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]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I was just wondering about this the other night as I made (yet another) batch of Oreo ice cream, and my wish curiosity has been rewarded!

A recent article by Marisa Renwald for the Post-Tribune outlines the steps to make your own Oreo cookies.

Faux-Reos Cookies

Cookie
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (7 and 7/8 oz) granulated sugar, plus 2 to 3 tablespoons for coating cookies
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks, or 6 oz) unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp espresso powder
1 large egg
1 Tb water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup black cocoa (Hershey’s dark cocoa, plus 2 to 3 tablespoons for coating cookies)

Filling
1 tsp + heaping 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 Tb (1 oz) cold water
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease or line with parchment two or more baking sheets.

Place 2 to 3 tablespoons black cocoa and 2 to 3 table-spoons sugar in an 8- or 9-inch cake pan, shaking to distribute across bottom of pan.

To make cookies: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together sugar, butter, salt and espresso powder. Beat in egg, water and vanilla, then flour and cocoa. Dough will be very stiff.

Roll dough into balls about size of a chestnut (about 2 level teaspoons). As dough balls are made, place in cake pan with cocoa. When 6 to 8 balls are in pan, shake gently to roll in cocoa and sugar, then place on prepared sheets. Repeat with all dough.

Use flat bottom of a glass, dipped in cocoa as necessary to prevent sticking, to flatten cookies to about one-eighth-thick (measure with a ruler; you want to get pretty close to one-eighth inch for best-textured cookies).

Bake cookies for 18 minutes, watching closely (it’s important to bake the right amount of time — too little, and cookies won’t be crisp; too much, and they’ll scorch). When done, remove cookies from oven and allow to cool completely on rack or on pan.

While cookies cool, make the filling: Soften gelatin in a cup with 2 tablespoons cold water, then place cup in a larger dish of hot water and leave it there, stirring occasionally, until gelatin dissolves and becomes syrupy, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together shortening, vanilla and sugar. Mixture is very dry at first, but eventually begins to clump together. When this happens, add dissolved gelatin and beat until smooth.

Place 1 level tablespoon filling in center of one cookie; again, a teaspoon cookie scoop, slightly heaped, is perfect for this task. Place another cookie atop filling, and squeeze to distribute filling evenly. Repeat with remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container.

[via Marisa Renwald from The King Arthur Flour Company; image from flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I am so amused by this story: The Oreo – an American treat staple since 1912 – has just this month been launched in Great Britain, and some Brits don’t know what to make of it!

Apparently it’s too sweet, doesn’t hold up well in tea (most Brits have never seen a biscuit [cookie] dipped in milk before!), the cream filling is too toothpasty, and the color of the cookie is too dark.

In fact, the tea dipping is such an important part of biscuit enjoyment that one British author says:

“Our love of tea-dipping has influenced the selection of flour and the temperature at which biscuits are baked. Our biscuits are built for dunking.”

Sounds like the Oreo has started off with a disadvantage!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an overwhelming craving for some tasty dark biscuits!

[image: stock.xchng]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes