Quick, Easy, Simple, Gorgeous and Delicious Christmas Tray Treats your Kids can Whip up in a Jiffy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Himself and I had a friend babysit our kids at her house whilst we sneaked out to the shops to “help Santa”  bring in some surprises for Christmas Day.

When we came back later to collect the children they surprised us with a lovely treat:  her son and our two had been busy in the kitchen making some wonderful little Christmas tray treats.

Simple ingredients, easy to make and looking amazing!

These little Christmas “puddings” are not “puddings” at all, but are really just mallowpuff biscuits, partly covered with melted white chocolate, and topped with New Zealand “lollies” (sweets/snoepjes/candy) in the form of  gummy spearmint leaves and a Jaffa.

Since these were presented fully-made and as a surprise, I didn’t get the chance to photograph the seperate ingredients, but here are links to photos that should shed some light on what the ingredients actually are .

Mallowpuffs are described as “Light fluffy marshmallow sitting on top of a shortcake biscuit, covered in luxurious milk chocolate.”  and you can see a picture of them here:  http://www.griffins.co.nz/by-name/mallowpuffs

Spearmint Leaves are a soft-ish chewy gummy type sweet, tasting (naturally enough) of spearmint and shaped like a leaf.  Here’s a link to a photograph: http://www.lollyworld.com.au/pascall-spearmint-leaves-2kg-bulk-nz-lollies-624.html

And Jaffa’s are a classic New Zealand sweet that all Kiwi’s know and love, they are little balls of chocolate covered in a hard orange candy shell : http://www.shopnewzealand.co.nz/en/cp/Cadbury_Jaffas_140g

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ingredients:
- Mallowpuffs
- White Chocolate
- Spearmint leaf lollies/sweets/ candy
- Jaffa lollies/sweets/ candy

Method:
Cut the spearmint leaves in half (lengthwise) , melt the white chocolate, put into a piping bag (or sturdy plastic bag with a corner snipped off) and pipe  it onto the top of the mallowpuff biscuits (cookies).

Then place the spearmint leaf pieces into the choclate and top with a jaffa for the “berry”  in the centre.

My friend melted the white chocolate and supervised the piping, her 11 year old son cut the leaves in half with a sharp knife and my 10 and 6 year olds made a little production line with the 11 year old to assemble everything.

They made a grand effort and doesn’t the result look stunning?  (I think so!!!)

Maybe you will need to find similar “style”  ingredients where you are if an exact match isn’t possible, but the idea is blissfully easy and if three kids can whip up three trays of these with  minimal  help from an adult, then it proves  that this would be a quick and easy winner of a recipe for any busy adult (or adult with kids) to whip up for  that work afternoon-tea,  end-of-year school party, or sports function etc.

As an addition to your Christmas baking trays, they couldn’t be easier and they look wonderfully festive!

The note reads… “dear Mama and Daddy, Love from …(Kids names obscured for internet privacy).

PLEASE NOTE: I’ve been warned that trying to substitute icing / frosting for the white chocolate is fraught with difficulty, because  unless the icing/frosting is of an exact consistency, it will simply slide off the side of the mallowpuff into puddles at the bottom, so DO use white chocolate  which I’ve been assured is pretty much foolproof.

So… How do they taste? Excellent!… I “needed” to taste several to make sure LOL . Enjoy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ganong Chocolate in St Stephens…

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are in the Ganong Chocolate factory, doing the tour and learning all about chocolate making.

Don’t these look delectable?

Ha ! Gottcha, the chocolates in this photo aren’t in fact real, they are over-sized toy ones,  each just a little smaller than my computer mouse in size and there are two giant ” tray’s” of these side by side.

A photo above both the “trays”  showing how the real trays are packed, the game here is for two players to race each other and place their over-sized  “chocolates” into the over-sized “trays” to match the photo we are given… first to complete the arrangement correctly wins!  believe me it’s harder than it looks!

Here are some real chocolates, yes the fake ones are very realistic!

I think that the over-sized proportions are necessary, if they were sized realistically, many a child (and adult) would have mistakenly tried to eat them.

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Ganong factory has what is believed to be the oldest operating candy machine in the world. It is a lozenge machine that has produced lozenges since 1889 when it was installed on the third floor of this building. During a factory fire in 1903, two such machines crashed thought the floor and were badly damaged. Factory mechanics were able to salvage enough parts from the two to rebuild one machine, It us still going strong at the new Ganong plant and produces more than three million lozenges each week.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

And then there are the “Chicken Bones” … err, “Chicken Bones?” for real? No… a sweet one, a candy one!

