them tarty pops so sweet

[darkoshi]

Last year I found out unfrosted poptarts are vegan. (The frosted ones contain gelatin.) That made me nostalgic, so I bought a box each of unfrosted cinnamon and strawberry poptarts. They still taste like I remember from childhood. Sugary-sweet morning memories; memories that go along with Saturday morning cartoons on the TV. Flintstones, He-man, Thundercats Ho!

Did you know even a single unfrosted poptart contains 12 grams of sugar, which per the nutrition panel is 24% of the recommended daily intake? (Contrary to what I'd expect, the frosted ones purportedly don't have much more sugar than the unfrosted ones.) That is one reason I haven't eaten up these 2 boxes of tarts yet; I only take them out once in a big while as a treat.

I heat mine in the toaster, but the microwave heating instructions on the box surprise me:
"Heat 3 seconds at a time until warm enough."

Does Kellogg's truly expect anyone to start and stop their microwave every *3* seconds to check on the warmth of their tarts? I am guessing those instructions are to avoid any lawsuits due to accidental over-heating of the tarts, since some microwaves heat a lot faster than others. But I wonder if three seconds may not even be long enough for a microwave to start emitting its rays. My microwave generally needs to run for a minimum of 20 seconds to result in any noticeable heating of the food.

Comments

[frith]

I have to run my microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before the tablespoons of butter for the bread machine starts to melt. (I never think to take the 2 tbsp margarine out of the fridge early enough for it to warm up enough to my liking.)

[darkoshi]

For things like that I often cheat and use oil instead. There are probably differences in the final baked goods because of it, but none blatant enough to teach me the error of my ways.

[frith]

The margarine is already a cheat, the recipe calls for shortening. My objective is to warm up the margarine to room temperature to help in the raising process. I think I'm getting something wrong still, my bread has risen better in the past. Maybe I need a touch more water or maybe more sugar would help. Oil eh? I bet sesame oil would be good in bread.

[darkoshi]

Maybe your yeast is old? Or the house isn't as warm as the other times when it rose better?

I poured some stale sesame oil into the ground today (where my former compost pile area used to be) after reading that was an acceptable way to dispose of vegetable oil. It was cold-pressed. I ought to have at least kept it in the fridge. Luckily my toasted sesame oil is still good; I used it in a dish yesterday that turned out quite tasty.

[lhexan]

I was similarly startled several years ago to discover that children's cereal has roughly the same calories per serving (and the same serving size) as the less fanciful brands.

[darkoshi]

Do they? I bought a generic-brand frosted flakes a few years ago (mistaking it for corn flakes as the boxes were nearly identical), and they were so sweet I didn't even want to mix them in with other cereal. I recall other children's cereals being very sweet too. But I occasionally like peanut-butter-puffs-style children's cereal, which doesn't taste as sweet to me.

Comparing some of the kinds of cereal I eat for sugar by weight:

Peanut-choco puffs: 26%
Raisin bran: 25% (total sugar); 11% (added sugar only).
Granola with raisins: 23(total); 17% (added).
Other granolas: about 20%
The ones with the least sugar have 10% or less of sugar by weight. I often mix those together with the granola.

So the children's-style cereal does have the most sugar, but the granolas come close.

Cascadian Farm has a line of cereal with "No added sugar / sweetened with fruit" which initially tasted quite good to me. But now the blueberry granola one has stopped appealing to me. I still like the others, but they definitely do have a different kind of sweetness than other cereals which isn't always what I want.

Ah, but you mentioned calories, not sugar.....

Peanut butter puffs: 3.95 cal/gram
Raisin bran: 3.28 cal/gram
Granola with raisins: 4.17 cal/gram
Other granolas: 4.67 to 5 cal/gram
Least sweet ones: 3.9 to 4.5 cal/gram

So you are correct about the calories! That's probably because the very sweet children's cereals tend to have less included fats.