To me, the Twinkie was always the perfect snack food. For one thing, being Southern, I always felt with great confidence that with a name like "Hostess", my snack cake was perfect for dinner parties or afternoon teas. Okay, I was only 9 or 10 at the time.
Still, that didn't stop Miss R from purchasing the Hostess Twinkie Cookbook for me at her school bookfair a few years back, thus proving some validity to my choice in snack cakes.
Look! Directly from the pages! Exclusive Twinkie recipe for, get ready, Twinkie-misu.
There are thirty-nine (39!!!) ingredients in a Twinkie and only five or six in a real cake. Hostess, shockingly, declined to reveal said ingredients.
What is it about the Twinkie that inspires such speculation about its ingredients...and its mythical extended (like forever, man)shelf life? Dunno, but in March 2007, Newsweek featured an article which breaks down exactly what's in a Twinkie.
What goes in a Twinkie (from the Newsweek article)
• Shortening (in the form of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or beef fat) is the main ingredient.
• Polysorbate 60 is a gooey substance that helps replace cream and eggs at a fraction of the cost. It's derived from corn, palm oil and petroleum. (sort of makes you rethink the whole petroleum jelly thing, doesn't it?)
• Cellulose gum gives the cream filling that, um, creamy feel associated with actual cream. Again, at a fraction of the price (and extending the shelf life too!)
• Artificial vanillin is synthesized in petrochemical plants! No shit! Real vanillin evidently comes from fancy schmancy tropical orchids that are hand pollinated on the one day a year that they bloom.
Oh, and get this...some of the ingredients used to make Twinkies are the same ones used to make some explosives! So maybe McGyver was on to something?
At any rate, any kid growing up in the 60's or 70's could tell you with great confidence that
nothing can beat a Twinkie!
Even smart spacemen (and girls) know!
Learn more about this fascinating topic at Twinkie Deconstructed, because what better thing do you have to do on a Monday anyway? Really...
