Eat Out Eat Well

Food for Fun and Thought

Bunny Ears, Bunny Tails, and Lots of Eggs: Which Do You Head for First?

By Leave a Comment

Easter candy, 100 and 200 calories

Peeps, jellybeans, and chocolate eggs are extremely popular types of Easter candy, but the National Confectioners Association says that on Easter, children head for chocolate Easter bunnies first.

No matter how old we are, we all have our preferred way of attacking the chocolate rabbit. Just so you know where you rank, 76% of us eat the ears first, 13% bite off the feet, and 10% go for the tail. Sixty-five percent of adults prefer milk chocolate; 27% prefer dark chocolate.

Bunnies aren’t the only chocolate treat of the season. Chocolate eggs — solid, hollow, decorated, candy-coated, and filled with sweetness – give the bunnies a race through the grass.

Easter Bunnies and Eggs – the Confectionary Type

Chocolate Easter eggs, along with chocolate bunnies, first made their appearance in the 1800’s. They can be found everywhere and at every price point, some decorated with flowers and others wrapped in foil.  You can find them in chain stores, discount stores, high-end chocolatiers, and sitting in a bowl on just about every receptionist’s desk.

Easter is the second ranked holiday for candy purchases in the United States (just behind Halloween) and solid, hollow, and filled chocolate Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies are extremely popular choices.

Hollow and Solid Chocolate Easter Eggs

Today’s Easter eggs are mostly sweet chocolate made from cocoa solids, fat, sugar, and some form of milk. The first chocolate eggs were solid and made of a ground roasted cacao bean paste. Hollow eggs didn’t come on the scene until sometime later when a type of “eating chocolate” was developed.  By the turn of the 19th century the improved process of making chocolate, along with newer manufacturing methods, made chocolate Easter eggs an Easter gift of choice.

Decorated with Flowers and Wrapped in Shiny Foil

John Cadbury developed the first French eating chocolate in 1842, but the first Cadbury Easter eggs didn’t arrive until 1875. A far cry from today’s Cadbury Crème egg, early Cadbury eggs were smooth surfaced dark chocolate filled with small silver candy balls called dragees.

Today’s Cadbury Crème Egg has a chocolate shell and a filling that’s a mix of white and yellow fondant made of sugar and water beaten into a crème. Since the first egg was made in the 1920s, new varieties include fillings of caramel, chocolate, mint, and peanut butter.

The average calories in popular types of chocolate Easter eggs:

Hershey’s

  • Cadbury Chocolate Crème Easter Egg, 1 egg (39g): 180 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs
  • Cadbury Crème Egg, original milk chocolate with soft fondant crème center, 1 egg (39g): 170 calories, 6g fat), 28g carbs
  • Cadbury Mini Eggs, 1 package (1.4 ounces): 190 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs
  • Cadbury Mini Caramel Eggs, 4 pieces (1.3 ounces): 180 calories, 9g fat, 23g carbs
  • Cadbury Mini Egg, 12 eggs (40g): 200 calories, 9g fat, 28g carbs
  • Milk Chocolate (foil) Eggs, 7 pieces (1.4 ounces): 200 calories, 12g fat, 24g carbs
  • Candy Coated Eggs, 8 pieces (1.3 ounces): 180 calories, 8g fat, 27g carbs

Dove

  • Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Eggs, 6 eggs: 240 calories, 14g fat, 26g carbs
  • Foil Dark/Milk Chocolate Eggs, 6 eggs (1.5 ounces): 230 calories, 14g fat, 26g carbs

Reese’s

  • Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Eggs, 5 pieces (38g): 190 calories, 12g fat, 21g carbs
  • Reese’s Pastel Eggs, 12 pieces (1.4 ounces): 190 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs
  • Reese’s Giant Peanut Butter Egg (whole egg, 6 ounces): 880 calories, 52g fat, 100g carbs

M&M’s

  • Milk Chocolate Speck-Tacular Eggs: 1/4 Cup (12 pieces): 210 calories, 10g fat, 29g carbs
  • M&M’s Peanut Butter Eggs, ¼ cup: 220 calories, 13g fat, 23g carbs
  • M&M’s Pretzel Eggs, ¼ cup: 180 calories, 6g fat, 28g carbs

