Wordless Wednesday: Peeps Parade

iPhone photos, PicFrame with Aqua filter

Peeps Krispie Treats

It's that time of year...time for Peeps! They may not be the most delicious food in the world but they sure are cute. So fluffy and colorful. Kind of like sprinkles, Peeps just make me happy. For my first treat, I decided to go with a subtle nod to the Peep - Peeps Krispie Treats. 

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares

When I was younger, I remember I always avoided these squares when I saw them on a dessert tray. I'm not really sure why. It could have been my aversion to most things butterscotch but I'm glad I eventually gave them a chance. 

Mixed Up: President's Choice Whoopie Pie Mix

This week I thought I'd try something a little different. I made something from a boxed mix. I'll admit, I was feeling a little bit lazy and the idea of making something from a package was ridiculously appealing. Just dump, mix, and you're ready to go, right?

I saw the new President's Choice whoopie pie mix in the Holiday Insider's Report earlier this month and thought I'd give it a try. Whoopie pies are all the rage these days. The cake seems easy enough but the marshmallowy filling has always frightened me. The "just add water" aspect of the filling part of the mix seemed super appealing to me. 

The recipe itself seemed simple enough. Minimal extra ingredients to add to the prepared mix. 

My one tip for the cake mix would be not to bother with using the electric beaters. They didn't do a great job of mixing the thick batter and it was just one more thing to get out of the cupboard and wash later on. I think a spatula or whisk would work just fine. 
 

To get consistently sized cookies, I used my one tablespoon cookie scoop. I bought that scoop when I was making hundreds of mini cupcakes for a wedding. I thought I'd never use it again but it's become one of the most used tools in my kitchen. Well worth the $12 I almost didn't pay for it. 
 

The cookies came out perfectly smooth and very evenly sized and shaped. I got 30 cookies.
 

The filling mix just required the addition of 1/4 cup of water and into the mixer. For this step I would recommend a stand mixer if you have one. It's so much easier to just set the mixer on high and walk away for the three to five minutes instead of standing at the counter with a hand mixer. 
 

The result was a super gooey, fluffy, glossy, vanilla bean laden filling. 
 

I used a piping bag to get the filling onto the cookies. It just seemed like the least messy way to go about it. I was pretty generous with the filling and still had quite a bit leftover. 
 

They turned out picture perfect. They really couldn't look more like the ones on the box. My main complaint was the taste. I thought they were revolting. The mix had a serious chemical smell to it, as did the finished product. I took one bite and I was done. There was some flavor in them that I just couldn't place but I knew I despised. 

I took them to work to get a second opinion and was surprised by what people said - they liked them! One so much so that she asked for the name of the mix so she could make them for herself. I tried one again today and found that the cake had a better flavor but the filling still tasted weird to me. 

All in all, I don't think I'd make these again. It was nice not to have to measure out ingredients but the taste wasn't worth any of the trouble I saved. At $2.99 they might be worth checking out if you're in a pinch.

Have you ever been grossed out by a prepared food that you thought was going to be tasty?

Cows Ice Cream: Take 2

While I was back home in PEI for my second trip this summer, I made a point to go back to Cows Creamery and try out some more great ice cream. While I was at the main location I got a chance to go on the factory tour with my brother and one of my cousins. I'd never been on the tour before so I was excited to see what it was all about. 

The tour started out with a short video to explain some of the history behind Cows, most of which I've covered here. First stop on the tour was a glimpse at the t-shirt printing presses. All of merchandise for all of the stores is made right here. Each arm of the machine puts a different color through the screens and onto the shirts. I thought that was pretty impressive. It looked too simple to be able to print as many items as they go through in a season.

 

Appropriately enough (for those who know me) they were printing the "Justin Beefer" shirt while we were there. 

 

There were huge prints of some of the most popular shirt designs hung on the walls. 

 

A reference to Anne of Green Gables for those not familiar.

I missed my opportunity to snap a picture of the room where the ice cream is actually made. I was sort of astounded to find out that all of the ice cream for all Cows locations for the entire season is made in this one (not very big) room over three days a week by three guys, one batch at a time.

Next stop on the tour was a view of the cheese room where they age their award winning cloth-bound cheddar for about 18 months at a very specific temperature and high humidity to replicate the environment in the caves where this kind of cheese is typically aged. The video also showed how they turn Island milk into thousands of pounds of delicious looking butter. Mmm...
 

On with the ice cream! Over the course of the trip we had four different combinations between us. Moo Crunch/Mocha Almond Fudge was my first cone. The Moo Crunch (chocolate ice cream with Cows-made "Skor" bits and peanut butter cups) was absolutely delicious. Soooooooooooo many peanut butter cups in this particular scoop. The Mocha Almond Fudge wasn't like I remembered it. It was one of my top three back in the day when I worked in Cavendish and was scoring the unofficial staff cones. However, I remember it having whole almonds and a more distinct mocha flavor than this scoop had. Could be a batch thing.  

