Pancakes #1
You may know me as a novelist, but for most of my life my true claim to fame was as the maker of pancakes. Technically, I actually make crepes (with lemon and sugar*), usually so thin that they’re slightly see-through.
My recipe is:
1 egg + 500ML milk (I use lactose free) + anywhere between 1/2 and 1 cup of flour.
1. Mix. (Can be left overnight.)
2. Fry with plenty of butter (tipping the pan around as you pour it in, to make it even thinner).
Other people think their way is best. They are wrong. But I’m gonna make pancakes differently this time, because that is part of this whole recipe journey thing. Two of the Year 1 kids came up with pancake recipes, so I’ll be making both.
Here’s the first.
Ingredients
1 c milk
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 T butter
Extra butter
Maple syrup
Method
- Beat milk, sugar, egg and vanilla.
- Add sifted flour and baking soda, and fold in.
- Then add melted butter. Mixture should be fairy liquid.
- Heat pan, grease with a spoonful of butter. Spoon mixture into pan and brown on each side.
- Serve with maple syrup.
Yum Factor: 4 (mine are better)
Health: 0
Easy: 3 (frying anything is relatively high-maintenance)
Will make again? Nah. But I’ll make my version.
Louisette declared them the best pancakes of all time. Grr!
Perhaps it’s for the best, since the boy who submitted this recipe was one of the most eligible bachelors in Year 1.
Just look at that focus!
*A classic Aussie combination, and my personal favourite. Other recommended combinations include:
Butter and maple syrup
Butter and cinnamon sugar, rolled up (a South African specialty)
Vegemite (strange but true!)
Ham and cheese (cooked into the pancake, and served either as is or with vegemite)
Muesli Bars
If it wasn’t for procrastination, I’d never get anything done.
Today the kids are both with grandparents, so it’s definitely time to focus on my Top-Secret Well-Paid Writing Thingy. (I’m not allowed to tell people what it is, but it’s super awesome). I prepared by getting all the current “Murder in the Mail” stuff sorted: I stamped and addressed ALL of the “7b” postcards, and have already packaged and addressed all the “8” parcels, which is the Very Last Parcel For This Mail-Out (it’s been a huge thing!), and I washed and put away a whole lot of clothes.
So today I’ve done two more loads of washing (mostly linen), cleaned the bathrooms, applied for a writing thing, invited two more people into the “Magic in the Mail: Feuding Fae” story (and sent them contracts, and chose two possible art options), arranged delivery of two paintings for the “Murder in the Mail” Exhibition (24 August until 7 September here in Canberra), rearranged my twitter profile, ordered contact lenses, arranged a dentist visit for Louisette and a checkup for the cat, and fed all the pets.
And I’m writing my second blog entry of the day.
In unrelated news, it’s 11am and I haven’t scraped up the courage to open the aforementioned Top-Secret Well-Paid Writing Thingy. Today is my last chance to truly focus for at least ten days (there’s another grandparents’ day approaching, but I have much doctor-y stuff to do that day).
So… let’s talk about muesli bars!
1/2 c honey (I used maple syrup, which definitely did NOT work as well)
1/4 c brown sugar
125 g butter
3 c rolled oats
1 c rice bubbles
1 c choc chips (the original recipe said 1/2 c but that’s clearly an error)
1/2 c desiccated coconut
1/4 c pepitas
1/4 c sunflowers
(with ANOTHER thank you to the grandparents for supplying the last two ingredients because I did not want a whole pack of either)
- Grease a slice tray.
- Add honey, butter, and sugar to a saucepan and stir for two minutes or until the sauce is nice and thick.
- Mix everything else in a big bowl (except choc chips).
- Add syrup and stir.
- Put in tray, sprinkle with choc chips, and press down firmly with the back of a spoon.
- 15-20 min at 160 degrees (or until golden).
- Cool on tray before cutting into pieces.
Like I said, maple syrup didn’t work as well as honey. . . but I ended up with a kind of granola which was actually delicious (I ate it dry, with a spoon).