Snickers

  • Original Peanut Butter Egg (1.1 ounce): 160 calories, 10g fat, 18g carbs
  • Snickers Mini Filled Egg (0.9 ounce): 130 calories, 6g fat, 17g carbs

Russell Stover

  • Caramel Egg (1 ounce): 130 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs
  • Truffle Egg (1 ounce): 140 calories, 8g fat, 15g carbs

Whoppers

  • Robin Eggs, 8 pieces (1.4 ounces): 180 calories, 5g fat, 3g carbs

  • Mini Robin Eggs, 24 pieces (1.4 ounces): 190 calories, 5g fat, 35g carbs

Nestle

  • Butterfinger Eggs, 5 pieces (1.5 ounces): 210 calories, 11g fat, 29g carbs
  • Crunch Eggs, 5 pieces (1.3 ounces): 190 calories, 10g fat, 25g carbs

The average calories in popular types of chocolate Easter bunnies:

Solid Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny (2.5 ounces): 370 calories (average)

Dove Solid Chocolate Easter Bunny, whole bunny (4.5 ounces): 675 calories

Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny: 890 calories

Lindt Dark/Milk Chocolate Bunny (1.4 ounces): 225 calories

Sees Whole Bunny (4.5 ounces): 650 calories

Reese’s Peanut Butter/Reester, whole bunny (5 ounces): 720 calories

Russell Stover, whole bunny (4 ounces): 630 calories

Kosher Chocolate Candy

According to the Hershey Company website, Hershey’s candy coated milk chocolate eggs, chocolate crème eggs, peanut butter eggs, and all hershey’s kisses arel OUD.

How Much Easter Candy You Can Eat for 180 Calories or Less?

Most of us don’t need a reason to indulge on a holiday – it is a celebration, after all. But, just in case you want to “carefully” indulge on Easter candy, here’s how much of your favorite candy you can gobble down to the tune of 100 calories:

  • 17 Brach’s jellybeans = 102 calories (6 calories each)
  • 5 Peeps = 98 calories (28 calories for one Peep)
  • 6 Cadbury mini eggs = 96 calories (16 calories for one mini egg)
  • 2/3 of a Cadbury Crème egg = 100 calories (one egg is 150 calories)
  • 5 Cadbury mini crème eggs = 100 calories (one Cadbury mini crème egg has 40 calories)
  • 2/3 of a Cadbury caramel egg = 113 calories (one Cadbury caramel egg has 170 calories)
  • 2 Cadbury mini caramel eggs = 90 calories (one Cadbury mini caramel egg has 45 calories)
  • 2/3 Reese’s peanut butter egg = 113 calories (one Reese’s peanut butter egg has 170 calories)
  • 5 Hershey’s milk chocolate eggs = 102 calories (one Hershey’s milk chocolate egg has 29 calories)
  • 4 Reese’s Peanut Butter Mini eggs: 160 calories

 

 

Jelly Beans: One by One or by the Handful?

By Leave a Comment

Jellybeans -- What's Your Favorite Color?

Should jellybeans come with a warning label: “STOP NOW or you’ll keep eating until they’re gone?”  It’s pretty darn hard not to love those little nuggets of sweetness that come in multitudes of colors and flavors and get stuck in your teeth!  The proof: Americans eat 16 billion jellybeans at Easter – if they were lined up end to end they would circle the earth nearly three times.

Where Did Jellybeans Come From? 

The gummy insides of jellybeans are thought to have originated from the centuries old treat, Turkish Delight. Jellybean outsides are just like the colored hard candy coating, developed in the late 17th century, for the Jordan almond.

The modern jellybean became popular during the American Civil War when Boston’s William Schraft encouraged citizens to send candy to Union soldiers.  Jellybeans were the first bulk candy and they became one of the staples of the penny candy that was sold by weight in the early 1900s. Because of their egg shape, which can be taken as representing fertility and birth, they became popular as Easter candy around 1930.

