Priscilla Candies

Dig it. Today I went to Priscilla Candies in Lawrence, MA (not to be confused with Priscilla Candy Shop, in Concord and Gardner, Massachusetts) with my parents, in search of a type of candy that was gifted to them by a former neighbor. Turns out foodie-ism is genetic, but judging by my brother, may be sex-linked.

ANYHOO, we were on a bit of a schedule, so I didn't get to spend as much time browsing as I'd like to have. Thus, most of my observations are bound to revolve around the .52 lb. of chocolate we bought. As you may have already noted, the photo is not of candy. We were stuck on the highway in the snow for an hour, and the chocolates didn't make it.

However, I must say, the " Milk Toasted Coconut Clusters" were FANTASTIC! Most places call them "haystacks", and they are nothing but toasted coconut and milk chocolate. At Priscilla, they use tons of coconut, which is brilliant. We also bought two different types of "Swiss Fudge". I'm as of yet unsure if "Swiss Fudge" is just something that people call fudge that defies the fudge norm, or if it is, in fact, a type of candy. Nonetheless, in this case, it is a chocolatey candy sold in blocks like fudge, but which has a different texture. Rather than being sugary/grainy, its texture is almost identical to the inside of a milk chocolate Lindor truffle. We got one version with nut (walnut?) chunks in it, and one dark/light striped version. The nut option was good and chocolatey, though the nuts were almost imperceptible. The striped version, to my surprise, was hazelnut flavored. I like Nutella as much as the next person, but I felt it was unnecessary. I was looking forward to seeing how the light and dark chocolate intermixed. We also bought "Pecan Patties", which were lumps of pecan, caramel and chocolate. They were good, but the caramel was maybe a little subpar for a chocolatier. It tasted like the turtles you could buy at Walgreens.

This subject matter has inspired me to compile a list of the Dream Team of the types of chocolates found by the pound at little chocolate shops. I fear this will be an ongoing list. To begin with:

• Coconut haystacks (from Priscilla Candies, for example)
• Almond buttercrunch (they do this pretty well at Trader Joes too)
• Raspberry Flame chile truffles (from Mainely Gourmet)

I need to learn how to tag entries...

Caramel Hershey Kisses

As the informed among you may have noticed, Hershey has been putting out new versions of the Hershey kiss like there's no tomorrow. Among these is the caramel Kiss (at left, in the copper). It ain't a bad idea. One might argue that it violates the simplicity once demonstrated by the humble kiss, but that's up for debate. The fact that they are molded rather that exuded bothers me a little. The caramel is tasty, with a consistency closer to that of Cadbury's Caramello, than say, Milk Duds. The caramel is similar in taste to that of a Caramello (yesss!) but weaker, and I hesitate to proclaim it "as good".

I'm starting to give this more thought, and maybe I spoke too soon, knocking the introduction of these caramels... They do kind of fill a niche: a self-contained, runny-caramel-filled milk chocolate. That said, I need to make a go at Junior Caramels. I'm just rambling a this point. But this is a blog.

Once upon a time my friend Ben made peanut butter blossoms (above) with caramel-filled kisses, and they were redonk tasty. Here is the recipe for the blossoms:

1 stick butter (or 1/2 c. shortening)
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. milk
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 and 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
48 plain or caramel Hershey kisses

Cream the butter and sugars together, then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Then stir in the flour, salt and baking soda. Roll the dough into small balls, a little bigger than quarter-size, and roll them in granulated sugar. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes. Insert kisses into hot cookies as they come out of the oven. Wait for the kisses to melt, and devour.

Geek Nothings

I'm testing out a Firefox/Greasemonkey extension/script that allows me to blog to CC with a client, instead of through the currently tumultuous Blogger. I think it's working okay, but photos aren't working. With any luck I can get that figured out, because I much prefer this way of blogging.

Christmas Collector

As you may be able to tell from this atmospheric (read: blurry) photo, we decorated our tree entirely in edibles this year: gingerbread men, candy canes & Lindor truffles. Lights don't count.

I gave my family Green & Black's chocolate bars for Xmas, and received in return maple syrup candy (w00t!) and Trident gum with Xylitol, which is supposed to harden your tooth enamel. About 20 years to late here, guys.

Also, tomorrow, buy lots of candy canes on sale and use them as cocoa stirrers. This also applies to red hots. Except the stirring part. You just put those in.

Happy New Year!

Uh-mazing

Do you like mysteries? Do you have like, 45 minutes to waste? I found this article via Epifurious.

It is a 10-step journey investigating whether a particular brand of chocolate (the second most expensive in the world) is worth the money. Do not skip to the end - it's too good.

Sweet Nothing

Are Gushers candy? I just don't know.

and a review of sour apple airheads is on the way.

Sweet Nothing

Word on the street is that more people are reading this blog than I thought. I may just have to "review more candy bars". That is to say, eat more candy bars. BEST BLOG IDEA EVAR!

Chocolate!

I was going to call this post "Chocolate Face-off", but I don't think we need to add any bad feelings to a post about peace and love.

First: Does this package look familiar? These are the Christmas version (read: different colors) of Cadbury Mini-Eggs, the best Easter candy that has ever been. They are egg-shaped chocolate covered in a delightful, much-better-than-m&ms, sugar/candy shell. They're fantastic. These are them. This is brilliant for two reasons:

1) It has always infuriated me (and my father, and my brother) that this type of chocolate goodie is only available at Eastertime. NO MORE! I only have to stockpile half as many bags!
2) For a milk chocolate lover, Cadbury is top of the line. Their milk chocolate tastes like it has caramel mixed into it. I have always assumed that this was due to a high milk content, but I don't actually know why. But these eggs/spheres are freaking amazing. You will like them if you like the flavor of Caramello bars.

Second:
This guy.

I bought this because I had read on a slavery-free chocolate site (link at right) that this brand was the shiz. It is. I am a milk chocolate fiend, I don't really do dark chocolate unless it's in a cookie or surrounding coconut. This is a milk chocolate almond bar, but it has a 34% cocoa content, so it's sweet like milk chocolate, but has the deep flavor of dark chocolate. It's pretty trippy. It also has a good distribution of almonds, if you were wondering. I have never had anything like it.

The moral of the story: These two items are at opposite ends of the milk chocolate spectrum, and they are both crap-your-pants amazing. I hope we've all learned something.

Blow Pops Minis + bonus

*Co-starring the arm of my sweet, sweet couch*

Blow Pops without a stick. Intriguing, no? They're tasty, I've been snackin' on 'em, but in the end I have more complaints than praise.

First, the flavors are kinda wack. They are not the same intensity as regular Blow Pops. The green apple is fairly weak as far as artificial apple goes (a boon to some?), and though I know that there are both cherry and watermelon candies in each bag, I can't really tell them apart. That's saying something - I love cherry and generally dislike watermelon, and I'm unsure which is which.

The hands-down WORST thing about these little dudes, is that there is JUST enough bubble gum in the middle to get stuck on a molar or filling, but not enough to chew. The volume of the gum is equivalent to MAYBE two lentils. It sucks. Just buy regular Blow Pops. Lollipops are the new black anyway.

And now for something completely different:
WHY AREN'T BABY RUTH BARS BETTER?! It has such a good plan: chocolate, peanuts and caramelly-nougaty business. But the chocolate and the peanuts are both dry, the chocolate crumbles like whoa. I am so not down with biting into a candy bar that shoots crumbs (melty crumbs) everywhere. But I keep buying them because the idea is so good. If you're looking for peanut and caramelly-nougat, go for a PayDay. It's worth the chocolate trade-off, in my opinion.