Sugar Savvy

To some of us, the first indications of spring are not pale pink cherry blossoms budding on trees, yellow daffodils waving their heads, or purple crocuses poking out of the snow. No, the first sightings of spring for us are the arrival of Just Born’s Marshmallow Peeps candy chicks in our local markets. For us the colors of spring are candy chicks in yellow, pink, lavender, blue, and now green. Yes, Just Born is introducing some new Peeps for its peeps: green chicks, brown cocoa-flavored bunnies and even sugar-free chicks (sweetened with Splenda).

These marshmallow candies are part of an Easter/Spring line up that also includes yellow, pink, lavender and blue marshmallow bunnies, egg-shapes (one orange cream, the other plain with tubes of gel so you can decorate the eggs yourself) and a chocolate egg with a yellow Peep chick in the center.

To see the whole line up of Peeps for this season (as well as for Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas) visit the official Marshmallow Peeps site.

Just Born, the manufacturer of the confection, says that it produces more than 1.2 million Marshmallow Peeps a year, enough to circle the Earth twice. The company also says it makes as many at 4.2 million of the marshmallow critters a day in its Bethlehem PA factory. And, thanks to advances in science and technology, a Peep can be created from start to finish in six minutes. In 1953 it took 27 hours to produce one Peep. A single Peep has 32 calories and 0 grams of fat.

While there are many ways to eat a Peep (the company claims some use them as pizza topping), the general division is to eat them fresh out of the pack or to let them age and eat them stale. Others like theirs frozen. The Peeps site also has recipes and craft ideas for you to use with your Peeps, but I like the non-affiliated Peeps Show site, with its Peeps-related installations and artwork, including a giant Peeps shrine.

Want to make your own Peeps? Well, a few years ago, Wham-o came out with a Peeps maker, but it appears to have been discontinued. You can read all about it here on MSNBC. I found a few on sale at eBay.

Still want to make your own Peeps and experience the goodness of a homemade treat? Here’s a recipe for marshmallow chicks from AllRecipes.com with step by step instructions and photos. It will probably take you more than six minutes, but making these for your friends and family should make you their Chief Peep for years to come.

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Photo Credit: Just Born/PRNewswire