A HARTE APPETITE: PEEPS POPULAR NON-CHOCOLATE CANDY AT EASTER

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The answer to that question is easy for Just Born Inc., the maker of Peeps, those marshmallow chicks that signal the beginning of the Easter season. For though Peeps have been around for a long time, the company only this year began making marshmallow eggs to go with them.

Peeps are the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy, even more popular than jelly beans. Frankly, I'm not surprised because, I must admit, I love Peeps. I know this may come as a surprise to some who think that Peeps are a far cry from the sort of gourmet fare a food columnist is supposed to prefer. (I like White Castles too, but that's another column.)

Certainly there's no denying that I do appreciate the more refined Cadbury eggs and Godiva chocolate bunnies. And I still miss terribly the favorite Easter candy of my childhood, the giant heavenly hash egg made by the Mavrakos Candy Co. of St. Louis until it sold out some years ago to Fannie May. (Fannie May will package its heavenly hash squares in an egg-shaped box at Easter time, but that can't compare to the Mavrakos egg, filled with velvety marshmallow fluff and pecans and coated in rich milk chocolate.)

But though they may not be cultured, there's something about Peeps that makes it hard for me to resist them. Maybe it's because they are such unapologetic junk food providing a sheer sugar rush. Or maybe it's because they make me nostalgic for my own childhood. (Some analysts argue that the soaring sales figures of Peeps over the last few years are attributable to baby boomers trying to relive the past.)

Whatever it is, I'm not the only one. Of course, there are confirmed Peeps haters. Phillip Walsh even contends that Peeps are the "rough beast" which "slouches toward Bethlehem" described in William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming." They are made in Bethlehem, Pa., he notes. But there are at least as many who love Peeps as hate them. There are enough Peeps sold each Easter for every man, woman and child in the United States to have at least one. Many, of course, will not get their fair share because people like me stash cartons of them away to enjoy later in the year, say in October!

We can get away with this for two reasons. First, Peeps last forever and are practically indestructible. Recently, scientists at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., conducted experiments that revealed that neither freezing them in liquid nitrogen nor placing them in boiling water did much damage. And second, Peeps often improve with age. At least a devoted legion of fans, surveys indicate about a third, think they taste better stale anyway. My daughter, for example, a Peeps patron since childhood, insists that, like fine wine, they should never be eaten before they have had a chance to age. She and others like her prefer their Peeps on the crusty side. Some even go so far as to maintain that the minimum "curing" time should be a month and that it's best to enhance the process by placing the Peeps atop a radiator or other heat source.

So there's simply no denying that, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer observed in an editorial last year, Peeps have become something of a cult candy. Peeps promoters have hatched no less than 20 unofficial Web sites on the Internet devoted to discussion of Peeps and their virtues. (If you use a search engine to find them be sure to include the term "marshmallow" in your request lest you locate several "peep" sights, which are not so innocent.) Even people who aren't fond of them have to acknowledge that nothing says Easter like a marshmallow Peep. As Paula Novash (who insensitively describes Peeps as looking more like wistful turkeys than chicks with their drooping beaks, beady eyes and mushed-in faces) admits in a recent article in the Washington Post, "I don't really like Peeps, but the holiday feels incomplete without them."

Peeps must have something going for them, because they have been a fixture in Easter baskets, usually sticking to the grass, for nearly half a century. The company that makes them goes back even further. It was founded by Russian immigrant Samuel Born in 1910. Naming his business the Just Born company and using the motto, "A great candy isn't made, it's Just Born," he went on to invent chocolate sprinkles, hard chocolate coating for ice cream and a machine for inserting sticks into lollipops (the Born Sucker) before he got into the Peeps business in 1953 by buying out the competitor who invented them. Born applied his ingenuity to the problem of mass producing Peeps, which originally were made by hand, squeezed out of a pastry tube one by one during a 27-hour process. Modern trade secret technology has trimmed that time to merely six minutes and now permits the company to manufacture Peeps at the rate of 3,500 an hour. Human beings are still required to inspect the marshmallow chicks (and the more recently developed bunnies) to make sure their eyes aren't missing, crossed, or in the wrong place. Just Born's chief eye inspector (I'm not making this up) is a woman whose first name is Candy.

