During another excursion to Sam’s Club last week I came across a box of M&M’s new Limited Edition Coconut candies. I’ve heard about these but haven’t seen them anywhere else, so I somewhat grudgingly put the box in my cart (grudgingly because there’s always the chance they’ll be nasty, and then I’m stuck with a whole box of them!).

Thankfully, they’re pretty tasty! The pack is only 1.5 oz, and contained about 23 candies. The candies themselves are about the size of a peanut butter M&M (slightly bigger than a plain but smaller than a peanut), and come in dark brown, green and white.

Maybe they put Miss Green on the package to make up for the fact that there are very few greens inside? (I’m kidding - fewer greens makes sense and is actually pretty visually appealing against the white and brown.) Some of the candies are printed with cute little umbrellas, suns, palm trees and flowers with the M.

Now, I liked these to the point that if I had a pack I’d snack on it, but I don’t know that I’d seek them out again like I do the peanut butter or peanut varieties.

The coconut, I think, is right on and is balanced perfectly with the chocolate, which is the standard M&M’s milk chocolate. There is a lingering aftertaste that, while not unpleasant, sticks around for a bit. Thankfully, these have the standard hard candy shell and not the weird soft shells that the Premium M&M’s have.

The kids really liked them, though, so even if they’re not a candy I’m gaga over, the kids will finish the box for me!

These supposedly won’t be available in stores until August, but like I said, I picked this box up at Sam’s Club last week for about $8.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway for the Easter M&M’s! I’ve chosen two winners at random:

Congratulations to Anita T, who says “I never met an M&M I didn’t like,” and to Debbie, who commented “I’m a dark chocolate fan & was thrilled when M&M’s started making the dark variety. I’m the only one in the house that likes the dark chocolate ones so I don’t have to hide the bag to make sure I get a few!”

Emails have been sent to both winners, who have 24 hours to reply before a new winner is chosen.

[image: flickr]

I’ve written about a few ideas for using the cute seasonal pastel M&M’s this week and now have a giveaway for you to win some bags for yourself!

The pretty colors of the pastel M&M’s are the perfect addition to any spring craft or Easter basket and are available in all the standard M&M’s flavors — plain, peanut, almond and dark!

I’ve got four bags of Limited Edition seasonal M&M’s to giveaway to two winners (two bags each)!

To Enter:

Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite M&M’s are. Plain? Peanut? Dark? Almond? All of them?

That’s it — and there are no wrong answers!

…..

~ Contest ends Monday, March 30 at 5:00pm PDT. Two winners will be randomly drawn and notified by email, and will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

~ Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

~ Two winners will win two 12.6 oz bags of seasonal M&M’s each.

[image used with permission from M&M's]

These are one of the cutest Spring/Easter crafts I’ve seen. The little chicks are another of the sweet ideas sent to me by M&M’s, and I think the Easter bunny may be sneaking these into the kids’ baskets, too!

These would be very sweet as spring teacher gifts, classmate gifts, and church projects. All the material can easily be found at any craft store and the seasonal pastel M&M’s — in any flavor — can be found at your local grocery store or retailer.

Easter Chicks
Mini cellophane bags
Googly craft eyes
Felt fabric
Yellow pom poms
Webbed feet cut out from orange flannel
Yellow feathers
Orange beaks cut out of orange flannel
1 12.6-ounce bag of Milk Chocolate Easter M&M’S
Glue gun or liquid glue

Fill your cellophane bags with seasonal pastel M&M’S and tie the bag closed with a yellow fabric ribbon. Using a glue gun (or liquid glue), attach the webbed feet to the bottom of the bag. Then attach the eyes and beak to the pom poms to create the chick’s head. Let dry.

Attach the head and the feathers to the bag. Let the glue on the finished chicks dry for 24 hours.

[image used with permission from M&M's]

This spring, M&M’s aren’t just for stuffing into an Easter basket!

I was recently sent a bunch of ideas from M&M’s full of crafty activities that you and your kids can have fun with as Easter approaches. Today’s idea is one that I want to try first, especially with Spring Break fast approaching and needing some ideas to take up some time!

Eggs in Nests

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 ounces fresh raspberries
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
30 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
6 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 bag Dove Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate Promises
1 bag of coconut flakes colored green with food coloring*
1 9.9-ounce bag Easter Almond M&M’S

Place cream cheese in medium bowl. Using a spoon, mash rasp berries through a sieve (or use a food mill) so juice goes into the cream cheese, but seeds remain behind. Add sugar to
cream cheese mixture, then mix thoroughly until smooth and completely blended.

Pour oil into a deep saucepan and heat to 350°F over medium heat. While oil heats, set up a draining station with a rack set in a sheet pan or baking sheet lined with paper towels.

To assemble wontons for frying, wet a fingertip with the egg-water mixture and rub all four edges of a wrapper. Spoon a generous teaspoon of filling into center, then fold wrapper to make a triangle, pressing the edges together firmly. Grasp the two corners at either end of the fold and bring them together, sealing with a bit of egg wash. (It’s best to prepare one batch at a time, not allowing them too much time to dry before frying.)

Fry wontons in batches of six until golden brown, turning once, approximately 4 minutes. Allow to cool and drain thoroughly.

While wontons cool, unwrap the Dove Promises and place in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted.

Dip one side of each cooled wonton into the chocolate, then sprinkle the colored coconut flakes on the outside and nestle M&M’S into the chocolate. Allow to cool completely before serving.

*To color, place the coconut flakes in a large bowl and add 1 to 2 drops of green food coloring. Stir with a spatula softly. Lay out on a cookie sheet to dry.