It was impossible to get the kids to stop eating long enough for a smiley-style picture. I am okay with that!
Yum Factor: 5
Health: 4 (a pretty good snack)
Easy: 4
Will make again? I don’t know. It doesn’t have as much protein as peanut butter balls… but then again, I’m not as intolerant of these either. And healthier than Anzac Biscuits, I reckon—but somewhat less portable. I might do some syrup experiments, because these could potentially be a school snack that Louisette actually eats. (No peanuts at school.)
Are ya chicken?
And so we come to the “actual meals” part of my daughter’s class recipe book.
First, we have Sweet Chilli Chicken Skewers.
6 chicken tenderloins, sliced in half lengthwise
12 bamboo skewers, soaked
2 T sweet chilli sauce
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 T grated ginger (I got mine from a jar)
2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed (jar)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
- Thread chicken strips onto bamboo skewers.
- Mix everything else and marinade the chicken in it.
- Bake in moderate oven for half an hour, keeping it covered with aluminium foil for the first twenty minutes, and turning once. (The original recipe said to char-grill or BBQ for 3-4 minutes each side.)
(I cooked some frozen chips to go with them.)
I wasn’t super enthusiastic about this—I’m against anything with chilli, as a rule—but the sauce was simply exquisite.
The kids enjoyed squeezing and sucking on the lemon:
TJ also enjoyed the sauce—as did I!
It was a rather nice dinner. TJ was enthusiastic (he likes novelty, and is going through a pro-unusual food phase, although he still likes being able to clearly see exactly what each item is—the sauce was thin enough that it fundamentally didn’t register as “other”). Louisette. . . not so much. We made a rule at the beginning of this adventure that she had to have at least one bite of everything we made.
Yum Factor: 4 (an excellent meal)
Health: 4 (loses points for only being a meat recipe, rather than a balanced meal)
Easy: 4 (no real skill required, but slicing the chicken and putting it on skewers is more work than I usually do for a meal)
Will make again? Probably not as skewers (unless I’m bein’ fancy-like), but that sauce was great and I expect I’ll make it again at some point.
Excuse my French
Regular readers will know I’m a sucker for punishment.
Allow me to rephrase.
It really helps my depression to have a win in life, and taking on something a little bit special/difficult/unusual really works for me (while also making all my near relatives—except my Mum, who also loves a good project, and my Dad, who is used to her—try to talk me out of it*).
In unrelated news, Chris and I watch the Tour de France each year.
One of the sexiest things about Chris is that his reaction to virtually any sport is to immediately and pointedly fall asleep (he’ll literally change the channel/mute if sports news comes on). The Tour is the one exception; something he inherited from his father.
For about three weeks each Winter, our household grinds to a halt as the Tour is on from 8:30pm until 2:00am most nights.
It has a bewildering, hypnotic beauty (once one becomes desensitised to all the lycra). There are castles, and coastlines, weirdo spectators, epic art, plenty of heroes and villains, complicated and ever-changing team strategies, sprinklings of French, and amazing feats of endurance.
Aaaand then there’s Gabriel Gaté. He’s one of those chefs that just adores his job. Each night he films a short segment meeting local restauranteurs* and/or farmers, and cooks a dish (the recipe is written out in full online) inspired by the region.
The first night was last Saturday, so he cooked a “perfect coastal dish”: Prawn, Potato, and Hazelnut Salad. You can see what he actually did here.
This is what *I* did:
Ingredients:
Boiled cubed baby potatoes
Boiled cubed sweet potato
Chopped hard-boiled eggs
Diced cucumber
Finely chopped cashews
15ish cooked and ready-to-eat prawns, defrosted overnight (did you think I’d cook them myself??) and chopped (except for several saved for garnishing)
Some walnut halves, for garnish
Sprinkling of chopped chives, for garnish
50mL olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon myrtle/salt mixture
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp sweet chilli sauce
I mixed everything from the first section of the above list (except the garnishes), put it into fancy glasses, drizzled the dressing (ie the last four ingredients, mixed) over the top, then garnished it, then served it.
