Ginger People Ginger Peanut Chews

After a fairly awful week of fairly awful items, I figured you all deserved a break. Here's some good old fashioned food, with calories and flavor and edible components that you might actually want to eat. My good friend Rodzilla once clarified his reasons behind an A+, illustrating his point with an impressive stack of ice cream cartons. Tonight's product follows a similar principle. What makes a good, solid product for Foodette? Well, for starters, it's an embarrassing lack of photos due to consumption. Believe me, we were very close to photographing an empty package for you!
This product has some of the most unique packaging I've ever encountered, not so much in the physical execution so much as the visual. Their logo is an anthropomorphic ginger root, with hedonistically plump features and a come hither gaze. He is typically entwined with whatever additional flavored component is in the actual candy, in this case, a shapely peanut. Perhaps the most disturbing part is that on each package, he is featured either preparing or eating his own flesh- ginger pieces! That being said, if the Ginger People ever marketed a plush version of their mascot or slapped this guy on a t-shirt, I'd be all over it.Once we ate one of these peanut ginger chews, courtesy of the Ginger People, we simply could not stop. With a short ingredient list and a mere 20 calories per chew, these are a winner in not only flavor, but health. Obviously, the Ginger People are known for ginger, and these chews incorporate said ingredient in a very refined and well-executed fashion. For the most part, I found that these chews had an addictive enough flavor and spiciness that grew in intensity with each bite, but weren't so mindlessly chewable that I felt as though I was at risk of eating too many. Each chew is roughly the size of a Starburst, though rectangular, and is coated in corn starch and powdered sugar. It has an initial coolness on the tongue as a result of that coating, but then the sharp ginger flavor comes through brilliantly, with a clean and smooth heat that permeates the entire chew.
The peanut influence is also strong, and manifests itself in a flavor and format similar to the texture of natural peanut butter, with a pleasant graininess and not-too-sweet taste. The sweetness of the ginger really accentuates the nutty flavors of the peanuts, and supplements their lack of sweetness with the natural fruity flavor of ground ginger. Really well balanced and delicious to eat. Because they're individually wrapped, they're incredibly easy to slip in a pocket or purse if you don't feel like taking the whole package along on a trip or to class. These will definitely come in handy for soothing a winter cold as well as satiating my sweet tooth in the months to come.

Meltykiss Green Tea Chocolate

Waiting for Christmas Eve festivities to start is a bit like waiting around at the intermission of a middle school play. For the sake of keeping it seasonal, let's call it your nephew's musical version of a Nativity pageant. There's not a whole lot to do, but you're in a familiar place with the knowledge that when things do start, they're either going to be pretty awesome or god-awful. We always do a pretty low-key, but festive Christmas eve with tons of food and champers for all. This year, I'm contributing a few strange snacks of my own, not the least of which is a zesty Japanese offering, Meltykiss's 2011 limited winter release of green tea chocolate.
Meltykiss is green but is by no means environmentally friendly. If it was a Captain Planet eco-villain, it would be surely be the EnviroStrangler or something. There's more padding on this than there is on Martin Lawrence in any of the Big Momma films. However, it's all worth it, as each little chocolatey cube is perfectly formed with no scuffs or breakage. If you've had the classic Moritz Ice Cube candy, you can imagine what a Meltykiss tastes like. Roughly the size of a die, it has that chunky yet beguiling texture of vegetable oil and chocolate, with a low melting point that causes it to disintegrate as it hits the mouth. The center, for whatever reason, melts a little slower, with a smooth, chewy bite similar to eating a piece of gianduja or a slightly melted chocolate bar.
These have a cool texture on the tongue with a slightly bittersweet initial note from the light dusting of cocoa powder on top. The chocolate base coating is milky and sweet, more of a milk chocolate flavor despite looking fairly dark, but the center is perfection. With the fluffy texture of chilled buttercream frosting, the chartreuse center is a beautifully contrasting treat to behold.
The center contrasts the sweet chocolate with a bitter, strongly steeped green tea flavor, floral and perfumed, with a delicate sweet matcha flavor that permeates the outer and inner layers. It's very strong, which makes it the perfect gift for tea aficionados as it's not too sweet or diluted to impress. Perfect stocking stuffers and present toppers. Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Hi-Chew Mini X Fanta Honey Lemon

