Apple #695: Licorice

Daily Apple reader Maximilian wants to know about licorice.  This question was posted somewhere on his facebook wall or on mine, but I don't remember where exactly, and the dang things aren't searchable -- at least, not in any way that is at all reliable or usable (thanks a lot, Zuckerberg).  So I have no recollection of the context for the question, or what specifically about licorice Maximilian wanted to know. Which means I'm going to take the scattershot approach and hope, in covering as wide an area as possible, I hit the target.

Because there are a LOT of things to know about licorice.  There's the plant itself, there's black licorice, and then there's red licorice.  I'll take each of those things in turn.


Will the real licorice please stand up?
(Photo from Door County Confectionery)

Liquorice Plant

• I'm choosing to spell the name of the plant with a q, mostly to distinguish the plant from the candy licorice.  You can spell it either way in any context; this is just a distinction I'm making for the purposes of this entry.

• The liquorice plant has been known and loved for centuries, by civilizations around the globe.  The Chinese loved it, the ancient Greeks loved it, the ancient Egyptians loved it.  There's even some in King Tut's tomb.

• It's a legume (like a bean) that grows in open scrublands, near ditches or streams.  In the US, it grows in California, Nevada, and Utah.

• Outside the US, it grows in places which can be hard to do business with: Afghanistan, the People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey (M&F Worldwide's 10-K/Annual Report).

• The Latin name of the plant looks like someone sneezed while typing it: Glycyrrhyzia glabra.  

• But if you break that word down, it makes sense.  Glyc- reminds you of glucose, yes? That's because it means "sweet." And -rrhyz should remind you of "rhyzome" because it means "root." So the Latin word means "sweetroot."

• In fact the sweetroot compounds (glycyrrhyzin) that collect in the roots of the plant, and which are used for flavorings, are about 50 times sweeter than sugar.  

Glycyrrhyzia glabra, or liquorice the plant. Looks like a pretty ordinary shrub, doesn't it? This one is growing in Bremen, Germany.

(Photo from Russian Wikipedia) 

Liquorice the plant gets these clumps of pods that contain seeds. Kind of like what you see on a sumac bush.

(Photo from Wikimedia)

Liquorice root, cut and dried. This is where all the glycyrrhyzin compounds are concentrated, and it's the roots that are the source of liquorice extract.

(Photo from Health Mad)

Hunks of liquorice root that will get ground down further to form a powder which can then be made into capsules or made into a liquid extract or even an herbal tea.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Medicinal uses

• I'll get to the flavorings aspect in a bit. But first I want to talk about the medicinal uses of the liquorice plant.  Because they are many and varied and kind of surprising.

• To be clear, eating licorice the candy probably won't affect you in these ways. You would need to get some type of botanical liquorice the plant extract.

Licorice root extract. People take it for any number of medicinal reasons. If you try it, please use it in moderation.
(Photo from Drugstore.com)

• Ulcer treatment -- evidence is mixed on this, but suggests generally favorable results. Or at least, it might help reduce the pain associated with ulcers.

• Cough suppressant -- liquorice is a bronchial dilator, which means it opens the tissue in your lungs, allowing you to breathe more freely and cough less often.

• Expectorant -- loosens mucus to make its removal easier during coughing. Another reason liquorice was often used as cough medicine.

• Stomach acid reducer -- I don't know how well liquorice compares to the purple pill, but some people apparently report some benefit.

• Reduces inflammation -- mainly in the gastric land, so it could be helpful in treating heartburn or indigestion.

• Laxative -- the extent of the effect seems to vary quite a bit depending on the dosage and the person.

• Fat burner -- some reports say that liquorice may help reduce either the amount of body fat, or the thickness of body fat. However, the dosage necessary to see results here also resulted in much higher water retention.

• Depression -- here, reports are very mixed. Some say it helps combat depression, others say too much liquorice brings on or worsens depression.