The original chicken bone was created at least 100 years ago by Baltimore native Frank Sparhawk. The exact year of it’s creation and it’s name are unknown, except that it is shaped like a chicken bone.

The chicken bone has an unsweetened dark chocolate centre, with a hardboiled sugar and cinnamon jacket. Today the chicken bone is still made the same way as it was over a century ago, only the length has changed. The Chicken Bone is the last remaining hard candy to be produced by Ganong.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We of course, stop in the shop to buy some chocolates to take with us…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

This chocolate tour was a delectable stop indeed, it comes highly recommended by the Kiwidutch family and their friends! So if you are ever passing anywhere close to St Stephen in New Brunswick, Canada,  be sure to allow some time to take a break here in this most delicious of places.

(photo © kiwidutch)

St Stephens, and the delectable aroma of Chocolate…

(photo © kiwidutch)

The children spy a playground as we travel though some small New Brunswick towns heading south… Sorry kids we are not stopping today, because we have an appointment to keep.
We want to stop somewhere famous in St. Stephens and we need to get there before the place closes for the day.. we will be cutting things a little fine as it is, so no unnecessary stopping until we get there, understand?
What are we aiming to see?

The famous Ganong Chocolate factory of course !

Phew, we arrive about an hour before closing time and the kids eyes light up when they see why we are stopping, their eyes light up even more (I hardly thought it possible but truly it IS) when they hear that in this chocolate factory and on this chocolate tour it’s free-all-you-can-eat chocolate tasting as you go!

(photo © kiwidutch)

The old factory at Ganong became too small for their present operational needs so they moved to a purpose built factory just outside town and so the original factory today houses a museum and shop… the museum gives the story of chocolate making from the cocoa bean until the finished product.

(photo © kiwidutch)

During the tour we learn that chocolate’s popularity increased in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the early 1800′s. Dutch and British experiments led to the creation of the solid chocolate we know today and by mid-century, chocolate manufacturing had taken hold in Europe and was beginning to spread in North America.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Brothers Ganong made their start in 1873 and interestingly, many of the future famous players in the chocolate business, including Droste, Nestle, Lowney, Hershey and Moirs appeared about the same time.

Ganong’s famous hand dippers were women living in St. Stephen and surrounding areas, and the display tells us that ” a hand-dipper usually worked from seven in the morning until six at night, Monday to Saturday, spending much of that time up to her elbows in chocolate.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Working hours increased after Labour Day, when Christmas production began, when workers returned to the factory for another three hours in the evening. The mark of an experienced hand-dipper was her ability to put a mark or swirl of chocolate on the top of each chocolate. There was a distinctive swirl for each chocolate, and at one time Ganong made 150 different types of chocolate. ” (Wow, what long hours!)

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are having an excellent time and the kids are beside themselves with that most dreadful of choices ” What kind of chocolate will I try from the sample tray next?”

(photo © kiwidutch)

Since Dutch handmade chocolates are made from the best-on-the-planet-chocolate produced by our neighbour Belgium, it can be hard to find chocolate in other countries that compares in any way favourably to what we have at home. I was disappointed with the Anne of Green Gables chocolate as it was clearly inferior , but WOW the Ganong chocolate is VERY GOOD indeed, and is up there with Europe’s finest.

(photo © kiwidutch)

This is a very welcome surprise because we have tasted the “Hershey” brand of chocolate whilst in America and to be honest I was very worried indeed that this place was going to be a Canadian equivalent of cheap mass produced lower quality chocolate. I needn’t have worried, Ganong is leagues above Hershey!
We looove learning all about chocolate here ! Let’s take a look around…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Restaurant Review: “Mel’s Tea Room”, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada

(photo © elmotoo)

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has traveled in a party of  seven persons that at any given moment you will probably have someone who comes out with the potential  activity stopping words” I’m hun-gry!”

Hopefully this phrase is not  voiced 25 minutes after you have paid for a breakfast that they said they were ” too full” to finish and hopefully it’s  also not one hour after a massive breakfast that you were rather amazed that  they did finish !

