I Need a Twinkie | Chickens in the Road

Oct
22

I’ve been driving around a lot of back roads lately taking pictures of pretty fall foliage and coveting pretty fall farms. And barns. I really like this one.

Plus, I want a Twinkie. I’m not sure how the two are related, but maybe it is a comfort thing. For some reason, I thought they had stopped selling Twinkies, but that may be an urban myth. A quick Twinkie google proved the lie. According to Wikipedia:

“Twinkies were invented in River Forest, Illinois in 1930 by James Alexander Dewar, a baker for the Continental Baking Company. Realizing that several machines used to make cream-filled strawberry shortcake sat idle when strawberries were out of season, Dewar conceived a snack cake filled with banana cream, which he dubbed the Twinkie. During World War II, bananas were rationed and the company was forced to switch to vanilla cream. This change proved popular, and banana-cream Twinkies were not widely re-introduced.”

Apparently, you can fry Twinkies on a stick. I’ve never had that, but that sounds really good. And disgusting. And good. And disgusting.

Twinkies, a “golden sponge cake with creamy filling,” are probably made of cardboard, sugar, and petroleum by-products, but I just made that up. I don’t really know.

Then there is the Twinkie defense–a criminal defendant’s claim that some unusual factor (such as allergies, coffee, nicotine, or sugar) diminishes the defendant’s responsibility for the alleged crime.

The makers of Twinkies suggest Twinkies are shelf-stable for as long as 100 years, which is a little bit frightening. Yet good to know! If you suspect an extreme disaster interrupting distribution of goods and services, stock up on Twinkies.

According to CNN, in 2010, a college professor went on a Twinkie diet consisting mainly of Twinkies and lost 27 pounds in two months, so there is that, too. (We don’t know whether or not he died after the experiment.)

And now I need to figure out how to make homemade Twinkies because I don’t think I can bring myself to buy a Twinkie. I found an instructable!

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14 Responses
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10-22
7:52
pm

What a fantastic landscape! Here in Northern Ohio our leaves are much less green and more have fallen. As sorry as I am to see summer ending, I sure do love the autumn colors and the getting ready for the winter time. Yeah, I know I’m crazy!

BuckeyeGirl

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10-22
7:57
pm

If you come up with a Twinkie recipe, I just may have to ask you to marry me. LOL!

Snapper119

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10-22
8:24
pm

Hmmm…just trying to figure out what you’ve been doing with all of this backroad travel…guess you’ll let us know soon, hopefully!

yvonnem

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10-22
8:24
pm

I would love a homemade Twinkie recipe! hehe. Homemade always tastes better. I think Twinkies taste a bit chemical-like, so we never buy the Hostess ones.

We fell in love with Walmart’s red velvet “Twinkie”. Then they stopped selling them!

beforethedawn

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10-22
8:26
pm

..oh, and Twinkies are awesome!

yvonnem

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10-22
10:11
pm

I always thought Twinkies just tasted like the kind of sponge cake we used to use for jelly rolls. I didn’t like the filling very much, though…too much of a Crisco aftertaste for me. I’m thinking if you used an old-fashioned jelly roll recipe, and a good classic pastry cream filling, it wouldn’t keep for 100 years, but it would be like a Twinkie, only better. I’d probably just make it in a muffin tin, ’cause I’m too lazy to make special molds just for looks. Or I might make a Twinkie roll instead of a jelly roll. Hmmmm. See how you get me thinking?

Or I suppose you could just buy a Twinkie and get it out of your system. I’m sure you’d find a taker for the 2nd one in the pack.

whaledancer

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10-22
11:54
pm

Oh Suzanne,
You made me giggle! Twinkie’s are a good driving food!

lizzie

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10-23
7:09
am

You are a naughty girl!

Plus, you have put visions of Twinkies in my head….

Cousin Sheryl

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10-23
7:12
am

On the bright side, if that guy who went on the Twinkie diet DID die… they wouldn’t have to embalm him thanks to all the preservatives in the things he’s probably already there!

BuckeyeGirl

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10-23
7:25
am

Never been much of a twinkie fan but don’t mention snowballs! I love moon pies! I have a friend who makes banana pudding with moon pies instead of vanilla wafers. Hmmm..wonder how twinkies would do? Surely all the preservatives in the twinkies would keep those bananas from turning dark!

Flowerpower

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10-23
9:14
am

I got in “trouble” with my aunt over a box of Twinkies. She had me and the kids over for lunch. On the counter sat bags of burgers and a box of Twinkies when we walked on. My little boy pointed at the Twinkies and said What’s that? My aunt looked at me and said Leah,shame on you! He doesn’t know what a Twinkie is?! Hahaha

Leah

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10-23
10:36
am

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/09/23/in-the-twink-of-an-eye-homemade-vanilla-snack-cakes/

Here’s a recipe. Though it is much easier to buy a pack. However, they’re only made an hour away from me so they’re pretty fresh if I buy them.

daria

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10-23
5:13
pm

I more of a Ding Dong girl myself. But I did see an episode on Food Network at a bakery where they sell homemade fresh twinkie-likes.

mamajoseph

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10-24
9:29
am

I don’t like twinkies. The cake part is always rubbery to me, and I always expect the icing to taste more like whipped cream. I say, make your yellow cake mix. Cut the cooled cake into squares. Poke each square with the handle of a wooden spoon, and pipe in your favourite frosting. I would probably use something like whipped cream folded into pastry cream or custard. It would be like the best twinkie ever, standing on it’s end!

DancesInGarden

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