• Which leads me to the other side of liquorice as a medicinal treatment, which is that too much of it can cause problems, such as:

• Increased blood pressure
• Increased heart rate
• Increased water retention
• Reduced potassium, which can result in irregular heart rate
• Muscle weakness
• In pregnant women, lots of liquorice can result in early births or miscarriage.

In Tobacco

• One little point here.  Most tobacco products (cigarettes, pipe tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, chewing tobacco, and maybe even some cigars) contain liquorice.  Not much, maybe only about 1% to 4%, but it's in there.

• Some people say it's added for the flavoring and that it helps the tobacco stay moist (one of your favorite words, Maximilian). 

• Other people who I think are closer to the mark say the real reason is because of liquorice's bronchial dilation properties.  It helps open up the lung tissue so you'll be less likely to cough, get a bigger hit of the nicotine, and want more tobacco more often.

Here is one extreme example. This is chewing tobacco -- "smokeless tobacco pellets" -- flavored strongly with licorice. (Or, I'll bet they actually used anise to get the licorice flavor.) One tin will set you back £4.55, or about $7.

(Photo and tobacco from Black Swan Shoppe, where you must be 18 to enter) 

Black Licorice

Black licorice. Usually flavored, not with liquorice, but with anise. Same is true for black jellybeans, black Jujyfruits, Good 'n' Plentys, licorice ice cream -- anything supposed to taste like licorice is probably actually flavored with anise.

(Photo of Australian black licorice from Heini's)

• When liquorice the plant is used as a flavoring, it tastes a lot like black licorice the candy.

• However, most black licorice today is made using anise seed or even fennel, both of which have flavors similar to liquorice the plant.  This is because they are cheaper and easier to come by than actual liquorice. 

• Anise grows pretty easily in lots of places in the US, around the Mediterranean, in Asia.  In short, you don't have to fight anybody to get anise, while you might have to do so to get liquorice. 

• Sometimes black licorice also contains molasses as a way to get the candy to have the color we expect of black licorice.

• The first time licorice (black, of course) was made and sold as a candy was in Holland in the 17th century. It's been a favorite in Holland and the Netherlands ever since.  Even though now, their licorice, too, is probably flavored with anise rather than actual liquorice.

• While the absence of liquorice in black licorice candy may be disappointing to some purists, the good news is that we don't have to worry too much about possible liquorice-related health risks when we eat black licorice candy.  Because there's probably zero liquorice in it. 

• Most candy manufacturers will use the spelling of the word to indicate whether it's got actual liquorice, as I have:

• Liquorice = contains actual liquorice-the-plant extract
• Licorice = contains mostly or all anise oil, and no or very little liquorice-the-plant extract

• However, not everybody follows this convention.  If you really need to be certain about the absence of liquorice in your black licorice candy pipes, check the ingredients.

Liquorice root on top of licorice candy. Which is probably aniseseed candy.
(Photo from Annmarie Gianni Skin Care)

Red Licorice

Red licorice. Or more accurately, red corn syrup & flavoring.

(Photo from kmonse's Tumblr page)

• For my money, red licorice should be called something altogether different because it never has contained any liquorice extract, nor does it contain anything attempting to approximate a licorice flavor.

• It's pretty much all corn syrup, colored red, plus some sweeteners to make it taste like cherry or strawberry or whatever the heck other flavor you want.

• Nothing to do with actual licorice at all, except to mimic its texture.

• So for those of you who say, "I like red licorice, but I hate black licorice," what you're really saying is, "I hate licorice, but I love corn syrup."

• Both red & black licorice also contain wheat flour, used as a binder to hold everything together. So licorice is NOT gluten-free.

Hey, look at this. You can get a 5-pound bag of red "licorice" Scottie dogs for about $30. They sell black licorice Scottie dogs, too.
(Photo and Scottie dog candy from CandyWarehouse)


For the record, I like black licorice AND red so-called licorice. I am not licorice-racist.


