This week however we're going to post a special article, possibly the first in a sporadic series where we compare marshmallows to Circus Peanuts.  For this article we're comparing the two soft treats in how well they work in Rice Krispie Treats.  Check back later this week to see how the Circus Peanuts compared.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at Tim Horton's.  Every day this week we'll post a new fun fact about my favorite doughnut shop.  You can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This week's review was a gift from some friends of mine who just returned from a trip to Australia.  They picked me up a few treats, but these "Pods" intrigued me.  In the end they turned out to be the most disappointing treat I've ever loved.  Click here to find out why.

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Candy in the Media

If you've got yourself some molten copper and a giant jawbreaker, then why wouldn't you forge pennies and eat the jawbreaker?

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A Take Care Of Your Lips Candy Thing - Part 3 - Caramel Apple

I think that this would be the perfect lip balm for Trick or Treaters.

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This Week In Candy

What a week it was last week... I've talked about getting food poisoning on this site before, I've talked about it on the podcast (Junk Fud) a few times, last week was not good.  People often tell me that I'm the luckiest guy in the world (and I don't argue), but people also tell me that being a food and travel writer must be all fun (it's a lot of fun), but there are some pretty heavy drawbacks.  The biggest drawback of being a food and travel writer is getting sick because you travel (or eat crazy foods). Last week Allison and I stopped in a third world country's truck stop and ordered what we thought would be the safest menu item.  We were very wrong. Yesterday was the first time we'd stepped out of the house in 6 days, before that we barely ever left our beds.  We're not perfect yet, but we're starting to get things back on track.


So what needs to get back on track?  Well first of all I haven't mentioned on this blog that we've posted the latest episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!  Rather than post it later this week, you'll see that it's embedded above.  Along with my food poisoning, I seem to have caught a bit of a cough.  Someone a while back sent me an interesting cure for a cough from days of yore.  So this week we'll be taping another episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! where I'll try this "cure".

Fortunately we had prearranged all of our posts for last week in advance, so nothing was missed.  We didn't unfortunately get to record a new episode of Junk Fud, our podcast.  We're going to try and make up for lost time, but that means that this month the podcasts may come out a little sporadically.  We're also going to continue to work on a few future blog articles this week. We're also finishing up our plans for our next adventure, which is a trip through India... Gotta be honest, after the food poisoning, I'm a little afraid (surprise me India, please).

This week on Snack Facts, or Instagram feed, we're looking at the Toblerone bar.  Probably one of the most unique bars, shape wise, and also known to be very high quality.  Make sure to check back every day this week to learn something new about this triangular bar.  You can follow Snack Facts on Twitter, Facebook, and of course Instagram.

I was sick last week, so I have to admit that this latest review was one I had lined up from a while back.  When I picked the review for this week, I thought, "what would make me feel better?" The first thing that came to mind was chocolate. So this week's review is a treat with a really unique, chocolate experience. You can read all about it here.

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Candy In The Media

This cake just blew my mind.

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Candy Critic Dessert Club – The Simplest Recipe Ever - Banana Ice Cream

This is probably the simplest dessert you'll ever make, it's not necessarily a fast dessert, particularly because you have to wait for it to chill, but the ingredients can be very simple.  The part where this recipe can get complicated is totally in your control.  The base ingredient, banana, is all you "need", anything after that is up to you, and can be as complicated as you want.  The other great thing about this recipe is for those out there with lactose intolerance, it's ice cream with no cream.

The Ingredients:

2 or 3 heaping tablespoon fulls of Nutella, or 2 or 3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter, or a generous amount of coaco powder, or half a cup of walnuts... pretty much anything you can think of that would work to flavour ice cream.
5 Bananas

You'll also need a blender.

That's it.

