Archive for the ‘Food News’ Category
Girl Scout cookies are a treat that usually only comes into season once a year, when Girl Scouts hit the streets (or markets or churches) for their annual cookie sales. The popular Girl Scout cookie flavors can also be found in a few other forms, including Dreyer’s/Edy’s limited edition ice cream flavors and now in candy bars. The Girl Scouts have recently paired up with Nestle to launch three Girl Scout cookie-inspired candy bars. The candy bars are crossovers with Thin Mints, Caramel & Coconut (Samoas) and Peanut Butter Creme (Tagalongs), sandwiching the cookie filling with layers of thin, crispy wafers and enrobing them in chocolate. I think that they picked good flavors for the candy bar crossovers, not only because these are the most popular flavors, but because they are the most distinctive. You’re much more likely to associate the flavors in the bars with the cookies. And since I don’t think that there are enough coconut and caramel candy bars on the market, I’m definitely up for tasting the Samoas bar when I see one.
If you happen to be a fan of Nestle Crunch on Facebook (you’ve already “liked” Baking Bites on Facebook, right?) , you can actually order these candy bars their their special presale. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until later this summer to get your hands on them. They’re set to roll out to stores nationwide starting in June. And, if candy bars aren’t your thing, you can always get your Girl Scout cookie fix by baking up a batch of my homemade Girl Scout Cookie recipes in your favorite flavor.
On Tuesday morning, the winning recipe from the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off was announced as Pumpkin Ravioli with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream, made by Christina Verrelli of Devon, PA. She not only got the glory of winning with this sweet creation (and got to be on the Martha Stewart Show), but took home the grand prize of $1 million dollars. The recipe is really a twist on pumpkin pie, and uses a crescent roll dough to form the skin of the ravioli and enclose the homemade pumpkin pie-spiced filling. The pastry ravioli shell crisps up in the oven, providing a nice toasted feel to the ravioli.
You can get the winning recipe at the Bake-Off site if you want to give it a try at home. Browse through the other recipes that made it to the finals this year and start planning your own creation for next year’s contest!
There are just a few short days left before the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off will be held in Orlando, Florida. This contest is the biggest, longest-running cooking contest in the US and offers finalists a chance at a huge prize: $1 million dollars. The contest is so popular that what was once an annual event now takes two years to organize because there are so many entries. The entries for this year’s contest were submitted last year, and once they were received, each and every recipe (that met the contest’s published guidelines for required ingredients, etc) was thoroughly tested and reviewed by a dedicated contest staff until they had chosen 100 finalists.
Once the finalists are notified, they all attend the Bake-Off event, where they have to produce three complete versions of their dish in just a few hours in a room filled with 100 mini kitchens and the other finalists. One dish is used for photos, one is made available for tasting (because the contestants love to share) and one tray goes to the judges, who evaluate every dish and choose the winners. The finalists’ recipes are all available online for people to try and review themselves before the judges have their say at the contest.
While there are many prepackaged products given as qualifying ingredients for the Bake Off, there are also staple ingredients like flour, eggs, butter and cocoa powder. The resulting recipes – sweet and savory – are always very creative and mostly very tasty. I’m looking forward to seeing what wins this year and giving the new winner a try. Be sure to take a look at these classic Bake-Off recipes from previous years to see if they’ll inspire you to check out this year’s finalists and enter the next contest.
When a new bakery or cupcake shop opens up, a plate of samples is sure to entice potential clients to come in for a taste. Prepackaged food producers, including both big companies and smaller gourmet mail-order places, don’t have this option and can’t make a connection with a customer unless someone gets something as a gift or is drawn in by good advertising, reviews, etc. to try their products. One company in the UK is trying to bridge the gap and has created a series of bus-stop billboards that dispense free samples of individually wrapped snack cakes.
These Mr Kipling brand snack cakes are being promoted as a great to-go treat, but it is definitely unusual to distribute them this way. The ads simple dispense the treats at the push of a button, so a curious cake fan can try one at any time . It is similar to the cupcake ATM idea – only it is free. These ads will be in 19 locations throughout London during this promotion, but if the idea catches on we just might start to see similar ads in the US.
A sample of moist cake or a bite-sized section of a muffin has drawn me in and prompted me to buy something many times at bakeries (and occasionally to pass things up, if I find I don’t care for them), so I would probably give these cake dispensing machines at least once. I suspect, however, that I’m not the only one who whole be tempted by a free snack cake, so hopefully the companies behind these ads have a plan in place to keep them well-stocked while the ads are running.
After a busy day, nothing will perk you up like a freshly baked cupcake. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to make it to a bakery before they close to pick up that cupcake – especially if that bakery is across town and you have to fight traffic to get there. Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills is making it easy for cupcake-lovers to get their fix 24 hours a day by introducing a cupcake ATM. The ATM works just like the machines that dispense electronics and other non-cash goods, where you can input a credit card and select your cupcake of choice. Each one comes out individually wrapped in a cupcake box, looking just as good as it would if you had walked up to the counter. The machine is also going to dispense Sprinkles merchandise, including their cupcake mixes, and cupcake-shaped dog treats.
The ATM is scheduled to officially open for business in just a couple of weeks. It will restocked every couple of hours (and before closing) with fresh cupcakes and will start by offering eight of their most popular cupcake flavors, including red velvet. The plan is to slowly increase the options that the machine offers, and even to make the yet-to-be-launched Sprinkles Ice Cream available from the machine! If it’s a success, you can bet that the cupcake ATMs will make their way to other Sprinkles stores outside of Los Angeles, too.
Now, I have to say that the other way to get a 24 hour cupcake fix is by baking your own cupcakes (even if you use a cupcake mix!), but I do love the novelty of a cupcake ATM and would definitely swing by to see it in action and pick up a single cupcake if I were in the mood for one.