Sources
Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, Glycyrrhyzia glabra (liquorice)
USDA NRCS Plants database, Glycyrrhyzia glabra
University of Maryland Medical Center, Licorice
Medline Plus, Licorice
KSL.com, Cigarettes: Some things you probably didn't know were in there (including licorice), September 11, 2012
Licorice International,  About Licorice
SF Gate, Dangers of Black Licorice, date unknown
Boston Globe, What's the difference between red and black licorice, besides color? August 29, 2011
Livestrong.com, Black Licorice vs. Red Licorice
Eating Real Food, What's in a Twizzler?

Apple #670: Easter Candy Facts

A lot of people have a lot of opinions about Easter.  I have mine, you have yours.  But one thing we can all agree on is Easter candy.  So here are your fast Easter candy facts to have at the ready as you're sitting around with friends & family this weekend, gnawing the ears off some hapless chocolate bunny.

The bunny might be hopless too, since it's chocolate. Hahahaha!

Look at the ears on those chocolate bunnies.  Just asking for it.
(Photo and chocolate bunnies from Lake Champlain Chocolates. Each year, they make a 3-pound chocolate bunny they affectionately call Mr. Goodtime Bunny.)

• After Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy holiday of the year.  Bigger than Christmas. 

• 120 million pounds of Easter candy are sold each year in the United States.

• The total amount of candy manufactured in anticipation of each Easter includes:

• 90 million chocolate bunnies
• 91.4 billion eggs of various sorts
• 700 million marshmallow Peeps
• 16 million jelly beans

• Children's favorite color of jelly bean: red. 

There's one marshmallow Peep born every 6 seconds.
(Photo from Buzznet)

• Altogether, we Americans spend $14.7 billion with a B on Easter stuff.  Not just candy, but decorations, clothes, Easter bonnets, etc.  That's about $131 per household. 

• $2.1 billion with a B of that is candy.
• 70% of the $2.1 billion is chocolate.

• 76% of chocolate bunny-eaters say they eat the ears first. 

• According to Guinness world records, the largest chocolate Easter egg was over 34 feet tall and weighed 15,873 pounds. I'd hate to be around when that thing hatched.

• Cadbury starts making & selling their creme eggs on New Year's Day through Easter.  So get 'em now before they vanish for the rest of the year. 

What's the creme in those Cadbury eggs made of? Sugar & water. That's it.
(Photo from Buzznet)



Hoppy Easter!
(Photo from Healthline)


Sources
Do Something.org, 11 Facts About Easter
ABC15 Arizona, Easter candy: 9 facts that may surprise you
ABCNews, 90 Million Chocolate Bunnies and Other Fun Easter Facts
Chicago News Tween US, Hunting for Easter egg trivia? Find 11 fun facts here

Apple #614: Sugarplums

For my continuing series on Christmas-related topics, I thought it might be nice to investigate some of the unusual items that pop up in Christmas carols and stories.  The first oddity I thought of was sugarplums.  Those children have sugarplums dancing in their heads, but what the heck are sugarplums, anyway?


"The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads."  (From "'Twas the Night Before Christmas")
(Image from the Christmas Library)


I've always pictured sugar-plums as bon bons that are made of plums, or they're purple like plums, and dusted with confectioner's sugar.  I think maybe that's how somebody drew them in a picture book once.  But it turns out I was completely wrong.  That is not at all what sugar plums are.

• First of all, sugarplums don't even have plums as an ingredient.

• Sugarplums, according to my OED, are a round or oval candy, made of boiled sugar, and variously flavored and colored.

• Well, that could describe all sorts of candies.  My OED says they're also a type of comfit.  

• But what's a comfit?

• If you've ever had those Good 'n' Plenty-like candies with an anise seed in the middle, you've had a comfit.

These are comfits from France. Very similar to Good 'n' Plentys.
(Photo from The Accidental Hedonist) 

• They're a confection with maybe a nice middle though not necessarily so, and then coated with a hard sugar shell.  

• I wonder, if you consider a peanut a seed, then maybe peanut M&Ms are a type of comfit.

• Comfits (by the way, it's pronounced the way it looks: kohm-fit.  Hard t.) are very difficult and time-consuming to make.  