This is what the dressing looks like. We actually didn’t need that much.
The great thing about salads is that it’s easy to adjust them for different people. TJ’s salad contains carrots and cheese instead of prawns (I also chucked in some water chestnuts, because why not?)
Louisette had… sausages.
Now let’s analyse the work of an international French chef using the same system I designed for 6 year-old home cooks:
Yum Factor: 4 (an excellent meal. Loses point for having no chocolate, and both kids refusing to eat prawns)
Health: 5 (vegetables and everything!)
Easy: 3 (no real skill required, but it took me a while to coordinate all the moving parts; 3 garnishes is just silly so next time I’ll probably just whack a prawn on top, sprinkle chives, and call it a 4. 4.5 because it can be prepped in advance).
Will make again? I was thinking ‘no’ during dinner (although it WAS nice to eat—and good to be able to do a bit and then sit down, and then do the next bit, then rest again, etc) but I think that’s mostly because of the process of adjusting the recipe as I went along. So, in conclusion, yes I do think I’ll make it again (with the changes to make it a 4.5 on the easy scale). I reckon I’ll save it until we have (adult) guests coming over, so I can be all fancy-like.
*Chris evaluates each project on its own merits, and on how exhausted I’m likely to be afterwards. That determines his emotional reaction along a sliding scale from “enthusiastic” to “terrified”.
*Is there any word that’s more FRENCH than that? HOW MANY VOWELS DO YOU PEOPLE NEED?
Isaac Biscuits
TJ insists that I’m wrong to call these “Anzac Biscuits”. Well, what would I know?
Ingredients:
1 c rolled oats
1 c plain flour
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c desiccated coconut
130g butter
2 T golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
Method:
- Mix oats, flour, sugar, and coconut in a bowl.
- Combine butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir for 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir in bicarb soda (fun).
- Mix butter mixture with dry ingredients.
- Line a tray with baking paper.
- Roll mixture into balls and flatten slightly.
- 10-12 minutes at 140 degrees.
Having only eaten store bought Anzac biscuits (as far as she remembers), these were a revelation for Louisette. They were gone in 24 hours (mostly because of me rather than Lizzie).
Yum Factor: 4 (they’d be a 5 if I was a biscuit type of person, or if they contained chocolate)
Health: 3 (relatively healthy by snack standards, but definitely a treat)
Easy: 4 (hard to screw up. . . although I technically did screw them up by just mixing everything instead of doing the syrup properly)
Will make again? I reckon so. They’re quite similar to peanut butter balls (in terms of being oat-based and a relatively healthy treat that’s simple to make and has some nicely basic pantry ingredients), but with less protein and chocolate (sad but useful because I can’t eat too much peanut butter; I’m intolerant of nuts).
Plus I’m pretty sure that adding the bicarb to the syrup makes it fizz up in a fun way (and presumably makes the final biscuits even nicer too), and I’m annoyed to have missed that.
I reckon we’ll make these next time we run out of choc chips.
Bicarb is cool.
Today is Saturday. The kids woke up at 6am as usual and instead of turning the TV on (the usual morning routine, while Chris and I sleep) they decided to do our world puzzle together. Wearing beanies.
(For the sake of honestly I should mention that there were intervals of screaming rage before they settled down into this charming scene. Then there was some more screaming, which is why I was awake to take these pics.)
So, how’s the cooking project going? This is only the fourth official blog entry, but we’re actually up to Number 8 (of 18). The next FIVE are rather tricky for various reasons, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes (I’ve deliberately delayed the actual blog entries so they’re spaced out nicely).
One week of school holidays is DONE and OVER and no one has been hospitalised. So that’s good. The grandparents are visiting us today, which of course is fantastic. Nana is entertaining both kids, and Poppy and Chris are fixing various things around the house. They just walked through carrying the innards of our sofa bed.