Over the years Peeps have become synonymous with Easter, and there's hardly anything people haven't thought of doing with them, from using them on holiday wreaths to attaching them to Easter bonnets to microwaving them for entertainment. (They swell up grotesquely.) But the best thing to do with them is to simply bite off their heads (or tails) and eat them. But if you have any left after the Easter holiday and you're looking for a way to let your creativity peep through, you might try using them in the following recipes.

Peeps Purple Passion Pie

The hardest thing about this recipe, which I created, is avoiding feelings of guilt as you melt down Peeps, their eyes looking out pitiably from the saucepan at you. At least lobsters put up a fight. The recipe can be varied by using pink Peeps with strawberry syrup or liqueur, blue Peeps with blueberry syrup or Blue Curacao, or yellow Peeps with apricot syrup or Galliano. The relatively rare white (albino) Peeps go well with white Creme de Cacao.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

35 lavender Peeps

1/2 cup milk

6 tablespoons black raspberry liqueur or syrup or boysenberry syrup

1 container (8 ounce) Cool Whip

6 to 8 pink Peeps, decapitated, bodies reserved for another use

Directions:

Mix crumbs, sugar, and butter thoroughly and press on bottom and sides of deep 9- or 10-inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool. Combine Peeps and milk and cook over low heat until Peeps are melted and mixture is smooth. Cool thoroughly and add liqueur or syrup. Fold in Cool Whip and pour into crust. Decorate with severed Peeps heads and chill at least four hours.

Peeps Waldorf Salad

This recipe from Salon Magazine is best made with yellow or pink peeps. Lavender ones tend to turn the entire salad gray. You may prefer to dice the Peeps into small pieces. Peeps also work well in an ambrosia salad containing oranges, grapefruit and coconut. Pink ones are especially "springy."

Ingredients:

10 Peeps, whole

3 ripe bananas, diced into 1/2-inch pieces

2 large navel oranges, sectioned into 1/2-inch pieces

Juice of one orange

12 maraschino cherries, halved

1/2 cup shredded coconut

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon orange liqueur

1/4 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts, pecans or almonds

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and allow to macerate for two hours, stirring occasionally.

Peeps'mores Napolean

This recipe is adapted from one served at Prego Italian Restaurant in Houston. You can omit the mousse topping for a standard s'more.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whipping cream, whipped

5 ounces white chocolate

2 tablespoons cold milk

16 graham crackers

16 Peeps, varied colors

4 Hershey's chocolate bars (1.55 ounce)

Directions:

Melt white chocolate and stir in milk. Let cool. Fold in whipped cream. For each s'more place three squares of the chocolate bar atop half a graham cracker and microwave until chocolate begins to melt (about 45 seconds). Place one Peep on top of chocolate and microwave until Peep begins to swell. Top with another half of a graham cracker and press down to set. Top with dollop of the white chocolate mousse.

Homemade Peeps

If you've got a little Martha Stewart in you, you might find it fun to try making your own Peeps. Fortunately, Peeps are ubiquitous this time of year and cheap, which I say is "a good thing."

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup water

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin softened in 1/2 cup cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg white

colored granulated sugar

Directions:

Combine sugar, syrup and water and cook until sugar dissolves. Cook without stirring to soft ball stage (240 degrees). Stir in gelatin and vanilla and cool for 10 minutes. Beat egg white until stiff. Slowly add syrup and beat using electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Spread candy into jellyroll pan lined with brown paper and let stand uncovered overnight. Invert marshmallow onto pan sprinkled generously with powdered sugar. Dampen paper to remove. Using bunny or chicken shaped cookie cutters dipped in water or sprayed with cooking spray, cut candy into desired shapes and dust with colored granulated sugar.

Got a culinary question you'd like to ask or an idea you'd like to see treated in this column? Send your suggestions to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.