• To say nothing of the work involved in making the interior of the candy, you get a glob of the innards to stay on a wire suspended over a bowl, then you ladle molten sugar over the innards, let it cool, ladle another layer of liquid sugar, let that cool, etc., up to twelve coats.  

• Now, imagine doing all that in a kitchen of the 1700s, with a wood-burning oven and a relatively limited choice of tools compared to all the gadgets we have today.  

• Something that's that difficult to make would certainly be quite a gift worth dreaming about.

• Sugarplums were made this way, but they were formed in the shape of plums.  The wire that the candy was suspended from was left in to represent the stalk of the plum.  The seed in the middle could be anise, or caraway, or even cardamom.

Anise is a licorice-flavored seed. In star anise, the seeds grow in these star-shaped pods.
(Photo from Lala's Group)



Caraway seeds taste a little like anise, but this relative in the parsley family has a slightly warmer flavor.  Caraway seeds are often used to flavor rye bread or pickles.  They're actually a fruit, not a seed.
(Photo from Wikimedia)


Cardamom are fragrant seeds that grow inside pods like these. It is warm like cinnamon but a little spicier. Cardamom tea is fabulous.
(Photo from Lala's Group)


There are a ton of photos only of various desserts that people say are sugar plums. Many are rolled in powdered sugar, but none have a hard candy shell.  I wonder if that's because the hard shell is too hard and time-consuming for people to make at home.

It seems that everyone is going with an (actually incorrect) definition, which says that sugarplums are sugar-coated balls of fruit and nuts.  So if you want to make imposter sugarplums, you can find recipes for those all over the place.  They do seem to be much easier to make than the traditional sugarplum candies.



Actually, these might be the closest things out there to sugar plums.  This is from the website's description:

"This candy, consisting of a grain of aniseed coated in sugar, is perhaps the oldest in France, mentioned in a document as early as 872. In the 17th century, when the candy was manufactured by Ursuline sisters, six months were needed to add and dry the successive coats of sugar. Today, the factory is still situated at the heart of the ancient abbey, but the process is completed in only 15 days."

(Image and candy, available for $4.50 per tin, from the Frenchy Bee)


Wait.  I think I found something that meets the description. Anise seed candies coated with sugar -- but they're Dutch. They're called muisjes, or "mice" because the sugar coating forms a little peak at one end, like a tail.  Or maybe like the stalk of a plum!


Dutch muisjes -- maybe the closest things out there to true sugarplums?
(Photo from Clouddragon)

• I'm thinking that maybe "plums of sugar" is the best way to think of sugarplums.

• Then, of course, there's the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker.  

• This personage fits with another part of the definition of "sugar-plum," which is "something very pleasing or agreeable, especially when given as a sop or a bribe." 

• Well, the bribery part is not so nice.  But something like parents giving their children a sugar-plum or two as a way to get them to go off to bed fits in very nicely.

I think the way this woman dances the part completely epitomizes the way people must have thought of sugar plums: light, delightful, sweet but not overly so, but ultimately so good and incredible, it's almost not to be believed.



I don't know the name of this dancer, but she's part of the Bolshoi Ballet. Her skill plus the enthusiasm of the audience make me wish I could go to Moscow to see a ballet.  That wish is a sugar plum dancing in my head.


P.S. Sugar plums are variously spelled, as sugar-plums, sugar plums, and sugarplums. The OED goes the hyphenated route, but most other sources use either of the other two versions about equally as often. So I'm thinking it's a three-way tie, and that any spelling is acceptable.

Sources
My copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
The Food Timeline, Sugarplums and comfits
Sugar Plums: They're Not What You Think They Are, The Atlantic, December 22, 2010
Sugar Plums, Saveur
ifood.tv, Muisjes

Apple #581: Ice Cream

I'm pretty excited about this week's topic:  ice cream.

Yes, I'm admitting that the Daily Apple is now pretty much a Weekly Apple.  Ah, well. Such is life.