I rarely get ill, but when I do, it knocks me out for a few good days. One day I'll be running around, wiping my nose on my Robert Graham coat and soldiering on as I do my daily errands and assignments, the next day I'll be laid up in bed, alternating between crying and sleeping and requiring a constant stream of Fruit 2 O IV into my left arm. And that'll be the next two weeks. Because of my staunch aversion to tea and my annoyance with my school's incompetant healthcare system, when I get sick, I'm sick for a week. Who really enjoys tea, anyhow? Half the flavors of tea are flavors that can easily be accessed with a stick of gum, another habit I'm not overly fond of, and it tastes pretty gross.
Apparently, in Japan, many share my aversion to tea. Japan hates tea, right? That's why they created the Honey Lemon Fanta? Sure it is. On this blog, it is. Well, apparently there's a new Fanta flavor inspired by tea, and now there's a Hi-Chew flavor inspired by the Fanta flavor inspired by tea. They went deeper. Take note, Christopher Nolan. The Hi-Chew, courtesy of J-List, has crunchy lemon dragees surrounded by the quintessentially creamy, chewy base.
These are a pretty faithful iteration of a classic beverage. While most soda or drink-flavored candies utilize sodium bicarbonate to mimic carbonation or various combinations of sugar to get the flavor well, these mimic the drink to a "tea" while still providing a little texture and variation in each piece. The crunchy pieces are plentiful and evenly spread throughout the piece, as you can see. They are pretty sour and tart, reminiscent of a Lemonhead, but any tartness is tempered by the milkiness of the base, with a smoothness similar to a Starburst but springier. The honey flavor is quite bold, with a rich, buttery flavor bordering on caramel that interacts with the citrus and dairy exceptionally well.
My chief complaint is that this flavor only comes in the "mini" pack, which contains seven pieces of candy as opposed to the full-sized Hi-Chew, which typically contains anywhere from 8-12 pieces depending on the flavor. At $2.39 a pack, plus shipping, this comes out to a little over a dollar apiece. Unless you're a huge fan of lemon and honey or are placing a large order at J-List, don't go out of your way to order these. They're still delicious if you've got them around, though!

Shane Confectionery

It's been nearly two years since the Berley brothers, Eric and Ryan, bought Shane Candies in Center City. You may know the Berley brothers from The Franklin Fountain, their old-timey ice cream parlor complete with period costumes on Market St. just down the block from Shane's.Since buying Shane Candies in early 2010, the Berley brothers have been hard at work restoring the fusty candy store to it's former glory. Just a few of the many endeavors include pulling up linoleum floors to reveal old pine boards, uncovering and restoring original architectural elements, and repairing antique candy making equipment to put back into use. The store's new reincarnation under the Berley brothers was opened this December 5 (just in time for Christmas!) as Shane Confectionery, making this 110 Market St. location the oldest candy shop in America that still makes most of its own candy. When you funnel through the curved glass storefront windows to the store, be sure to notice the candy store timeline printed on the door. The sugary shop at 110 Market St. has been a candy store since 1863, and in the Shane family from 1911 to 2010.Almost all of the chocolates are made in-house, many from original Shane recipes, including the beloved buttercreams. And don't miss the hard candies made from their collection of over 300 Clear Toy Candy molds, a Christmas gift tradition brought over by the Germans.Those candies that aren't made in house are retro candies like Teaberry gum, Wilbur Buds (a Pennsylvania candy and precursor to Hershey's Kiss) , and Jawbreakers, in keeping with the period theme of the store. And, yes, you'll find the Berley brothers and their shopkeepers in period garb at Shane Confectionery.With attention to historical details both in architecture and candy making, and a wide but not overwhelming selection of sumptuous candies (get a salted chocolate-covered caramel!), Shane Confectionery should be on every tourist's list, especially if you have children. After a long, excruciating day of looking at, yet, another Ben Franklin statue, Shane Confectionery will win any parent back into their child's favor.

Locals can skip the sightseeing, and head straight to the chocolate case, kid or no kid.