Standard jellybeans come in fruit flavors but there are now a huge number of flavors like spiced, mint, tropical, popcorn, bubble gum, pepper, and cola.  They also come in a sugar free version (seems weird, but true – don’t you wonder how many chemicals are in those?). Teenee Beanee jelly beans and Just Born jellybeans are Pareve & O/U; Jelly Bellies are certified OU Kosher.

Do You Eat Them By The Handful Or Pick and Choose?

Do you eat your jellybeans one at a time, or do you gobble them up by the handful? What about colors and flavors – do you pick out your favorites or just eat them altogether?

  • 70% of kids aged 6–11 say they prefer to eat Easter jellybeans one at a time
  • 23% say they eat several at once
  • Boys (29%) are more likely to eat a handful than girls (18%)
  • Kids say their favorite Easter jellybean flavors are cherry (20%), strawberry (12%), grape (10%), lime (7%), and blueberry (6%)

What’s In The Hard Shelled Nugget Of Sweetness?

Jelly beans are primarily made of sugar and also usually contain gelatin (Jelly Bellies don’t), corn syrup, modified food starch, and less than 0.5% of citric acid, sodium citrate, artificial flavors, confectioners glaze, pectin, carnauba wax, white mineral oil, magnesium hydroxide, and artificial colors.

The traditional jellybean has flavor only in the shell. In 1976, the Jelly Belly (Goelitz) Candy Company introduced their gourmet jellybeans, Jelly Bellies, which are smaller and softer than the traditional kind and are flavored both inside and outside. Jelly Belly makes about 50 different flavors of gourmet jellybeans.

Calories In Jellybeans:

Even though they may give you Technicolor insides, jellybeans are fat free.  On average:

  • 10 small jellybeans (11g) have 41 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 10.3 grams of carbs
  • 10 large jellybeans (1 ounce or 28g) have 105 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 26.2g carbs
  • 10 Jelly Bellies have 40 calories (4 calories a piece), or about 100 calories in a single serving (25 beans)

Jelly Bellies

  • Jelly Bellies were invented in 1976 and were the first jellybeans to be sold in single flavors and a menu of flavor choices.
  • It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jellybean.
  • Very Cherry was the most popular Jelly Belly flavor for two decades until 1998, when Buttered Popcorn took over. Very Cherry moved back into the top spot by only 8 million beans in 2003.
  • Jelly Bellies were the first jellybeans in outer space – they were sent on the space shuttle Challenger (1983) by President Reagan, a big jellybean fan.
  • Jelly Bellies don’t contain gelatin and are suitable for vegetarians, but some strict vegans may have issues with the beeswax and shellac used to give them their final buff and polish.
  • Jelly Belly jellybeans do not contain any wheat, rye, barley, or oats in the basic recipe. The modified food starch used to manufacture them is cornstarch and all ingredients are free of dairy.

 

Bread, Farl, Cake, or Spotted Dog?

By Leave a Comment

St. Patrick's Spotted Dog

 

Green bagels and green milkshakes. It must be St. Patrick’s Day. There’s also corned beef and cabbage – and “Irish soda bread” with a cruciform, or cross, slashed on top.  Have you ever wondered why the shape of the cross is slashed on the top of the bread – and why it’s known as soda bread?

Soda Bread and Native Americans

The earliest reference to the chemical reaction that makes soda bread rise is actually credited to American Indians.  Centuries before soda bread became popular in Ireland, Native Americans added pearl-ash (potash), the natural soda in wood ashes, along with an acidic ingredient, to make bread rise.

Soda bread became popular in Ireland when bicarbonate of soda, also known as bread soda, became available to use as a leavening agent.  Bread soda made it possible to work with the “soft” wheat grown in Ireland’s climate. “Hard” wheat flour, the main kind used in the US today, needs yeast to rise properly. “Soft” wheat flour doesn’t work well with yeast but is great for “quick breads” like soda bread.

According to The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread the earliest published recipe for soda bread was in a London magazine in 1836 – also later repeated in several US papers – that refers to a “receipt for making soda bread” found in a newspaper in Northern Ireland. The claim:  “there is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the state of the bowels.” Sounds like tasting good wasn’t a big priority!

In 19th century Ireland, making bread was part of daily life and most families lived in farmhouses where kitchens had open hearths, not ovens. Bread soda meant that anyone who didn’t have an oven (most people in Ireland in the 1800’s didn’t) could make soda bread.