The first part of this recipe is probably the most complicated part.  There are two things that might make this harder than it needs to be.  The first is your bananas, the riper your bananas the better.  If you find yourself with a bunch of bananas that seem to be going bad, but you don't have time to make this recipe, I recommend peeling them, and putting them in the freezer.  Then when you're ready to make your banana ice cream, thaw them out and put them in your blender.  If you're making this with "fresh" ripe bananas simply put them in the blender.  The consistency of your bananas is key for the first part of this recipe.  If your bananas are not ripe enough you'll run into some problems with your blender.  If your bananas aren't that ripe, but you still want to make this ice cream, chop up your bananas and ad them to your blender.  It may take a little while longer to blend them, and you may have to push them down a few times before everything starts to come together.

The second "difficult" part of this recipe is all about what you put in it.  If you love bananas, stop after you've blended the bananas and you're good.  If you want to ad more to the recipe there are several options.  My favorites are peanut butter and Nutella.  Both of these ingredients ad a lot of flavour to the ice cream and blend really well.  If you're worried about sugar, you can simply ad cocoa powder, and that works fairly well.  I've never tried this, but vanilla, berries, or anything soft would probably work as well.  Once you've got the soft ingredients blended to a soupy consistency, you can ad anything for texture, if you'd like.  Crushed walnuts or hazelnuts work, marshmallows might be fun too.  Blend your hard ingredients, but only for a few pulses of your blender.  You could also just mix them around with a spoon or spatula if you'd like as well.

Once your ingredients are all mixed together, take the wonderful banana soup and put it in a freezer friendly container with a lid.  Put the container in your freezer, and in a few hours, depending on how cold your freezer is, you'll have ice cream.  If your freezer is really cold, it may come out very hard (since there's no air injected into it).  If that's the case, simply microwave your ice cream for about 15 to 20 seconds to soften it up.  No matter what you'll taste banana in this ice cream, but with some nice additional ingredients it can be so much more.

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A Take Care Of Your Lips Candy Thing - Part 2 - Cupcake

What's the difference between cupcake lip balm and regular cake lip balm, let me know?

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This Week In Candy

Every so often Allison has to go on a business trip.  Sometimes I accompany Allison on these trips.  Sometimes I end up checking out all of the local attractions and sites, but sometimes... Sometimes I lock myself in the hotel room and work on my writing.  I might work on my latest book, I may write a few blogs, I might even work on a few articles about travel. I generally just try and catch up on all the writing that I've procrastinated about over the last few months (or maybe years).  So here I am, in a hotel room writing.  The idea of locking yourself in a hotel to "write" is a very romantic notion, it sometimes doesn't really end up being that romantic, but I almost always get some work done.

So what does that mean for anybody reading this blog?  Well it means that there will be some content in the future. I'm going to polish up a few articles that I'm posting later this summer.  In particular I'm going to write a series on treats that I have a huge number of varieties (like Kit Kat), and I'm also going to write a glossary of terms in the candy world.  Both of these should be going online later this summer.  I'm also going to write a few episodes of Junk Fud History, our podcast all about the history of certain junk foods.  Finally I'm polishing up a few recipes that I'll post with the monthly installment of the Dessert Club (posted right here on this very blog).

This week things should be fairly normal, except for the fact that I'll be posting about my hotel lock down on our social media sites.  So far it's pretty much just me sitting at a laptop, but I'm sure craziness will ensue, after all, housekeeping could come by at any moment...  Also, later this week we'll be posting a new episode of our hi-larious YouTube show Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! This week Chris (that's me) tries to eat a basket of random brown lumps.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're staring into the rainbow.  We're looking at food colouring (or as you Americans would spell "food coloring"). Every day this week we'll post an interesting fact about the things that change the colour of our foods.  You can follow snack facts on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Even though we're away, we still have a new review for you.  This week we're looking at a variety of Aero bar, the strawberry Aero.  I'm never really sure if candy companies are trying to "improve" their bars, or just put out a second rate copy.  Find out where I stand when it comes to this particular treat by clicking here.

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Candy In The Media

This might be the answer to the Caramilk secret.