Shane Confectionery
110 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-922-1048

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Santa

This candy has long been a favorite of mine, and I know I'm not alone. I think the Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Bar is one of the only ones to incorporate a little salinity into their chocolate, which makes it my automatic preference when it comes to picking out movie candy or a treat. It's one of the only commercially popular white-chocolate based bars out there as well as one of the few cookie-centric treats that has survived the 90's. Guys, remember the Reese's Crunchy Cookie Cup? A moment of silence. I've seen assortments of dark and milk chocolate bars along with the white ones in miniature bars, but I haven't tried them yet.
Everything about this bar is pretty much perfect, from the salty, crispy cookies that actually taste like chocolate wafers to the sweet white chocolate. It's a little too sweet, but those cookies make it just dreamy. This Christmas-themed Cookies 'n' Cream bar is shaped like Santa Claus's head. It's nicely molded and cheerful, until you remember that you're slowly dismembering an already decapitated public figure. Can't win 'em all. That being said, this was great to eat- thicker than the bar and packed with a denser layer of cookie pieces, and gone in about four bites.
Sorry, big guy.

Hershey's sent this over along with a few other goodies that you'll see pop up in a neat recipe this week. Wanna win a Hershey's holiday gift pack? It has one of these beautiful babies along with some other classic favorites repackaged for the holidays- a Hershey's Kiss Santa hat, creamy Hershey's milk chocolate holiday bells, Rolo candies, and more!
To win, just comment on this post with something holiday-related. Tell me what you're going to eat. Tell me about the worst gift you've ever received. Extra entries will be given if you retweet or post on your Facebook with a link to this post including the phrase, "Meet me under the mistletoe, Foodette!" or any other slightly creepy-sounding holiday-oriented phrase and let me know where you put it. The link, that is. Options include, but are not limited to, "Let me see your latkes," and "Honey, where's the Ramadan?" Failing that, "My daughter has her own website and all I got was a half-eaten box of artisanal truffles." I'll post the winner on the 18th, and you'll be eating bells by Christmas!

Phillips Candy House Chocolate Turtle Basket

I'm picky about my holiday food. I get paralyzed with fear when the selection is too vast and usually end up mindlessly gnawing at brie rinds. So I've narrowed my priorities down to a helpful acronym for all you viewers at home. It's easy to prioritize awesome foods this holiday season with ABCDEFGHI- Appetizers, Balls (Or Food in Ball Form, nyuck nyuck), Cookies, Deny All Canned Food, Eggnog, Fried Stuff (Namely, Latkes), Gooey Dip, Holiday punch, and iPods Playing Alvin and the Chipmunks. All things you should cram into your mouth. Not included on this list are festering hunks of meat, stale supermarket rolls, anything with powdered sugar, and bowls of salted nuts.
Have you ever eaten and enjoyed a Brazil nut? No? Because they taste like pee? Yeah, that's what I thought. Brazil nuts are the leftover skulls and amputated body parts in a pirate's treasure chest of gold 'n' spoils. They're miserable and terrible and have been fondled and rejected more times than a sweater on craigslist throughout the course of an evening, and as a result of one too many tainted handfuls around holiday time, salted nuts are off the list.
I have hope, though. After eating my way through a few of these delicious turtles from Phillips Candy House, nut-based products may make it back on the holiday A-list this year. This chocolate turtle basket was whisked across the state and made its way into my hot little hands courtesy of elves at Phillips. This is an entire chocolate basket filled with dark and milk chocolate turtles. The standard order contains milk, dark, and white chocolate turtles, but I got hooked up with salted, yeeeeaahhhhh sooooon. Yes, the basket is chocolate. Solid, drippy detailed chocolate that begs to be gnawed on like a cartoon chicken wing- a one-handed, slobbery affair.
Turtles are one of those Christmas desserts that inevitably fall to the wayside, collecting powdered sugar dust along with Mexican wedding cakes and fudge of questionable origin in the shadows of homemade pies, cupcakes, and glorious Bûches de Noël. Not these, though. The milk chocolate turtles taste like the Snickers' acerbic older sister (the one majoring in philosophy) with the kick of salt backing up the sweet, smooth milk chocolate. The dark chocolate ones were tasty with the salt but would have been delicious without them as well, with a deep, rich flavor, more powerful than the milk. The milk chocolate was definitely the more balanced of the two. What really hooked me were the nuts in these. Traditional turtles are made with pecans only, but these incorporate a bridge mix ambiance into each piece, using a mixture of pecans, cashews, and salted almonds. Hot toddy, these are good. With the salt on top and the salty nuts, they provide an excellent counterbalance to the sweeter elements.
I preferred the milk chocolates to the dark only because I found that they were a little more harmonious with the other components in the candy. They amplified the burnt sugar flavors in the caramel and accentuated the individual flavors of the nuts, especially the maple-kissed pecans, where the dark chocolate stole the show and left the others behind. Not to say they weren't delicious, of course. My definition of second place is eating three instead of four. I liked these quite a lot. For $42, you get a huge amount of high-end, smooth chocolate and a pound of turtles- approximately twenty oozing, delicious creatures. The basket weighs about three pounds on its own, so you're getting the whole shebang for about ten bucks a pound. Not bad for the presentation and goods. I imagine this would be a real hit at a holiday party, especially with the edible basket to nibble on with coffee once the turtle supply has been decimated. For the sophisticated terrapin enthusiast.