Now. On to the good stuff.  Ice cream.


Ice cream. Infinitely versatile. Always delicious. Here, in chocolate.
Photo and recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures)

• In 2009, about 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream were made. Billion. That includes hard and soft serve.

• Among those billion and a half gallons, the favorite flavors are, in order:

1. Vanilla (27.8%)
2. Chocolate (14.3%)
3. Strawberry (3.3%)
4. Chocolate chip (3.3%)
5. Butter pecan (2.8%)

Vanilla has been the champion flavor since maybe forever.Diving into a good vanilla can be pretty luxurious.
(Photo from in love godiz world)

• Chocolate is moving up on vanilla, though. In 2008, only about 10% of ice cream purchases were chocolate, so it moved up 4% in one year.

• My favorite flavor, by the way, is chocolate almond. Of basic grocery-store ice creams, that is.  Of Ben & Jerry's flavors, it's a close call between New York Super Fudge Chunk and S'mores. I won't get into my favorites of all the other varieties out there.

 
Ben & Jerry's S'mores has chocolate ice cream, chunks of fudge, gobs of toasted marshmallow, with a graham cracker swirl. I choose it first for the chocolate, but it's that graham cracker swirl that keeps me eating it.
(Photo from Polyvore)


 Ice Cream Ingredients

• Ice cream is made of some pretty basic stuff: 

1. whole milk
2. heavy cream
3. sugar
4. egg yolks
5. salt
6. flavoring

•  How much of each ingredient you put in is where the artistry comes in.  Plus, of course, whatever flavoring or extras you might add.  Such as peanut butter cups.  Or pecans.  Or chopped strawberries. Etc.

Every once in a while, I like a good strawberry ice cream. With actual strawberries. Yum.
(Photo and recipe from Singapore Local Favorites)

Ice Cream  vs. Other Frozen Desserts

• So, what's the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt, and frozen custard, and sherbet, and all the rest?  The difference comes down to the amount of milkfat in the dessert.  

• But what's milkfat?

• To get very basic about it, milk is comprised of three things: 

1. water (most cow's milk is about 87% water)
2. fat globules, called milkfat
3. solids that aren't fat, or non-fat solids

• Milkfat globules are solid at room temperature.  Homogenization breaks down the globules so that they're all more or less the same size and therefore easier to digest.

• Whole milk has at least 3.25% milkfat. Keep that in mind as a point of reference for the percentages that follow.

• Ice cream: minimum 10% milkfat. This is regulated by the FDA. To be able to call your product "ice cream," it must have 10% milkfat.  Gourmet ice creams often have more than 10%, sometimes as much as 14%.

• Custard: same amount of milkfat as ice cream, but more egg yolks. In our basic ice cream recipe, we would use 6 egg yolks to yield 2 pints of ice cream. In a basic custard recipe, you would need 20 egg yolks to yield 2 pints of custard.

• Gelato: 3% to 10% milkfat and less air than ice cream.

• Frozen yogurt: at least 3.25% milkfat. Frozen yogurt contains the same ingredients as ice cream, plus two yogurt culture bacteria.

• Low-fat frozen yogurt: 2% to 0.5% milkfat.

• Sherbet: 1% to 2% milkfat. Made mostly of fruit and water with a little bit of dairy.

• Sorbet: 0% milkfat. Technically an ice water. Any fat comes from vegetable or animal sources but not from milk or egg yolks. May contain egg whites. Does not need to be pasteurized.

 
This rainbow sherbet sure is pretty. You bet.
(Photo from FrozenHeart at Sodahead)


History

• Nobody is exactly sure when ice cream first came on the scene, but the story goes that Marco Polo came back from his trip to China with a recipe for something that was a lot like sherbet.

  
I am Marco Polo. I bring you . . . sherbet!
(Photo from Ian's page at Riverdale Elementary)

• Some time in the 16th century, Marco Polo's sherbet recipe evolved into something very like our ice cream today.  There's a lot of dispute about just where in Europe "Cream Ice" first appeared -- was it at Catherine de Medici's table in 1553 after she became the wife of Henry II in France? Since Marco Polo was Italian and so was Catherine de Medici, does Italy claim the birthright? But since she ate it in France, does France get the glory?  Or did ice cream also appear on some dignitary's table in England?