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A Take Care Of Your Lips Candy Thing - Part 1 - Pepsi

The problem with using Pepsi flavoured lip balm is that it would make you crave a drink all day long.

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Candy In The Media

Good morning Candy Critic followers!  This week on Candy Critic it's all going to be about you.  This week we're dedicating ourselves to articles for this blog, and for the podcasts as well.  We're collecting all of our ideas that we've been dreaming up and finishing them, or at the very least getting them started.  I'm taking a week off of writing my latest book in order to focus on what's important, this blog.  We're going to work on a few articles that will be posted later this summer, a few articles that will be posted fairly soon, and enough podcasts/videos to make sure we get well ahead of the game.  All this week you're going to see posts on Facebook and Twitter with quick previews of what we're working on.

On the blog this week, we've got lots going on as well.  This Wednesday we're posting the first of this months Candy Things dedicated to lip balm.  It's amazing how the candy and lip balm world have crossed over with crazy sweet inspired flavours.  We're also going to post the latest episode of the Junk Fud Podcast, Junk Fud News.  We're going to look back at the month of April and all of the amazing junk food news that came out.  This week we're also finishing up our epic review-a-thon-a-thon with a bang, but we'll have more about that below.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at Rice Krispie Treats.  Every day this week we're going to post a fun fact about these crunchy, sticky squares. It's inspired from one of the articles we're working on right now.  You can follow Snack facts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

This is the last week of our epic review-a-thon-a-thon, and we're ending big.  Instead of just one review every day this week, we're going to post two.  It's going to be a mix of treats from all over the world. By the end of this week we'll have ten new reviews online, and likely sore teeth.  You can read the latest review right here, and you can check out the rest of the reviews by following us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, or Pinterest.

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A New Episode of Junk Fud And You Is Online

On this special episode of Junk Fud, I had the honor of chatting with Ming Chen, star of AMC's Comic Book Men.  Ming is not only a comic book fanatic, but he loves to eat.  He travels around the US seeking out restaurants and local "holes in the wall" to experience all the flavours he can.  In this episode Ming talks about how comics and candy are linked together, and how to find a great local eatery.

Click here to listen to the lastest episode of Junk Fud And You.

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Candy in the Media

The chip clip and cookie fork trick are both pretty awesome.

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A Button Pushing Candy Thing Part 4 - Chew On This.

Exactly how many pieces of gum would you need left before you pushed this button?

Every Wednesday this month we're featuring a snack themed Dash Button from Amazon. Dash Buttons allow you to order your snack fix with the push of a button.

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This Week In Candy

This is a week full of potential.  This week is feeling like a giant jaw breaker, it could be filled with gum, or it could be filled with an infinite number of candy layers.  Either way it's going to be an adventure I'm sure.

In the next 4 or 5 months I have two adventures planned, both are pretty epic, one is going to change my life... again.  The epic adventure that's not life changing is happening soon, and it's going to be a trip to India.  India is a country known for flavour, and spicy food.  I'm excited about the flavour, I'm terrified of the spicy food. Any suggestions for must try meals and treats are greatly appreciated.  The second life changing adventure?.. You'll hear more about that when the time is right.

This week we're going to be doing a little prep work for the Indian adventure, booking hotels, and making sure the plants here don't die.  We'll also be doing some podcasting this week.  It looks like we'll be recording two podcasts this week (if everything lines up), one will be our monthly look back at what's been going on in the junk food world in what we call Junk Fud News.  The other is a special episode of our not so regular series called Junk Fud And You.  If all goes well you'll be pleasantly surprised with some entertaining talk about junk food.

