Author Archives: MichelleG

Candy Review: Jolly Rancher Passion Mix

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Jolly Rancher Passion Mix

The Jolly Rancher Passion Mix bag is going to make some of you very, very happy – because while it does not contain the Holy Grail of Jolly Rancherness (that would be the lemon flavor), it does contain the second best flavor: peach! In my earlier post about the Classic Mix of Jolly Rancher flavors, several comments lamented the demise of the peach flavor. Good news, Candy Addicts, it’s here in all its artificial peachy delicious goodness!

The Passion Mix bag is comprised of five flavors:

Fruit Punch: A strong, delicious flavor of the fruit punch drinks we had as a kid and wish we could justify as an adult. The color is exactly right, too – not as red as a cherry flavor nor as pink as a strawberry, it’s got that beautiful dark pink color we’ve all grown to associate with fruit punch.

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Candy Review: Crunch With Caramel and Milky Way With More Caramel

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Crunch with Caramel

It seems to be a bit of a trend these days, with classic candy bars either pumping up one of their base ingredients, or simpler candy bars adding in an additional component. Variations on classic bars are nothing new – bars going white, peanut butter suddenly appearing, bits of rice cereal being stirred through, and so on. For the purposes of this review I had a look at two bars which had either added or increased their caramel value – the Crunch Bar with caramel and the Milky Way now with more caramel.

Crunch bars are an integral part of my childhood, since my Mom always had a Crunch bar in her purse (and probably still does). One of the things I like about it is that it is so thin – the snap of the Crunch bar really appeals to me, since I think it goes well with the crisped rice. It is still one of those bars I will reach for when I want a sugar hit but not full on diabetic shock.

In the past, other giant bars like the Kit Kat Chunky have been disappointing, so I wasn’t sure how this one would go. I took a bite of it and there was no mistaking the caramel taste – it isn’t just a token inclusion. The usual Crunch elements are there, too … but the whole thing got a bit of a “ehhh, not so great” reaction from me. I really missed the thin-ness of the original Crunch bar, and I didn’t think the caramel did a lot for this one. Nice, but not all that exciting or fabulous.

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A Candy Conversation: 10 Questions for Sweet As

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Sweet As Shopfront
When I’m at the local mall and I feel like a sugar fix, I can almost always find a Sweet As store to run wild in. A vast majority of my reviews here are done from candy I bought there, as Sweet As is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) candy superstore here in Melbourne. The stores all have a Great Wall of Sweets which literally reaches from floor to ceiling and is jam-packed with new and classic candies. With seven stores operating and two more on the way, this is some serious candy loving going on for the people of Melbourne. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Cheree Smith, one of the family members who run Sweet As. Considering that Australia is often described as “America in the 1950′s” it was interesting to see if this applied to candy trends as well.

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Candy Recipe: Chocolate Covered Caramelized Matza Crunch

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Chocolate Covered Carmelized Matzah Crunch

(photo from davidlebovitz.com)

Even if you are not Jewish, you must RUN to your nearest place-where-there-are-Jews and buy a box of matzah. You must then RUN home and make a giant batch of this stuff. Seriously. Trust me – it’s THAT good.

When pastry chef David Lebovitz posted this recipe several months ago, I bookmarked it out of loyalty to a fellow Jew-slash-chef. Anyone brave enough to claim that this was the stuff of legend, AND be baking it a full four months early, had to be on to something, right? The recipe then got lost in a sea of bookmarks, until such time as another food blogger posted her version of this and reminded me of its existence. I will freely admit that I cut and pasted the recipe that very second and abandoned my computer to go and make some.

By the end of the day, I had endured several burnt fingertips and was surrounded by a sea of chocolate-smeared napkins. Not because I am a particularly messy pastry chef, but because I am an impatient so-and-so whose nose and eyes could no longer handle the absolutely heavenly caramel smell and the shiny molten chocolate layer on top. I ate rather more of it than I originally intended, AND I ate it before it was technically ready to eat, hence the scorched skin. Luckily for me and my Seder guests, the recipe yields enough that I had some to serve on both nights and even a few scraps to give the kids in the days after.

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Chocolate Candy Review: Chocolate-Coated Matzah

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Chocolate Matza
Any way you break it (ha!), Passover is a Candy Addict’s worst nightmare. A vast majority of candy these days is simply not kosher for Passover, largely because it is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Most Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews do not allow the consumption of corn or legumes during the holiday, so corn syrup sweetened stuff is a no-go zone. Most Sephardic (North African/Middle Eastern/Spanish) Jews do allow legumes and corn, but even those who don’t mind the corn syrup have to bid adieu to their favorite classic treats – anything with crisp wafers (see ya, Kit Kat), malt (buh-bye Whoppers), crispy rice bits (No Crunch bar for you!)

Traditional Passover candies tend to be those that will not offend anyone in either the legumes or no-legumes camp. They’re mainly a collection of Joyva Ring Jells, those hideous pink jelly rings covered in dark mockolate or those completely horrible cherries floating in cough syrup coated with mockolate. Not all kosher candy is bad, it’s just that Passover candy in particular is mostly a disaster. Over these eight days, my sugar highs tend to be the result of a few too many (handfuls of) home made meringues.
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