Nobel Gummy Yogurt Sours

Remember that physical contact, hand-eye coordination issue I mentioned a post or two back? Yeah, it's still here. I'm still pop, locking, and dropping like a champ. And it's laughing in the face of the kids on my college campus who insist on playing Humans vs. Zombies in the last balmy days of November. Yet another maddeningly insipid activity that further alienates me from people my own age, I'm still struggling not to scream at the kids in Steampunk bandanas with tricked out Nerf guns that they're all people- humans and zombies are people! a la Charlton Heston.
Well, little do they know, my street cred comes not from a $300 children's toy or an arsenal of foam darts, but from special Japanese gummies from the lovely Miss Love, Nobel Gummy Yogurt Sours, that bring me closer to being an actual, fairly witty zombie than they'll ever be. You see, these candies have a texture that I imagine is fairly precise to eating actual human flesh, which everyone knows is the choice nutritive supplement of the living dead. These are different from regular gummy bears in their chew, where the regular ones typically have a soft bite with a slight resistance, these are freaking fleshy, and biting into each one is like pinching the cartilage on your nose or elbow, with a decisive thud in each chomp.
The gummies are about the size of a small USB drive, with the same thickness as well. They resemble soft pieces of crystal quartz. They're an opaque, pearly shade of white, and have a hard coating of granulated sugar on their outer surface, which prevented sticky or oily residue from sticking to the fingers and added a much-needed sweet counterbalance to the tart flavor. When all the sugar is sucked off, the nude gummies are slippery in a weird way, so it's best to just chew them up before the sugar melts. While these are advertised as yogurt-flavored, they have a more saccharine, sticky taste with citrusy notes that render it more toward a generic soft drink palate, with a Sprite-like lemon flavor as the dominant taste and not a whole lot of dairy influence. Each piece ends with a persistent soapiness that isn't entirely unappealing. The entire combination, though a little esoteric piecemeal, grows on you with each piece eaten. By the end of the evening, we ate the entire bag!

Angry Birds Fruit Gummies

Manual dexterity is not my strongest suit. My face catches flying objects better than my hands, or "trout" as I like to call them, do, and most of the time I try to fashion small bulbous garments for my arms so I can simply convince people that I don't have fingers. It would make social interaction much easier.
I was surprised when I fell in love with Angry Birds last year because I didn't expect to be good at it or enjoy it. Granted, it has the graphics and soundtrack of a more sophisticated episode of Tom and Jerry and the complexity of a four-piece puzzle, but damn it, I liked it. The marketing craze expanded a little beyond my level of caring, as I'm really not a member of the core demographic of Angry Birds feminine hygiene products or Angry Birds humidifier and filter sets, but when I saw these sweet Angry Birds gummies in a gas station, I figured my buck and a half would not be better spent elsewhere. Except on those 7-11 buffalo chicken Slurpees or whatever they're hawking nowadays.
The Angry Birds gummies come in six flavors and colors representing the six primary characters in the game- red cherry basic birds, yellow lemon fast birds, green apple pigs, purple bomb birds, blue raspberry little birds, and strawberry big birds. The scent is generic but nostalgic, and reminds me less of gummy worms and bears than of the earthy, rich fruit snacks of my youth. The flavors range from sugary to spot-on, though after a while they all start to taste the same, and each gummy is carefully molded, although I did see a few creepy deformed characters.I WIIIIIIIIIIIIN.

Basically, for players of the game, it's as entertaining and fun as eating Pokemon Kraft mac and cheese as a kid or having Power Ranger Eggo waffles for breakfast before school. The characters are appropriately colored and recognizable, a feature my compulsive mannerisms appreciate as it always wigged me out to see puce sharks or tangerine severed Scooby Doo heads in my lunch box at school.
While the flavors aren't as subtle or complex as Bissinger's bears, they have a good, meaty chew and don't put you in an immediate sugar coma. They won't replace my beloved Haribo Gold Bears, but made for an interesting change of pace. Fans of the game and fans of general adorable foodstuffs should check these out. They made for a fun photo shoot, too, with Dr. D's iPad!