As always we're working on lots of articles for the Candy Critic blog as well. We're going to be recording a new episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! featuring a pretty strange looking basket of brown randomness.  We're also working on a new series of articles that we hope to have up later this summer, we're going to look at the many versions of classic treats that some candy companies come up with.  We're also going to start work on a new video series where we'll look back at classic treats and re-review them.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at one of the most famous sandwiche in the world, the hamburger.  Ever day this week we're posting a fun fact about the BBQ specialty.  You can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

This week's review-a-thon is part 3 of our epic Candy Review-A-Thon-A-Thon.  This week we're going to post a new review every day from a country you may not think about when you talk about candy, Pakistan.  Every day this week we'll post a new candy review from a place that is mystirious, beautiful, and in the news a lot.  Today we're starting with a bar where the main ingredient is a complete mystery to me.  Click here to read the review, and if you can help me identify the ingredient, that would be great too.  You can keep up with all of our new review's for this epic Review-A-Thon-A-Thon by following  us on Facebook, Twiiter, Tumblr, Google +, or Pineterest.

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Candy in the Media

Cheesecake is probably the cake with the most regret.  You want to eat 13 slices in one sitting, but you know after the second you'll only feel regret.

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A Button Pushing Candy Thing Part 3 - What's Popin' Orville?

I think it would be ironic to use this Dash Button to order popcorn that you would then pop in a pot on your stove. It would be old and new school snacking together at last.

Every Wednesday this month we're featuring a snack themed Dash Button from Amazon. Dash Buttons allow you to order your snack fix with the push of a button.

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A New Episode Of Chris Why Would You Eat That?!!

We just posted a new episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! where Chris "enjoys" a candy coated nut of some kind... likely an almond.

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This Week In Candy

Good morning all.  It's another week of sweet tooth fun here at candycritic.org.  It's also another week of review-a-thon fun with our on going review-a-thon-a-thon.  A regular review-a-thon is a week were we'll post a new review every day for a week, a review-a-thon-a-thon is where we post new reviews every day for 4 weeks.  Last week was fun reviews of gummy treats, this week we're featuring a particular candy, Original Champion toffees.  These are toffees that we collected on our trip to Southern Africa, and we just haven't gotten around to posting these reviews since.  There are 5 different flavours of Champion Original Toffee, and we've reviewed each and every on of them.

This week we'll also be posting a new episode of our "hit" YouTube show, Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!.  This week I sample a sugar coated nut that although weird, wasn't as gross as I thought it would be.  This is a problem I've thought about on this show.  Since everything I sample on Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! is something I've never eaten before, what happens if I like it.  This week's treat I could hardly call something I "like", but it wasn't too bad.  We've got a few more treats, snacks, and general foods coming up, and we're also thinking about inviting special guests for future episodes.  Make sure to follow us on YouTube so you'll know exactly when we post a new episode, as well as new episodes of our podcast Junk Fud.

Allison and I are also planning another adventure, an adventure that might have an on the spot episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! I don't want to say where we're going yet, but I will tell you that it's a place with very polarizing foods.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at Japanese candy.  Probably one of the most popular nations for producing weird candy, Japan has changed the way we think about snacking.  Make sure to check back every day this week for a new fun Japanese candy fact.  You can follow Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, as well as our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

As mentioned above, this week's new review is the first in our Original Champion Toffee review-a-thon.  Today's flavour is pretty strange as toffees go, and it didn't really work out.  You can click here to read why this candy didn't really work, and follow us on any of our social media sites to keep up with this week's review-a-thon. (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google +, and Pinterest)

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Candy In The Media

I could watch people make candy all day long. This is one of the best videos I've seen on the subject.

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New Episode of Junk Fud History Is Online!!!

This week's episode of Junk Fud History takes a look back at an American classic, the Jolly Rancher candy.  It's probably one of the least fancy candies, yet it's a real classic.

Click here to check out the latest episode, as well as some of our past episodes.

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Candy Critic Dessert Club - Inventing a Cookie That I Call Frank.

Or at least I think I invented a cookie.  Yesterday I woke up with an idea, I wanted to invent a cookie.  Nothing ground breaking, but just something that I've never tried before.  You might read this and say "hey, I've made that cookie before it's called a "insert name of cookie here"".  The thing is, I haven't.  I've never eaten or heard of a cookie that is like the one I invented.  I took some cookie basics, switched a few things up (both in ingredients and in process) and baked my heart out.  I asked my friends what I should call this cookie, and only one person responded, so until I get a better idea this cookie will be known as "Frank".