  
Catherine de Medici. I really have to learn more about her. Especially since she liked ice cream.
(Image from the History Channel)

• While we're not sure royal person in which European country ate it first, ice cream was made available to the general public in 1660 when a Sicilian offered a dish that mixed milk, cream, butter, and eggs at his cafe -- the first one in Paris.

• Ice cream was a very rare treat due to that whole frozen business until the invention of ice houses in 1800, which could store and keep ice. (Fans of Little House on the Prairie will remember when Nancy tricked Willie Oleson into locking a girl in the ice house, which could have killed the girl.)

• But it wasn't until after WWII when refrigeration became widely available that people all across the country could enjoy ice cream on a regular basis.

 
This is the hard part of making ice cream: it has to be frozen and whipped to put air into it -- simultaneously. This process is what keeps a lot of people from making their own ice cream, except on rare occasions. Here the Waltons are hand-cranking it in their ice cream barrel.
(Still from DelsJourney)



After all those serious historical figures and whatnot, I thought it was time for a banana split.
(Photo from the Tropical Ice Cream Cafe)


Finally, it would be a crime not to mention Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which is increasingly recognized as some of the best ice cream available today. You can order it online or buy it in more and more stores these days, or you can get her recipe book and make it yourself: Of her flavors, I'm not sure whether the Brambleberry Crisp is my favorite, or the Riesling Poached Pear sorbet. Yes, it's a sorbet, but it's that good.




This is a scoop of Jeni's signature flavor, Salty Caramel.



Related entries: ice cream trucks

Sources
International Dairy Foods Association, Ice Cream Sales & Trends and The History of Ice Cream
Francis Lam, Basic ice cream recipe (and how to flavor it), Salon.com
Dairynews.net, What is Milk?
The Ohio State University, Food Science & Technology, Introduction to Food Processing, Frozen Foods Definitions 
readersdigest.com, Ice Cream vs. Custard
How Products Are Made, Frozen Yogurt
TLC Cooking, Sherbet vs. Sorbet

Apple #554: Candy Corn

Someone brought candy corn in to work the other day, and I ate some. That sweet, smooth, creamy flavor reminded me immediately of when I was very little.

When my mom went grocery shopping, she took me with her because I was much too small to stay at home, and she told me I could have one treat at the beginning of the shopping trip. As an adult, I see this now as a clever trick to keep me occupied while she was shopping. But as a little kid, I thought, Oh boy! Whatever I want! Nearly every time, I chose candy corn. I loooved candy corn.


Candy corn. Beloved by thousands for over a century.
(Photo from Wikipedia)


Now, as the Apple Lady, I want to know how it's made.

• Among candy makers, candy corn is considered a type of "mellow creme" which means it has no oils or fats but it's made from some type of sweetener and has a flavor that is at least marshmallow-like.

• Candy corn doesn't just have a marshmallow-like flavor, actual marshmallow is one of its ingredients. That's what gives it that special milky, creamy consistency.

• Recipes vary from one manufacturer to another, but in general, candy corn is made of:

• sugar
• water
• corn syrup
• some manufacturers also use honey
  
• fondant (icing made of sugar, water, and corn syrup)
  
• marshmallow
• coloring
• salt
  
• gelatin and soy protein, to help it keep its shape
  
• edible wax and oil glaze, for shine

In the variant candy corns with a brown layer, the brown is chocolate-flavored.
(Photo from College Candy)

• Corn isn't actually an ingredient in candy corn, except that the molds are dusted with cornstarch, which helps the candy keep its shape and not stick to the molds.

• Essentially, the candy corn is made upside-down. Kernel-shaped wedges are punched into trays. Then a machine called the Mogul fills the trays with the candy corn mixture or slurry. White first, then orange, then yellow.