The bread soda wasn’t perishable and was relatively inexpensive. Buttermilk, a by-product of making butter, and the soft wheat for flour, the other components of soda bread, were commonly available. The bread was cooked on a griddle or in a bastible, a big cast-iron pot with a lid that could be put right into coals or a turf fire.

Brown or White, Cake or Farl?

“Plain” soda bread often appears with a main meal  — to soak up gravy – or at breakfast. It comes both brown and white, and in two main types, cake and farl.

Traditional brown Irish soda bread is basic table bread made from whole meal flour, baking soda (bread soda), salt, and buttermilk.  White soda bread, made with white flour, is considered slightly more refined than brown soda bead and is sometimes considered a more special occasion bread.

Cake tends to be found more in the south of Ireland while people in Northern Ireland seem to prefer farl — although both can be found in the North and South, sometimes with different names. Cake is soda bread that is kneaded, shaped into a flattish round, then deeply cut with a cross on the top.  Now it’s normally baked in an oven.

For farl the dough is rolled into a rough circle and cut all the way through — like a cross — into four pieces or farls (“farl” is a generic term for a triangular piece of baking).  It’s usually baked in a heavy frying pan on a griddle, or on top of the range or stove. It’s flatter and moister than cake.  Each farl is split in half “the wide way” before it’s eaten and is best when hot. It’s also allowed to cool and then grilled or fried as part of other dishes — especially Ulster Fry,  a local breakfast where golden and crispy soda bread and potato farls are fried in reserved bacon fat and then served with Irish bacon, sausage, black pudding, tomato and egg.

What’s Spotted Dog?

There are regional variations of the basic soda bread recipe – even though some purists would say there should be no additions to the dough.

In Donegal caraway seeds were traditionally put in the bread.  In earlier and leaner times when raisins or dried fruit were luxuries, a fistful of them or maybe even a little sugar or an egg — if either could be spared — would have been put into the white flour version of the bread during the harvest as a treat for the working men.

The non-traditional varieties of soda breads that are made with raisins, caraway, orange zest, and other add-ins are often called Spotted Dog.

What About The Cross On Top?

Before baking, a cross is traditionally cut on the top of the soda bread loaf with a knife – often said to ward off the devil and to protect the household.

Legend and symbolism aside, there’s a practical reason for the cruciform shape to be cut into the top of the dough. Slashing the dough lets heat penetrate into the thickest part of the bread and allows the bread to stretch and expand as it rises.

Slashing a round loaf with a cruciform shape ends up dividing the bread into quadrants that can be easily broken apart (the breaking of the bread). But, since Ireland is a Catholic country, the symbolism of the cross can also be interpreted as blessing (crossing) the bread and giving thanks.

One serving (74 g) of Irish Soda Bread with raisins and caraway seeds has 214 calories, 3.67g fat, 41.51g carbs, and 4.86g protein.

Girl Scout Cookies: here’s the original recipe

By Leave a Comment

Girl Scout Cookies

Chris Rock nudged the Oscar audience into buying $65,243 worth of Girl Scout cookies. Most of us don’t buy our cookies in an audience full of theater royalty, but rather from Girl Scouts who have set up tables on sidewalks, in front of stores, who have rung your doorbell, online, or from parents selling them at the office.

But, no matter when or where you buy them, the Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, Tagalongs are still the cookies we know and love.

The Original Girl Scout Cookie

Even though Thin Mints account for about 25% of Girl Scout cookie sales, the thin chocolate wafers bear little resemblance (other than being cookies) to the original Girl Scout cookie.

The first Girl Scout troop was organized over a hundred years ago (March 12, 1912) in Savannah, Georgia. Selling cookies as a way to finance troop activities began as early as 1917 when they were sold in an Oklahoma high school cafeteria as a service project.

Girl Scout cookies were originally baked in home kitchens with moms as the “technical advisers.” In July 1922, The American Girl Magazine, which was published by Girl Scout national headquarters, printed a cookie recipe that had been distributed to the Council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. The approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies was estimated at 26 to 36 cents; the suggested sale price was 25 or 30 cents for a dozen.