Grandma’s Spaghetti
The Year 1 teacher who organised Louisette’s new recipe book wanted FAMILY recipes (with a strong hint of ‘multicultural, please’) and this one is a ripper.
My children are dead-set against anything to do with tomatoes (except of course, for tomato sauce, which bears little resemblance to the fruit*) so I knew that this was unlikely to be accepted with grace. However, any recipe that contains only three ingredients is a winner in my book.
- 500g spaghetti
- Tin condensed tomato soup
- Grated cheese
Cook the spaghetti, drain it, mix it with soup and sprinkle it with cheese.
Aaaand. . . you’re done!
TJ liked it (although I know from experience he’d probably refuse it next time.)
Yum Factor: 3 (I like grated cheese)
Health: 3 (passable as a meal, but is mostly made of starch and salt)
Easy: 5
Will make again? Probably not, because Louisette won’t eat it; I require more meat in my meals; and putting any red liquid near my 4 year-old is asking for trouble (especially when there’s also long, whippy, drippy noodles involved).
* * *
In other news, today I filled in my annual stall holder form for the Goulburn Waterworks Steampunk & Victoriana Fair. (Here‘s the facebook page for last year, and I blogged about it here, with pics.)
The fair (now called the Steampunk Victoriana Fair) has been getting much bigger every year, and this year they’ve gotten big enough to have “Stall Holder APPLICATION” forms rather than just forms.
What I mean to say is, they’re bringing in STANDARDS.
They now request details about the stall, and a picture or photo of what the stall will look like. If you’re connected to me on facebook (especially on either my ‘general‘ page or my ‘Antipodean Queen‘ page), you probably see such things about once a month, for example:
But since I’ve been stallholding at the Steampunk & Victoriana Fair for the last three years (before I had any books out, in fact!), and have enjoyed all my interactions with the divine (and divinely well-organised) Julianne, I decided to do a drawing instead. This drawing:
I feel there’s a raw honesty to my work that goes beyond the merely picturesque. I also feel that I probably won’t be a contributing visual artist to the “Murder in the Mail” and “Magic in the Mail” stories anytime soon.
*Or is it a vegetable? Argue away in the comments.
Moose?
My daughter had heard of moose, but not mousse. . . so when her dad and I discussed making chocolate mousse she asked, “Will it come alive when it’s finished?”
(Being scientifically-minded, she knows perfectly well that mammals have live young. . . but she also knows there are a lot of weird and wonderful ways to make life happen.)
Speaking of Louisette, she and I were talking today about what she wants to be when she grows up.
She told me that she wants to be a scientist, spy (a new kind who doesn’t spy on people), vet, doctor, nurse, police officer, firefighter, artist, writer and mum. “I have decided that I WILL be a Mum and I WILL marry a man.”
[I have told her that she can’t marry a family member, and if she marries a girl it’s slightly trickier to have kids.]
I said, “The most important thing about marriage is picking the right person. If you pick, for example, a bully—that would be terrible every day.”
She said, “I already have some ideas.”
Of course I wanted details, so she told me (names redacted, obviously):
Kid1, “because he likes science just like me.”
Kid2, “because his name starts with ‘L’ just like me.”
Kid3, “because he is kind.”
Kid4, “because he is funny and has all the best stories.”
Kid5, “because he is very very very very kind.”
I was very impressed with her logic, and with her choices (I know all of these boys; some quite well). I was especially happy that none of her choices have ever been mean to her (I do encourage her to be friends with those that tease her, within reason), and that only one is Caucasian.
We talked about how far away marriage is, and how marrying a good friend is definitely the way to go.
So that was fun.
Chocolate Mousse was always going to be a winner. (You can google your own recipe; I’ve typed enough today.) Vast amounts of chocolate and cream, with sugar added?
Yum Factor: 5 (so rich it’s deadly)
Health: -1000 stars
Easy: 4 (gotta use a dry bowl to whip egg white. . . which I didn’t, and it was still fabulous)… but it’s not easy to tell the kids they can’t eat it until the next day.