Ingredients

2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of unsalted butter (soft and warm)
3/4 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup whole walnuts
175 grams of dark chocolate (Lindt 70%)

You'll also need two average sized bowls, one mixing bowl, a mixer, a cookie sheet, several things to stir with, measuring cups, and tinfoil. There may be a few other things you'll need, but I'll cover those below.

In one of the small bowl mix the flour with the salt and baking soda.  This is simple enough and requires a quick stir and nothing else.  Set that bowl aside. Then take your dark chocolate and put it in a Ziploc bag and beat the hell out of it with a meat tenderizer or hammer.  You want the chocolate to be as small as you can get it, and let out a little frustration while you're at it.  Second, take the walnuts and chop the heck out of them in your food processor.  You can chop them into dust, or if you get bored you can leave a few chunky surprises, but for the most part pulverize those nuts.  Empty the nuts into your second average bowl and put the pounded chocolate into the food processor and pulverize them as well.  Again you can leave a few chunky bits as surprises, but you want most of it to be very small bits.  Ad that chocolate to the bowl with the walnuts.

Next, take out your mixer on a low setting and ad the butter, start whipping it a little and slowly ad the white sugar.  Keep going until the butter and sugar are bonded well (creamed), and then add the maple syrup.  Keeping mixing with your mixer until the maple syrup is mixed in, then ad your vanilla.  Then ad one egg at a time, keeping the mixer at a fairly low speed.  Once everything is nicely mixed together, in other words once it becomes one mass as opposed to being made up of ingredients, start adding the flour mixture slowly.  Keep mixing until all of the flour has been added and is mixed in well.  You'll probably need a spatula to work the sides, unless you have an awesome mixer.

Once it's all one glob of cookie greatness we'll no longer need the mixer.  Remove the mixer from the equation and slowly stir in the nut and chocolate.  Simply stir in these bits using the spatula you used to clean the sides of the bowl while you were mixing.  If you have a really awesome mixer you'll have to dirty a spatula.  Once the chocolate and nuts are mixed you'll need a really small spoon.  I recommend something smaller than a teaspoon, but bigger than one of those coffee spoons they used to give you at McDonald's in the 80's.  For my cookies I used an egg spoon, and it worked perfectly.

Now spoon the mixture onto your tinfoil covered baking sheet.  Keep them small, because lots of little cookies are awesome.  Bake each batch of cookies at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.  Many people might argue that it would be simpler to make one giant cookie, and it would look so very cool.  I argue that little cookies are so much better, and here's why:

First of all they take a lot less time to cook, and the less time it takes from those cookies to go from being ingredients to going into my mouth the better.

Secondly, if you cook one giant cookie, people will know if you sampled a bit while you're cooking, because there will be bite marks.  Bake little cookies and you can sample a little from each batch, and there will be so many cookies that no one will notice that you ate 17 of them.

Finally, little cookies are cute.

Once the cookies are done, let them cool on the rack for a few minutes, and if possible serve immediately. They will last a few days, but they'll taste best right out of the oven.

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A Button Pushing Candy Thing Part 2 - Doritos Fix

If you regularly need Doritos, then you should pick yourself up a Doritos Dash Button from Amazon.

Every Wednesday this month we're featuring a snack themed Dash Button from Amazon. Dash Buttons allow you to order your snack fix with the push of a button.

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This Week In Candy

You may not know this, but we have a whole bunch of reviews written and ready to go online, we keep them for a rainy day.  By rainy day I mean we keep them for weeks when I'm sick or on vacation.  The problem is my archive of reviews to post has started to grow to well over one hundred reviews.  While it's nice to have a few reviews ready to go just in case, over one hundred is just way too many.  To help work this list down, we sometimes have a review-a-thon, where we review a candy every day of the week, instead of just Monday.  I've decided however that this list needs some quick extreme trimming, so prepare for the review-a-thon-a-thon.  For the next four weeks we're going to post a new review every weekday.  Some week's will have great themes (like this week), likely at least one's theme will be random candy.  You can follow our weekly review-a-thon-a-thon on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, or Google +.