Moo Crunch and Mocha Almond Fudge

Next up, my cousin had PEI Blueberry and Moo Crunch. She had nothing but good things to say about the blueberry. I also tried a sample and it was quite good. I'm not a huge fan of fruity ice cream but I think it would be really good if that's your thing. Sadly, she wasn't super impressed with her Moo Crunch. While the scoop I'd had a few days before was loaded with peanut butter cups, her scoop only had one. Sad. She had chosen that particular flavor because she wanted the peanut butter. 

PEI Blueberry and Moo Crunch

My brother chose Moo York Cheesecake (cheesecake base with Oreos) and mint chocolate. He really liked the mint with chocolate chunks. He also liked the cheesecake but he was expecting it to have a bit more of a distinctive cheesecakey flavor. 

Moo York Cheesecake and Mint Chocolate

For my second cone of the trip I went with Cookie Dough and Fluff 'n Udder (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and peanut butter cups). The cookie dough was really good. I had tons of cookie dough chunks in my scoop and they had good flavor and texture. 
Sadly, my scoop of Fluff 'n Udder didn't live up to the deliciousness of the scoop I had last month. There was a good bit of marshmallow but only a single peanut butter cup.

Cookie Dough and Fluff 'n Udder

Overall, I think we were all happy with our selections. The only comment we all made was the inconsistency between scoops. Some were LOADED with mix-ins and some had none. I think it's a consequence of the way the ice cream is made. As we saw on the video during the tour, the ice cream and mix-ins are kind of layered in the container. I guess if I could make one suggestion to Cows it would be to find a way to mix things up a bit more. Nothing is worse than getting all excited for a scoop full of whatever and then finding you got none. Ice cream should be a happy experience! Regardless, I will certainly be back and I enjoyed introducing my cousin (from Boston) to a true Island experience.


What's your absolute favorite flavor of ice cream? 


*Thanks to Cows for providing me and my family with the Factory Tour and the delicious ice cream!

Island Fare: Cows Ice Cream

When I am home in PEI I am lucky enough to be less than five minutes away from the Cows Ice Cream Creamery. For those who aren’t familiar, Cows is an Island staple. They started selling their ice cream out in Cavendish (home of Anne of Green Gables) in 1983. Since then they have expanded their offerings to include more than 32 flavors of ice cream. There are currently 5 locations in PEI, one in Halifax, one in Niagara, one in Banff, and one in Whistler.

I’ll be honest…I wasn’t a huge fan of Cows until I spent my first summer working at the Cavendish Boardwalk. Over the summer I managed to make friends with a few of the people working at Cows and took full advantage of my access to $1 staff cones. I think I tried just about every available flavour that summer. I also used to think it was prohibitively expensive but, in my old age, I realize it’s really not that bad. A single cone (two scoops and up to two flavors) in a freshly made waffle cone comes in just under $5. The flavors also change daily depending on what runs out and what else they've got in the freezer. 

Flavors and prices

Freshly made waffle cones. I love that smell.

The Cows website claims there are three factors that make their ice cream so good:

1.    High (16%) butterfat content

2.    Minimum air creates a high density, slow to melt in your mouth ice cream

3.    Good ingredients like fresh cream, real eggs, sugar, pure natural vanilla, fresh PEI berries, and cocoa imported from Holland

Cows is also well known for their parody t-shirts and merchandise. These shirts were all the rage when I was in elementary school. I remember they were a very popular gift to give at birthday parties. They’ve evolved from generally funny word play to cowifying pop culture phenomena. Some of them are quite clever.

This is my current favorite. I think I want the mug.

This past visit had me trying out one new flavour and two that were definitely around last summer. Moo Henry (the new one reminiscent of an Oh Henry bar) is vanilla ice cream with gooey caramel swirl, brown sugar fudge, peanuts, and chocolate pieces. It was quite tasty. The caramel was a perfect consistency and the peanuts were a nice surprise. I didn’t come across them until I got into the second scoop. 

On my second trip I decided to maximize my scoopage and get two flavors in my single cone. Fluff ‘n Udder (fluffer nutter) is chocolate ice cream with marshmallow swirl and mini peanut butter cups. I had been disappointed by this one last year but, in this scoop, it redeemed itself. My second scoop was Peanut Butter Cup Cup - peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter swirl and mini peanut butter cups. Delicious! This scoop was also way better than I remembered it being.

Peanut Butter Cup Cup on top and Fluff 'n Udder on the bottom

All in all, if you find yourself in PEI, you should definitely track down a scoop of Cows. Even if you don’t like ice cream, the stores are fun to browse through and there's usually a large cow statue outside to take a picture with.

Do you have a favorite brand or flavor of ice cream that makes you think of home?