Candy corn pumpkins: similar recipe, different mold.
(Photo from the Happy Home Fairy)

• The trays of candy corn are left to dry, which may take 24 to 48 hours, depending on the moisture content of the mixture.

• After they've been allowed to dry -- not too much, just enough -- the trays are brought back to the machine where they're turned over so the candy corns fall out.
  

• The kernels are transferred to big bulbous metal bins called polishing pans where the glaze and wax are added. The kernels are tumbled together in the bins so that they polish each other as they bump against each other.

• Once polished, they are bagged and labeled, boxed and shipped.

• Remember that corn starch? It gets separated from any stray bits of candy corn, sifted, and dried so that it may be reused.

This video from the Food Network shows parts of the manufacturing process in action. My favorite part is when all the candy corns are going down the chute into those bins. Sorry about the commercial.

• Candy corn was invented in the 1880s by a guy named George Renninger who worked for the Wunderlee Candy Company.

• Not long afterward, a different candy company, Goelitz (go-litz) started making it on a larger scale.
  

• All of the candy corn was mixed and poured by hand. People used to carry 45-pound buckets of the mixture from the mixer to the people called stringers who poured it into the molds.

• The same company still makes candy corn, only that company today is called Jelly Belly. Actually, a lot of other companies make candy corn, too, with Brach's making the majority of it. Regardless of the manufacturer, they all do the entire thing by machine.

• Estimates of how much candy corn is produced vary widely. Anywhere from 20 million to 35 million pounds of candy corn are made each year. Another estimate puts it at roughly 8.3 billion pieces of candy corn made per year.

• 75% of that production is for Halloween alone.
  

• But candy corn isn't just for Halloween. You can get it in different colors for various holidays -- red white and green for Christmas, pink red and white for Valentine's Day, and pastel-colored for Easter.

I have never seen "bunny corn" before, but apparently it's out there.
(Photo and bunny corn, available in 10-lb cases, from MyPartyPlanner.com)


I would also like the answer to this burning question: do you eat candy corn from the top down, or the bottom up?



Candy corn cupcakes
(Recipe and Photo from The Little Kitchen)

Additional resources:
Make your own candy corn
Easy candy corn cupcakes
Crochet little ghosts, pumpkins, and candy corn
Dress up like candy corn for Halloween
Make Candy corn vodka tonic


Sources
TLC Howstuffworks, What is candy corn and how is it made?
enotes, How Products are Made, Candy Corn
Haunted Bay, Candy Corn

Apple #456: Cupcakes

I completely forgot all about the Daily Apple this past Sunday.  Incredible, I know.  But I did.

One of the things I was doing instead of coming up with a new Daily Apple was eating cupcakes.  So here's some trivia about cupcakes.


Cupcakes from The Magnolia Bakery in New York City.
(Photo from Things to See NYC)

• One of the earliest known recipes for cupcakes, from 1796, calls for
• 1/2 pound sugar
• 1/2 pound butter
• 2 pounds flour
• one glass of wine
• one glass of rosewater
• two glasses of emptins, or dregs, perhaps of cider or beer
• nutmeg
• cinnamon
• currants

• They didn't have cupcake tins back then.  I'm not sure what they would have baked them in, but by the 19th century, people were baking cupcakes in ramekins, which are individual ceramic bowls that are smaller than the typical cereal bowl.  If you've ordered creme brulee in a restaurant lately, chances are it was served to you in a ramekin.

• Some people make cupcakes in actual mugs.  People like to do this because, with a microwave oven, these can be made right in the mug, no extra bowls or dishes necessary, in five minutes.  One baker said that five minutes is too long, that the cupcakes turn out rubbery and inedible, and that 2 mins 30 secs works much better.  

• Here's a recipe for a microwave chocolate mug cake that actually seems to have worked.  This baker also nuked hers for around 2 minutes instead of the usual 5.  She's got video uploaded on her site of how she did it.  The video has quite a bit of unnecessary stuff in it.  Start at around 2:05.