Japanese Sweets Deli Mochi Cream Choco Banana

It just goes to show you how far a little research can get you when getting the scoop on foreign snacks. What I initially dismissed as exuberant Engrish on the part of the maker (mochi mochi mochi cream choco-banana?) was actually the full name of a high-end mochi emporium in Hong Kong and Japan. Granted, it still read like Engrish, but now it was gourmet Engrish. This particular snack was found in a subway convenience store in Tokyo, looking for all the world like a random, strange snack food.

After doing my homework, I found out that this store packages and sells their mochi as well as vending it freshly made from their boutiques in flavors like apple pie, honey cranberry, and darjeeling tea. This pre-made snack was in one of their most popular flavors, chocolate banana, and boasted an array of fresh ingredients stuffed into the tiny mochi balls. The chocolate banana flavor had a very appealing package with a photo of a plate brimming with slices of fresh fruit and chocolate drizzling all over. The back of the package broke down the composition of the mochi dumplings in a diagram form, helpfully stating that snackers would expect bittersweet cocoa powder coating a layer of soft mochi, chewy marshmallow, and a banana and chocolate chip center.

Inside, the mochi are wrapped individually and are very neat. The product is a victim of the potato chip cushioning phenomenon- despite looking as though the bag could hold twice the amount, it is filled with nine of the little dumplings. The mochi are much less messy to touch than I expected, with a conservative amount of cocoa powder coating each piece. They are cool and springy to the touch, with a pliable bite and depth of texture. Though some could argue that the packaging was a little excessive, I found that it protected the mochi and didn't let them scuff up against each other so that each one was in perfect condition.

Each piece is fairly weighty and is roughly the size of a small walnut, and is very soft. Not a trace of cocoa powder fell off the sticky mochi. They immediately start to sink around the shape of your fingers as you hold them, a good sign of freshness. What I was impressed with was how precisely sweet these were with all the layers of sugary elements- marshmallow, chocolate chips, banana, and chocolate usually make for a fairly toothachingly saccharine bite. But whenever a sweet element showed up in the bite, another, more neutral part (like the mochi skin) masked its sweetness in a deft way so that no one bite was overwhelming. The flavor was delicious. The chocolate's two bittersweet and sweetened forms were one of the highlights, but the fresh banana puree inside really won me over. It was soft and chunky, evident of having real bananas inside, and had a sweet, creamy texture. The only off flavor in it was an artificial banana note, which I couldn't quite comprehend. I'm not sure if it was used to boost the natural fruitiness, but it didn't help and came across as a little cloying. Still bomb-diggity with the chocolate chips, which made it taste like chocolate chip banana bread!

I was impressed with the craftsmanship of these- they were some of the tastiest mochi I've had and lacked that rough, overly glutenous texture of their larger counterparts. They were delicate and all too easy to graze on.

Back to Nature Cupcake Bites

When certain concepts are trendy, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. No sooner did the word "cupcake" make home cooks shiver with delight did news spread, and in a matter of months, trendy cupcake boutiques, recipes, and artistic renderings of cupcakes were the new "it" treat. Of course, all flash-in-the-pan products fall wayside to the trickle-down effect. In the case of cupcakes, they were first relegated to children's birthday parties and baby showers. Their prices went up as did their twee factor, and as they got to be a more exclusive, "artisanal" item, varieties were made so that the novelty of cupcake trendiness could be available to the general public. Basically, a roundabout way of explaining why these Cupcake Bites are cheap and awful.

I was sold on the retro-looking "new, with sprinkles!" endorsement on the box because I am a pretty pretty princess. They're pretty unattractive out of the bag, though. Small orbs, no bigger than a pea, with ice cream sprinkles haphazardly mashed onto a chalky, greyish coating. According to the box, they're along the same lines of Cookie Dough Bites (same company, in fact) and have a wheat-based center with a candy coating. And sprinkles. Don't forget the sprinkles.

While I give kudos to the company for explicitly stating that the chief ingredient is "white birthday cake," I can't help but shudder at how unappealing these are to eat. I'm still not sure why a company called Back to Nature makes these Frankensteinian creations with artificial flavorings. That being said, eating these is a bit purgatorial. I can nosh them with no enjoyment or sentiment, knowing that they're absolutely terrible and really not caring. They inspire my most indifferent tendencies with a bland flavor. Bland is the kindest thing to say, though. Opening the bag, I was struck with a clinical, powdery scent, like the coating on a pair of medical disposable gloves. That alone was so unappealing that I almost didn't eat these at all.

