Even though eating mellowcreme pumpkins makes me feel like I’m poisoning myself, I love them. I have this theory that mellowcreme pumpkins are different than candy corn, but I can’t find any corroboration of this. In fact, the
Brach’s website says that mellowcreme pumpkins are
“all the goodness of America’s favorite candy corn in festive pumpkin shapes.”
Yeah, whatever. They taste different to me. Candy corn just seems waxy on the outside and chalky on the inside, while mellowcremes seem more creamy and flavorful. Maybe it’s just the difference in size and shape. The list of ingredients for Brach’s candy corn differs slightly from the mellowcreme pumpkins and candy corn is composed of a slightly higher percentage of sugar, so I guess they aren’t exactly the same. Thank goodness they both contain confectioner’s glaze, or edible shallac. Yum!
I’ve made ice cream out of mellowcreme pumpkins before (stay tuned for a post in the fall). When I noticed Easter-themed mellowcremes at my favorite chocolate place (
Romolo’s), it seemed like they would make very pretty ice cream.
Because I like to make things difficult, I decided to make a four-color mellowcreme ice cream terrine for Easter. I separated the four colors:
I didn’t want to make a mix four times, so I made about 1.5 times my normal mix without adding any mellowcreme candies and then divided the plain mix into four portions to combine with the different colored candies. I hoped that the heat from the mix would melt the candy. Not so much. So much stirring and low power microwaving.
When all four colors were finally smooth, I chilled and churned each separately. The yield was about 3/4 pint of each color, which was just enough for two miniature terrines. I made one in a small loaf pan and the other in an adorable mini springform pan that I bought just for this purpose.
I’m glad I did this because the pictures are cute…I mean hello?
But it was a a big pain (terrines = churn one ice cream, layer into mold, freeze, repeat) and let’s face it…a terrine with four different-colored ice creams in a single flavor might be pretty, but it’s not very interesting to eat.
If I ever do this again (yeah, right), I would reformulate my mix to eliminate the egg yolks. Mellowcremes are so sugary that the mix needs something to counteract all of that so it won’t be too soft. But I developed the recipe for mellowcreme pumpkins, which are already orange. Except for the yellow, the egg yolks messed with the colors of the Easter mellowcremes.
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