[image used with permission from M&M's]

It’s more or less common knowledge that Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest chocolate holidays of the year, its only other real competition for the top spot being Easter!

This year I’ve got some very tasty, affordable ideas for a Valentine’s treat for your loved ones — and yourself, too!

At the top of my list is always See’s Candies. You really just can’t go wrong, for the mere fact that they have such a huge selection of chocolate and chocolate-covered goodies that everyone can find something they like, and if you don’t have a shop close by you can order online!

I wrote about Sucré last spring and recently got another little package of heart-shaped chocolates to try out. They come in three different flavors: Red Raspberry (dark chocolate heart filled with raspberry ganache), Heart of Rose (white chocolate heart filled with rose water and island vanilla scented white chocolate ganache) and Grand Coeur (milk chocolate ganache infused with orange and triple sec coated in a dark chocolate).

Patric Chocolate had renowned chocolatier Christopher Elbow lend his talents for a special Valentine’s bonbon. The elegant four-pack of decadent chocolates are ganache-enrobed squares of Patric Chocolate available only from their site, and only until February 13th or until they run out! They’re also currently offering free shipping on orders over $50.

I love the idea behind the All-Green M&M’s, which are said to, well, enhance libido! (Not really, it’s just “one of those things,”) I think it’s cute that M&M’s is running with it!

What treats are you giving away this year?

[images: flickr; sees.com; shopsucre.com; patric-chocolate.com; mms.com]

M&M’s are once again releasing its limited-edition M&M’S All-Green Milk Chocolate Candies for Valentine’s Day!

What’s with the green ones? Legend has it all-green M&M’S are an aphrodisiac; rumors of their special powers have been circulating since the ‘70s. For this reason, M&M’S has made green the true color of love for Valentine’s Day. (You can also enter at the M&M’s site for a chance to win a romantic getaway for two to Paris!)

I’ve got five bags of All-Green Milk Chocolate M&M’s Candies to give away to two lucky winners!

To Enter:

Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite kind of M&M’s is (plain, peanut, etc). That’s it!

* Contest closes at 5:00pm PST on Thursday, January 29. Winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to respond with mailing information before a new winner is chosen.

* Open to U.S. residents only.

* One entry per household. Multiple entries will all be discarded.

* Two winners will win five bags each.

* All current Bloggy Giveaways at Chocolate Bytes may be entered one time each. Good luck!

Cadbury is recalling over one million chocolate bars made in their factory in Beijing after they were found to contain melamine. The 11 recalled varieties were sold mostly in Asia and the Pacific, and Hershey, producers of Cadbury in the US, say the chocolate sold in the US is not affected and that they don’t purchase their dairy products from China.

The affected Cadbury chocolate include Cadbury Dark Chocette, Cadbury Eclairs, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate and Cadbury Hazelnut Praline Chocolate.

Kraft, the makers of Oreo, and Mars, who make M&M’s, are both questioning the findings of an Indonesian test that found traces of melamine in samples of their products made in China. Both companies say they’ll comply with the recall but plan to do their own testing as well. The same products were cleared of melamine in other Asian countries.

Dairy products and baby formula in China were recently found to be contaminated with melamine - the same stuff that caused the deaths of thousands of pets in the US last year - after companies added it to watered down and substandard products to falsely boost their apparent protein levels. So far 54,000 babies have become ill and four have died.

More information here.

[image: flickr]

Have you tried the new Premium M&M’s? M&M’s/Mars released five new flavors earlier this summer: Chocolate Almond, Mocha, Triple Chocolate, Raspberry Almond, and Mint Chocolate.

I picked up the Mocha and Triple Chocolate at the grocery store last week. At about $3 a pop for 6 oz I couldn’t afford to get all of them!

The packaging is different than the usual bags - these are in slim recloseable boxes and the M&M’s are in a resealable plastic package inside. The candy itself is a little bit larger than a regular M&M (smaller than a peanut M&M, though) and has some pretty speckling patterns on the outside.

I bit into one, expecting it to more or less be an expensive M&M. I was very surprised to find that there was no crunchy candy shell - it was soft! My first thought was that it had somehow gotten soggy (I don’t know how or why, it was just my first reaction) before realizing that was how it was supposed to be. Read more

Below are the winners of the Razzberry M&M’s! If I don’t hear from a winner within the next 24 hours or they live outside the U.S. (I did get a few of those!), I will re-draw tomorrow and update here.

Everyone was asked to tell me their favorite M&M’s, and I got some great responses!

I used a random number generator for the drawing so without further ado:

Gail Zambie, who wrote: “Love the peanut M&Ms”

Barbara Ryan, who wrote: “Dark chocolate M&M’s, ….any time…..Yummy”

Patrick Rowley, who wrote: “Ahhh M&M’s sooo many to choose from and sooo little time to eat them all. Favorite one? Agh you would be so sadistic as to make me choose between the crunch of the candy shell with the rich milk choc or the delight at finding a peanut or almond and lets not forget the crisp M&M’s and all the wonderful varieties! Choose you say? I think Not! I shall enjoy them all and savor every moment!”

Michele P., who wrote: “I love the peanut butter ones!”

Jessica, whose wrote: “Peanut Butter!”

The winners have all been emailed so if you see your name above but haven’t heard from me, feel free to drop me a note to double check that it’s you (if you didn’t receive the aforementioned email).

Again, if winners do not respond within 24 hours a new name(s) will be drawn.

Thank you everyone who entered and please keep an eye out over the next several weeks for my next contest!