The texture of these is really offputting. While the appeal of an element of graininess was desired in Cookie Dough Bites to mimic the sandy, sugary texture of actually eating cookie dough, the same is present here and feels disgusting consumed out of context. The graininess makes me feel like I'm chewing on a tablespoon of pure granulated sugar mixed with greasy shortening. There's no cake flavor to speak of and the mushy, irregularly textured center is a far cry from the fluffy, fragrant plushness of actual birthday cake. There were quite a few sprinkles in each bite which threw off the ratio of sprinkles to cake and turned them from a garnish to an ingredient. Those of you who have eaten raw sprinkles know that they taste kind of gross, with a crumbly, chalky waxiness and a strangely fruity sweet aftertaste, like that of an artificial sweetener. These were terrible. As a child I'm sure I would have been attracted to the bright pastel colors and sweet flavor, but there's nothing appealing about them now. Even for a dollar, I'm pretty miffed.

Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles

Halloween, you were fun, but now you're merely a thing of the past. For the record, I didn't dress up. I sat at home taking the practice LSAT for the second time. Spooky, right? Oh well. One can't do everything, namely, ingest Slippery Nipples in a sexy pediatrician's costume and get hit on by poorly made up Jokers. I did, however, leave Halloween in the past and focus on the latest and greatest upcoming holiday, Guy Fawkes Day. Because it's strictly against my zoning laws to blow stuff up, I made gunpowder-inspired cookie truffles instead- smoky, spicy, snappy.

Cookie-based truffles and cake truffles are nothing new. Everybody and their mother has done something with them, and in eight katrillion flavors. But however hard I looked, and believe me, I looked hard, I couldn't find truffles that utilized my absolute favorite cookie, Newman's Own Organics Ginger-O. God, how I love it. It's one of the only cookies that passed our scrutiny enough to buy it time and time again. To celebrate November and a three point raise from my first test, here are some Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles.

These are easy to make and even easier to doll up with interesting flavors if you're so inclined. I used cinnamon and ground ginger in my white chocolate dip, and a cracked black pepper garnish on top. I only made 1/3 of the recipe, which yielded 16 truffles, but if you're making these for a crowd, use the entire package. The reduced and full recipes are both below.

To start, take your Ginger-O's out of the package and put them in a food processor.

Grind them up until they're completely crumbled. I sprinkled some ground ginger in there, too. Make sure there aren't any whole pieces left that have escaped the wrath of the blade.

Take your cream cheese- 1/3rd of the package or the entire block if you're making all the truffles, and blob it into the food processor. Pulse that together until you have a blended dough.

Shape the dough into relatively round balls and place on a cookie sheet. Chill for no less than an hour and as long as overnight. While your truffles are chilling, prepare the chocolate bark.

The grocery store was out of Wilton's candy melts, so I tried these Dolci Frutta melts. While I figured them out, they made too thick of a shell and were absolutely infuriating to mold. Stick to chocolate bark or candy melts.

I mixed in my cinnamon and ground ginger and melted the chocolate. It didn't get any more fluid than a thick paste, so I had to improvise and mold it around the balls, like a fondant. After that, quickly dust the truffles with cracked black pepper- while they are still wet so it is able to adhere. Chill for four hours to overnight, and eat!

These were delicious- a cross between a snickerdoodle and a spicy ginger snap. Hopefully these will kick off a new trend in cookie ballery. I know what I'm making for holiday cookies this year.

Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles (makes approximately 50)

Ingredients

1 pkg. Newman's Own Organics Ginger-O's

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pkg. white chocolate baking bark

Cracked black pepper to garnish

1. Dump the cookies into a food processor and blend until finely ground.

2. Blob in cream cheese and blend until soft, smooth dough forms

3. Roll dough into small balls (2 tsp.) and chill for one to twelve hours.

4. Melt chocolate baking bark in double boiler and add spices.

5. Dip chilled truffles into melted bark and garnish with cracked black pepper.

6. Chill for three to twelve hours and eat!

Adjusted ratios for 1/3 of a batch

1/3 pkg. (approximately 12) Newman O's

1/3 pkg (2.6 oz) cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 package white chocolate baking bark

Cracked black pepper to garnish