• Cupcakes have become enormously popular lately.  I've been noticing lots of blogs springing up that are devoted specifically to cupcakes.  Stores have opened in my town that sell nothing but cupcakes.  In 2008, Google reported that the greatest increase in the number of recipe searches was for cupcakes. 

• I did a quick search for cupcake blogs and found thousands.  One hit listed the top 50 blogs solely about cupcakes.  So if you're mad about cupcakes and you want new recipes strictly for cupcakes but on a regular basis, check out this list and you'll probably find a blog or 5 or 10 that you might want to follow.

• For decades, a phrase has been passed around in the product development and marketing world, which is that if you want to make a product sell really well with women, "shrink it and pink it."  That is, make it smaller and make it pink and it'll sell like hotcakes.  Or should I say, cupcakes?

The cute and the pink factors are very hard at work in the cupcake world.
(Photo from Hostess blog.  There's no recipe, it's an entry only about cupcake photos. Saturated with cuteness and pink.)

• A lot of feminists say, don't keep using that "shrink it and pink it" phrase because that's demeaning to women and it's not accurate anyway, products that are small and pink don't necessarily sell better than others that are neither.  (I, for one, try steer clear of pink most of the time.)  But apparently the phrase seems to be pretty apt as far as cupcakes are concerned.

• Another sign of cupcakes' popularity:  a search of Amazon for books with the word "cupcakes" in the title brought up 518 hits. Granted, not all of them are cupcake cookbooks.  One of them was this murder mystery:

I don't know why this is, but new copies of the above cupcake recipe book sell for about $7, while used copies sell for $63.  Usually that means they've been signed or something, but there's no indication of that in this case.  Perhaps this is a real-life cupcake mystery?

• In England, cupcakes are called "fairy cakes."  

• Some people say that fairy cakes are different than cupcakes because they have a dome on top.

• Others say that fairy cakes have "wings" on top that look like fairy wings.  Still others say those aren't fairy cakes, those are butterfly cakes.

Fairy cake or butterfly cake.  That's butter cream spread in between the "wings" on top of the cake, with powdered sugar dusted on top.
(Photo from Absolute Astronomy)

• Then there are cupcakes decorated all sorts of ways, for all sorts of purposes.

Darth Vader cupcakes from katiepeck on Flickr.


Lego cupcakes.  Don't know who made these originally, but Forever Geek picked up the photo.


This idea has become popular lately, too: serving a tower of cupcakes rather than cake at wedding receptions.
(Photo from Kate's Wedding, but I think the cupcake wedding cake may actually be from the Vanilla Bake Shop)


This isn't that appetizing, but it's really funny.  It's cupcakes with portions of Stonehenge replicated on top made from, I believe, pieces of Twix candy bars.  I found this posted on a blog that's not about cupcakes, but rather Stonehenge replicas of all sorts.  Definitely check out Clonehenge.
(Photo and cupcakes by tokyopop)


This might be the fanciest cupcake I've ever seen.  This is a strawberry-lime stuffed cupcake from the Food Network.  There's actually a recipe on that page.



Hey, remember these, everybody?  The Hostess cupcakes with the cream filling?
(This is actually an oil painting of the cupcakes in question by Pamela Michelle Johnson)

• The first Hostess cupcake was made in 1919.  That's way older than I would have thought.

• But it was in 1950 that the signature squiggle was added on top and which, I think, gave them their true character.

• I've always suspected that they shoot the filling into the cupcakes with some sort of cream filling spray gun, but I wasn't able to find out whether that was the case.

• If you want to make your own version of Hostess cupcakes, here's one recipe with directions.  They squirt the filling in using a pastry bag with a star tip.

Sources
Food Reference.com, Cupcake
Absolute Astronomy, cupcake, ramekin
Enterprise Nation, Cupcakes: the facts, figures, and how to get started
lemondrop, "Shrink It & Pink It" -- The Sad Truth About How Tech Markets to Women, February 19, 2010
Hostess.com, CupCakes