In the 20s and 30s the simple sugar cookies that were baked by Girl Scouts and their mothers were packaged in waxed paper bags, sealed with stickers, and sold door to door.

The Original Recipe

The Original Girl Scout Cookie Recipe (circa 1922)

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • Additional sugar for topping (optional)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter and the cup of sugar. Add the well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Roll out the dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired.

Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.

Present Day Girl Scout Cookies

For present day cookie recipes, check out the websites of the two licensed Girl Scout cookie bakers: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers, and on www.pinterest.com/GSUSA. For a list of specific cookie ingredients go to Meet the Cookies.

Why is my Trefoil called Shortbread and my Samoa a Caramel deLite?

If you’ve ever wondered why your cookie may be called Shortbread instead of Trefoil, it’s because the two bakers call them different names. The cookies have a similar look and taste but the name and recipe vary with the baker. Both companies call their chocolate-mint cookie, Thin Mint. I guess you can’t mess with the gold standard!

The cookies, all of which are kosher, are sold by weight, not quantity. The size and number of cookies in the package varies with the baker, but both are displayed on every package. The cookies are sold for different prices in different areas of the country with each of the 112 Girl Scout councils setting their own price based on its needs and its familiarity with the local market.

Movies, Popcorn, and the Oscars, too!

By Leave a Comment

Popcorn and the Oscars

When you think movie, do you also think popcorn? A good percentage of movie viewing people do.

And what’s the biggest movie night of the year? The Academy Awards, of course.

Oscar has been around for a long time – the first Academy Awards ceremony was in 1929 – but the main snack food that’s associated with movies has been around a lot longer.

The Evolution of Popcorn

The puffy goodness we know as popcorn is a strain of corn (from maize) cultivated in Central America about 8,000 years ago. North American whalers probably brought popcorn to New England from Chile in the early 19th century. Popping popcorn was fun and its appeal spread rapidly across the country.

By the mid 1800’s popcorn was widely available, especially at places like circuses and fairs. The invention of the steam-powered popcorn maker in 1885 meant popcorn could be made anywhere. Amazingly, the only place where it wasn’t usually available was in theaters, which typically had carpeted floors. Theater owners didn’t want popcorn “dirtying” up the place (have you ever tried to vacuum up popcorn from carpeted floors).

Popcorn and Movies

Because of its popularity, theater owners began to allow popcorn vendors to sell popcorn outside their theaters. During the Great Depression people looked for cheap diversions and movies were it and popcorn — at 5 to 10 cents a bag — was an affordable luxury.

Theater owners began to lease their lobbies to popcorn vendors, but then figured out they could make more money by selling it themselves. Selling popcorn, candy, and soda from their own concession stands meant higher profits. Sugar shortages during World War II made sweet treats hard to come by, and popcorn became the main snack. By 1945 over half of the popcorn eaten in the US was consumed in movie theaters.

Popcorn is still king. Americans eat, on average, about 13 gallons of popcorn a year. It’s cheap to make and allows for a huge price mark-up. You might pay $5 for a bag of popcorn, but it costs the theater about 50 cents. Plain popcorn doesn’t have all that much flavor, so yellow oil (it isn’t butter) and salt are added to make it tasty and make you thirsty. So, you buy a soda. No wonder movie theaters make an estimated 85 percent profit from concession sales, with those sales accounting for 46 percent of overall profits.

Popcorn Recipes

This Sunday as you prop your feet up to watch the glamorous stars grab their golden statues, make sure you have a good supply of popcorn on hand. You don’t have to settle for the plain variety – unless you want to. There are some fantastic popcorn recipes with names like Bacon Bourbon Caramel Popcorn, Cinnamon Candy Popcorn (which is red, like the red carpet), Pizza Popcorn, Peanut Butter Popcorn, and Endless Caramel Corn.

For even more popcorn recipes to accompany your cheers, boos, oohs, and ahs on Oscar night, check out:

Food Network’s 50 Flavored Popcorn Recipes

19 Ways to Flavor Popcorn

30 Healthy Popcorn Recipes That Satisfy Every Snack Craving

Popcorn Recipes