Either way it’s sure as eggs that once the “I’m hungry” cat has been let out of the bag that the thoughts of others  in the group will immediately turn to their stomaches and heaven help us if some days the morning started out looking like we would be hopping from one eating establishment to another ( especially if  kids had their way).

I am a firm believer  that the state of  ” starvation”  is only  bought on after  going without food for days on end and not by the first tummy rumble bought on by the sighting of an ice-cream sign in a shop window, and that treats are treats and not items  expected to be supplied by parents on demand ( in said child’s mind: seemingly every  hour or so)

Therefore, harsh Mama that I am, our kids  have to learn to live with their tummy rumbles and master the art of :

A) Patience  and self discipline.

B) The lesson that instant gratification is not  the way Life was meant to be.

C)  The realisation  that  in normal, fit, healthy and able children ( such as themselves)  these small pangs can be ignored with great safety for rather some hours without threat of death or  any kind calamity,

D)  That the addition of fresh air and exercise will make the later enjoyment of a larger meal much more enjoyable.

So no surprise then, that pitiful plea’s for ice-cream for the ” I’m hungry bunch “  immediately after breakfast were steadfastly ignored .

(photo © kiwidutch)

Herding the kids out into the fresh air for a decent walk around the Waterfowl Park has been a great experience, well enjoyed and now, with the distraction of an activity over, someone’s little voice in the back started pushed everyone’s “I’m hungry” buttons almost as soon as we were all loaded back into the van.

At least they have had the fresh air and exercise to have earned  lunch…  so we head into the heart of Sackville to look for an eatery that looks like it will survive a charge of ravenous children.

(photo © kiwidutch)

This is how we ended up in a fabulous diner called  “Mel’s “,  in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

This place is part shop at the front, and Diner at the rear. there are booths for the diners. Adults and smallest kid settle into one booth while the bigger girls gaggle together in the booth directly opposite .

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Kiwidutch adults are now getting better at knowing what to expect in this kind of eatery, so we order something simple that we know will go down without fuss for the kids…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © elmotoo)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Again we have found a family run eatery  that serves simple food cooked very well… The food is a hit, the staff are friendly and the atmosphere is easygoing and relaxed.

Mel’s Tea Rooms, Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada.

Even Mr. Four manages his toasted sandwich with gusto and the girls do well with their lunches too.  All in all, we have a reasonable  lunch for a reasonable price. So if you are looking for a successful family lunch without hassle  then I would recommend Mel’s Tea Rooms.

The only point to Note: We discover that we can’t use our credit cards here, however there is a money machine on the premises and so I use  my “pin”  card to withdraw some cash  to pay our meal  instead.

Let’s take a look at the surrounding buildings … we love the fact that this is quite a large town that  retains a small town friendly  feel…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Ingredient Confusion: So Smartie, show us your Smarties!

(photo © Flower7 / United States of America)

Imagine this: you have some sweets in front of you of a brand and type that you have known since childhood. They are called Smarties. Someone else living somewhere else around the world is decorating a cake with one of their favourite sweets: Smarties.

Amazingly enough, what you have before you is not the same product as they have but the product names are indeed exactly the same…

…and they are both sweets (candy).

A classic case of Ingredient confusion.

I’m embarking on some research into ingredients around the world that cause confusion, and with the aid of some of my Recipezaar friends and with permission to use their photographs, trying to shine a little light into the confusion.

In America, Smarties are 15 or so small round sweets (candy), about 3-4mm thick that are arranged together in small clear plastic wrappers. Ingredients are: dextrose, citric acid, calcium stearate, artificial flavors, colors. There is no chocolate involved with these sweets (candies)…

(photo © Flower7 / United States of America)

.. . which would be very confusing indeed to someone in South Africa, where Smarties are similar in style, shape, size and taste to the chocolate “M&Ms” found in the USA . If Zurie wanted to decorate a Birthday Cake or put Smarties on top of an iced cupcake, she would use her version, which have a coloured hard coating and a chocolate interior…

(photo © Zurie / South Africa)

Smarties in The Netherlands are the same as the South African ones, but they come in two varieties: the large packet pictured here are full of very small boxes of mini Smarties and the long tube is full of the regular sized Smarties. I have put a matchstick into the photo so that you can gauge an idea of scale.

(photo © kiwidutch / The Netherlands)

Hopefully these photographs have shed some light on how this simple sweet, with a same name, is so very different depending on where you might live. Needless to say, whichever one you have near you.. they both taste great !