Just because we're posting a lot of reviews doesn't mean we're just taking the week off either.  This week we're continuing our podcast series Junk Fud, with the latest episode of Junk Fud History all about Jolly Ranchers.  But that's not all, we're also going to post a new episode of our YouTube show Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!, where Chris (that's me) enjoys a really creepy looking candied... something or other.  We don't stop here because all this month on our regular Candy Thing blog segments (that goes online every Wednesday) we're posting snack related Amazon Dash Buttons, a thing that we're still not really sure isn't a joke.  We're not stopping here though, this Thursday we have our regular monthly post for the Candy Critic Dessert Club. This week we're making "Frank", a cookie invention that we made up ourselves, and we're giving you the recipe.

As you can tell there's a lot going on this week, so hopefully you'll still have time to keep up with Snack Facts, our Instagram feed.  This week Snack Facts is going with the gummy theme with a look at Gummy candies.  Check back every day this week for a fun fact about these stretchy treats.  You can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, our Twitter feed, and Facebook page as well.

For the first week of our review-a-thon-a-thon we're going to look at gummies as well.  So every day this week we'll be posting a new review of a fun gummy treat.  Today's review is a strange one, so strange that you might not even be able to call it a real gummy.  Click here to find out why.

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Candy In The Media

Baby Metal makes their American television debut on Colbert with Gimme Chocolate.  If I ever meet them I shall give them chocolate.

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A Button Pushing Candy Thing Part 1 - Bite Into A Slim Jim

Are you familiar with Dash Buttons? At first I thought they were some kind of prank put on by Amazon, but now I've learned that they're a real thing.  A Dash Button is a small button that when pushed will automatically order a particular product from Amazon and send it to you within a couple of days.  I'm not sure how I feel about them yet, but I have to admit, I am curious.

Today's example of a Dash Button is the perfect choice for anybody who needs regular Slim Jim fixes.

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This Week In Candy

This weekend I went to a local festival and I had the opportunity to sample some sugarcane juice.  I haven't had sugarcane in such a long time I forgot how sweet it is and how hard it is to finish a whole cup.  My favorite part of the process was watching this amazingly decorated machine spin as it crushed the cane into a fine green juice.  They added a dash of lemon to the juice to balance out the super sweet flavour. Snacking at local festivals is always great.

This week on the Candy Critic YouTube channel we released episode two of our series Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!  We've got a few questionable treats lined up for future episodes, including a twist on a very popular chocolate spread.  We're also posting all of the episodes of Junk Fud (our almost weekly podcast) on YouTube as well.  Make sure to check later this week as we'll be posting the 4th installment of Junk Fud On the Road, all about France.

Speaking of Junk Fud On The Road, we're currently planning a few travel adventures right now.  We're thinking about India, and the USA.  Two very different places, but both really well known for food.  We're still working out the details, but as usual we'll be posting all about the trip during and when we come back home.  Stay tuned for more details.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at Snickers bars.  Probably one of the most well known candy bars in the world, and likely the most well represented candy (behind Doritos) in Superbowl advertising.  Make sure to check back every day to learn something new about this meal in a bar.  You can follow Snack facts on our Instagram feed, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

This week's review is a result of last week's episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!  You can watch the video to see our initial response to the Cambodian Banana Candies, then read this week's review to get a more detailed look at this very strange chewy treat. Click here to read the review.

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Candy In The Media

This is making me re-think the way I should write candy reviews.

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A Scary Candy Cookie Thing

This Alien cookie jar might be a good way to keep your kids hands out of the candy jar.

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Twisted Gummy Bear Card...

Gummy Bear Love Card by candycritic
Find more note cards online at zazzle.com

For the one you love.

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