Will make again? Probably not, but maybe at Christmas (probably with Bailey’s added). It’s WAY too much cream for my system to handle, so I’d attempt it with lactose free cream (after consulting my also-low-lactose Mum about whether lactose free cream can whip). It’s gluten free (like my mum), so actually that’s helpful. A LOT easier than cake, and yummier too. So… probably yes, now I think of it.
Holiday Recipes
My daughter is getting three weeks of holidays between Terms 2 and 3. She’s a pretty great kid, but that still fills me with blinding terror.
A few weeks ago, her Year 1 teacher asked the kids for family recipes. Those recipes were typed, bound, and printed (with illustrations by the kids). There are about 15 recipes altogether, and I decided that Louisette and I would cook them ALL these holidays.
Yes, THAT will make everything less stressful! Come along and watch as I inevitably regret all the life choices I ever made to end up on this path to horror and pain!
We started with. . . us. Louisette’s recipe was originally from a low-FODMAP recipe book, and it’s a fantastic snack—high in protein, easy to transport (after it’s been cooled, it stays non-sticky even when left out), and still yummy!
I love the magic of SCIENCE inherent in this recipe; taking a gooey mess and adding elements that dry it out to a perfect texture.
Peanut Butter Balls
3/4 c peanut butter (cashew butter is good but stickier, so you gotta add more cinnamon and/or coconut if you cashew it up)
2 T maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c oats
1/4 c coconut
2 T dark choc chips
Method:
- Mix everything in a bowl.
- Using your hands, roll into balls (this gets very messy and sticky).
- Place in the fridge until set.
We make this recipe all the time (and of course we always eat one before they set anyways). It’s great for diabetics and low-FODMAP people (low salicylates, not so much). The above pic is the result of a double portion.
Yum Factor: 5 (aka “yes, it contains chocolate”)
Health: 4 (not exactly a salad, but a million times better than just chocolate)
Easy: 3 (heavy to stir but mixes easily; annoying to put into balls)
Will make again? Uh. . . yes. About three times a week until the kids move out. This is one of the five foods they eat willingly AND it counts as a treat (useful, since our household is a treat-based economy).
How to Make an Epic Dino Cake
My son turned four this week, and asked for a dinosaur cake. Once I had the revelation that (a) I don’t like cake, so (b) Why bother making it? but (c) I do like creating peculiar things, and (d) The only thing they’ll eat is a horrifying amount of icing anyway… It all fell into place.
Or at least, it fell.
TJ is a winter baby (which means parties must be inside), and his father, grandfather, uncle, and oldest cousin all have birthdays within about a week. So I arranged to have two parties today: one for TJ’s friends (at an inside playground with a dino room), and one for his numerous relations (at my house).
That meant I could make a single giant cake and use leftovers for party #2.
There are two basic schools of thought for dinosaur cakes: One big dinosaur, or a scene with several dinosaurs. In my opinion, the one big dino cake takes more skill. Sure, there are dino-shaped cake tins out there, but you still need to be able to have smooth icing. Not gonna happen.
I was clever enough to assemble the cake at the location of the party, rather than attempting to carry it safely in a vehicle (and to take my own knives and large containers in which to bring home the leftovers). I was also clever enough to order the base from Woolworths. I ordered a basic slab cake, two layers, no icing. It was $20. I took three layers off part of it, and moved them to the top at the back. Voila! A cliff face ready for a waterfall.
At Woolies I’d previously bought various items: edible glue (which I couldn’t figure out how to open, so I hacked it open with a knife; used it to stick cupcake topper sheets around the sides), writing icing (used for the blue lines in the water), Natural Confectionary dinosaurs, and a full roll of “ready rolled icing” suitable for a 22cm round cake, which I sliced into shapes with a butter knife for the water.
