as summer winds down, candy season starts up again. halloween is just around the corner (well, maybe down the block and around the corner) and i happened to spot the elusive Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses at my local Target (no sign of caramel apple, though...)

my first thought upon opening the bag: they sure do reek, kind of like a bag of potpourri, and not exactly appetizing. unwrapped, the kiss is a pleasant halloween-y shade of toasted orange. i'm guessing the coating is just colored, unflavored "white confection" (i tried to pick off just the coating and couldn't really discern a flavor, but i'm not entirely sure). inside, a creamy white filling that is extremely sweet but does indeed have that pumpkin spice kind of flavor.

off the shelf, these are not that great; they are simply TOO SWEET and the texture is soft and fudgy, as if they're already partially melted. however, here are two suggestions to improve your Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kiss experience:

1) Pop 'em in the fridge for a while. Chilled, these are somehow quite a bit more palatable than they are freshly-purchased. The texture is more akin to a standard Kiss and it is easier to bite off the bottom of the kisses and eat the pumpkin creme (uh, that is, if you're into that sort of thing...)

2) Eat them while enjoying a cup of strong black coffee. This helps IMMENSELY and in fact makes the whole experience quite a bit like enjoying a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. Those of you who don't like coffee... hmm... not sure what to tell ya. i'll just say that i was leaning towards a negative opinion of these UNTIL i had them with coffee, and now i'm rather fond of the little buggers.

so, that's it, my first limited edition of the season. i'm sure there are tons more on the way :) :) :)

i also had occasion to attend the "Celebrity Food Show" in beautiful downtown Anaheim, California over the weekend.

if you're expecting a massive exhibition hall filled to the brim with all sorts of decadent delicacies, well, simmer down. it was actually held in the ballroom of a hilton, so it was quite a bit smaller than anticipated.

if you're expecting dozens of A-list celebs wandering the halls and bantering with the common-folk, well, you're mistaken. i did get to see a presentation by Food Network celebrity chef Duff, from TV's Ace of Cakes, but that's about it. not to detract from his celebrity status (the crowd was WILD for him), but he's just a dude who makes slightly above average cakes. he (and geoff, and especially mary alice) seem really nice and fun, though, so it was a good time.



anyway, back to the food. here are some of the things we stumbled upon:

fiorentino super supreme ice cream: my favorite item of the show, i had a scoop of sour cream gelato with a squirt of mango mint coulis. sounds kinda weird, but really tasty and unique enough to be worth a second (and third, and fourth) look.

brandini toffee: recipe developed by a couple of kids in between listening to Hannah Montana and reading back issues of Tiger Beat. actually, it was pretty good: nice texture, not too hard, didn't stick to the dental work, not cloyingly sweet. kudos to you, young chilluns

bubbles baking company: they only sell wholesale, and their desserts were not remarkable. attractive, yes, but my cheesecake is way better. :)

the jesus cookie: um. all religious junk aside, jellybeans do not belong in cookies. i can not be persuaded otherwise.

boss nova juice company: they were handing out full bottles of this stuff all over the place. i was excited to try the "acai and passion fruit" variety, but i gotta say, i really didn't care for it. maybe it was just too exotic for me, kind of like a peppery cranberry juice cocktail. meh.

anyway, it was fun, but i think i've got my eye on this for next year.

i am a huge fan of malt, in candy or milkshakes or in a teaspoon straight out of the jar (well, maybe not so much.) i am not as huge a fan of malt liquor, but i suppose there's still time to up my street cred. at any rate, one of the first candies in which i encountered malt was the venerable Whoppers, which has a decently malty center, but covers it all in a thin layer of waxy fake chocolate (thanks, Hershey's, for your continuing efforts to destroy chocolate!)

much better are the malted milkballs that are covered by like 1/2" of genuine milk chocolate, such as these beauties manufactured by the georgia nut company. a good malted milkball is OMG GOOD, and something that i can easily eat until i become violently ill. if that's not a ringing endorsement, i don't know what is.

but, back to Whoppers. recently, as with practically every other product these days, a selection of "limited editions" have appeared on store shelves. i've seen both reese's peanut butter Whoppers and strawberry milkshake Whoppers. this past weekend, i indulged in the strawberry milkshake variety, and i must say, they're kind of not so great.

to be fair, it's not easy returning to the waters of mockolate after you've been swimming around in the real thing for so long. at least this doesn't really even pretend to be chocolate, with a coating that smells like lip balm and is disturbingly flesh-colored.

these are far from inedible, they're just really, really sweet. i still like the slightly salty hit of the maltball center, but the coating is overpowering. i don't quite get the milkshake flavor, just a vague (VERY vague) fruity essence behind a waxy sweet-sweet-sweet coating. i still ate quite a few of them-- no surprise there-- but i probably would not buy them again. i'll stick with real chocolate with real cocoa butter, thanks.

i think it's clear that i enjoy eating chocolates, but i've never spent a significant amount of time trying to make my own. it always seemed like such a hassle (and besides, what if the chocolates i like most are things i can't easily recreate in a home kitchen?)

nevertheless, i spent some quality time in the test kitchen this weekend, attempting to gauge the practicality of chocolate making. i invested a few bucks in some chocolate (just a bar of TJ's bittersweet, not fancy couverture or anything) and some candy molds. for the choco innards, i used leftover banana caramel (i'd made this to put on top of panna cotta, but still had a ton) and a kind of mint fondant, which turned out to be rather delicious despite the recipe being all kinds of funky.

so, how easy was it? actually, it was really easy and the results were not only pretty (god, i need to bring a camera with me) but tasty as @#($(. but there are a few things to note:
(1) chocolate making can be messy, especially if you are using makeshift equipment. the kitchen looked like the aftermath of an easter bunny massacre
(2) tempering chocolate is CRITICAL to making chocolates you can actually handle, and figuring out how to temper chocolate is not easy for me
(3) one should probably make sure there are guests willing to take home bunches of chocolate, because i could've eaten a few dozen of these on my own

all in all, it was a fun experience and i think there will be a lot more experimenting in the future. imagine all the crazy things you can wrap inside a yummy chocolate shell!