I’d made a double portion of chocolate buttercream icing at home (it needs to either be made or re-mixed on the day or the butter hardens and it’s useless), which had a pleasantly different texture to my “water”. I spread it in a hurry, and quite thick, so it just covered the top. I was using my hands and laughing maniacally at this stage, rather aware of my deadline as one of the kids had to leave early and there was another party using the room at 12, etc etc. The buttercream icing had enough stickiness to draw up some of the cake, and it also struggled a bit to hold onto the “cliff”. But it worked well enough. As you can see, smooth flat icing is not my forte (not that I was particularly trying this time).
This icing was easy to shove about, and it was great for standing up little dinosaurs later.
I had prepared some desiccated coconut ages earlier with food dye, intending it to be green grass but it was too blue so I chucked it in the water.
The trees didn’t really work (but who cares? They’re made of Tim Tams, mint leaves, and lolly bananas), although leaning them against the cliff helped (the edible glue didn’t—using icing might have worked a little).
The mountains and volcanoes are “chocolate” waffle cones. I’ll go into more detail about the volcanoes in a bit…
The flowers were a pack of edible flowers I impulse bought at Woolies when I was examining sundry icing/sprinkle products for inspiration.
I also used:
-Green and yellow sprinkles for grass/sand. (If your child is very scientific, this is not the cake for them… grass is a relatively recent plant.)
-Edible white balls from the same pack to be dino eggs (quite a stretch).
-Dino candles (they are parading across the water at the top of the waterfall. I presume this is how they became extinct. That, and being on fire). Ebay.
-Lots of fondant dinosaurs from ebay (actually, I was pretty happy with them despite how fragile they are. They mostly survived the post and last a long while (weeks), and taste better than anything rice paper-ish).
-Dino sprinkles around the edge of the water (SO not necessary… AND mixed with other sprinkles… but TJ was rather taken with the idea of dino sprinkles).
-Strawberry topping carefully applied around the edges of the volcanoes for lava (it was important that none of the topping got inside the volcanoes).
-Mini plastic dinos (tube of 20 or so for $4 from Kmart and I dropped some in each party bag afterwards), and two wind-up dinos ($3 each at Kmart).
-Dino cupcake toppers for the sides of the cake (stuck on with “edible glue” from Woolies), and Tim Tams.
As you can see, the aesthetic I was going for was: I bought a whole lotta vaguely cake-related stuff and I aim to use it ALL.
So there it is in all its glory.
Now let’s talk volcanoes.
I dug two holes in the cake, and inserted small empty (clean) coke bottles (I experimented with other shapes and the mini soft drink bottle worked best). Then I broke a hole in the pointy end of two waffle cones and placed them over the top.
I was careful to make the bottle hole and cone hole match up as well as possible. You can see one of the bottles in the top of this pic:
The cones did shatter a fair bit, but they fundamentally worked.
Bring a SEALED bottle of DIET red (the colour doesn’t matter; a lot of people use Coke because the dark colour is more dramatic but obviously red was better here).
At the last moment, fill both bottles. Then drop two MINT MENTOS into each one.
NB: The red diet drink I used uses stevia (considered a more ‘natural’ sweetener than the old chemical ones that have a number and/or a multisyllabic name). A LESS natural drink is likely to cause a greater explosion.
My daughter and her friend held the wind-up dinosaurs and let them go when I said, “Now!” and dropped the mentos into the volcanoes.
I lit the candles before pouring the diet soft drink into the bottles.
Mega Lolly & Chocolate Review
It’s been a while since I reviewed something heinously unhealthy on this blog, so when I saw a whole bunch of new and exciting permutations of sugar, cocoa, and chemicals at Woolies today I bought them all.
Let’s begin, as every good beginning does, with chocolate.
Lindt Orange Intense
I’m not usually a fan of dark chocolate, but this has almond slivers and orange bits in it which just works. It’s also beautifully thin, with a lovely crack when you break it. It’s also ten squares adding up to 100g, which pleases me immensely.
It’s particularly good at a certain time of the month, when I suddenly want more chocolate.
Not to be confused with their orange creme variety, which I don’t like.
Lindt Fruit Sensation: Raspberry & Cranberry
The fruity centres are quite sickly sweet, which is necessary to hold their own against the dark shell. I don’t think I’ll buy them again, but I may change my mind. I’m a sucker for a round chocolate, especially one that can be eaten without getting sticky fingers, so this wins points for shape and surface texture.
If you like dark chocolate, I think this will suit you. They also have another flavour (orange maybe? I can’t remember).
having said that, I think the candied fruit innards won’t appeal much to adults (who tend to be the ones eating dark chocolate) so I think this is a short-term product only.
Cadbury Marvellous Creations: Clinkers, Raspberry Chips, Marshmallow
Love it, especially the clinkers. There’s a great range of texture and flavour without being excessively sticky (I’m looking at you, Cadbury Boost Block) or taking away too much important space in the chocolate. The eccentric shape is cute (and, I admit, fun to consume) but an obvious ploy to make the block run out faster.
Excuse me. I’m going to go eat some more right now.
Cadbury Boost Block
I’m a big fan of the Boost bar, and this is. . . not as good as that. It has a little bit of caramel, and plain crunchy things (similar to rice bubbles; no flavour to speak of but a crunch) in a differently-textured chocolate segment.
Yes, it’s fun to eat and a bit different. I don’t expect it to be around forever.
Cadbury Picnic Block
Like the Boost block, this is a variation of a popular (and superior) bar. The white stuff is pleasant but nothing to do with the original bar. I salute the creators for including a good amount of peanuts.
It’s a good way to have peanuts with your chocolate, but inferior to chocolate-coated peanuts, Darrell Lea brand peanut brittle balls/fingers (chocolate coated also; the pinnacle of chocolate/peanut relations and unlikely to ever be outdone in this world) and the Picnic bar itself.
Once again, this is a product that is fun to eat and a bit different for a limited time.
Cadbury Crispy Mint
I adore mint chocolate (I had mint M&Ms at my wedding reception) so I was initially disappointed by this block having those plain crunch things in it—I suspected they were there mainly to fill in space and save money as a result.
In the end, I grew to really like this bar. It has its own flavour (mint, obviously) and a distinct texture with both mini M&Ms (who doesn’t love tiny bits of crunchy coloured candy?) and the plain crunchy bits working together nicely.
Natural Confectionary Carnival Mix
The shapes are not as fun as dinosaurs (my favourite) or snakes (Chris’ favourite) but they are smaller, which might be good when bribing kids with a specific number of lollies. Also, the Cherry Cola and Watermelon flavours use the same shape—which is doubly unfortunate since it makes them difficult to distinguish.
Apparently these are “all new flavours”: Lemonade Float, Strawberries & Cream, Cherry Cola, Watermelon, Apple & Raspberry, Peach Pie.
I found the Lemonade and Cola flavours a bit syrupy; the watermelon, apple raspberry and peach pie were all probably a little too subtle, giving them a jelly-like effect (especially the watermelon; the peach pie also had a white section which offset the low flavour pretty well). The fruit-based flavours were clearly a minor alteration on existing flavours (and the existing flavours are better).
Conclusion: They’re an adequate addition to the range but not one that deserves to stick around.
NB: People on low-FODMAP or low-salicylate diets should be careful with Natural Confectionary, since they purposefully use fruits for flavouring, which is excellent except when one is intolerant of that fruit.
Natural Confectionary Sour Soda Pops
The soda pops are all bottle shapes, so some are quite difficult to distinguish. The flavours are Blackcurrant Soda, Raspberry Lemonade, Orange Fizz, Cola, Lemon Squash, and Lime Pop.
Fundamentally, these are sour lollies (a shocking conclusion, I know). I’m generally not a big fan of sour lollies (the best, in my opinion, are Sour Patch Kids, not least because the sourness goes away as you eat the lolly). They taste exactly as you’d expect a high-quality sour gummy lolly sprinkled with sugar to taste: not too sour, so as not to put off mainstream consumers, and with a nice texture.
Felicity Banks 