Chocolate Coated Mallomars Turns 100
Do you want to eat a 100 year old chocolate covered, cookie framed marshmallow? The iconic Mallomars turned 100 today. That calls to mind its sibling concoctions from other countries and times, such as the Krembo in Israel. Other similar classic chocolate-covered marshmallows recall the colonial empire roots of some European chocolate traditions.
Chocolate makers in colonial empires such as Holland, Belgium, and Germany reflected in their products both the exoticism of their African colonies and a repulsion of the indigenous populations. This may still be seen in the names of some European dainties. Chocolate-covered mounds of marshmallow are known as mohrenköpfe (Moor’s head) in German-speaking Switzerland; in France, negerküsse (Negro kisses); and in Denmark, negerbolle (Negro bun) or negerkys (Negro kiss). Powers such as Belgium, Holland, and Germany noted the blackness of chocolate to emphasize the conquest of natives in their colonial empires.
Fortunately, Mallomars do not have these distasteful associations with Empire. You just have to find them, given the recent hoarding by fans.
Yumm…
Recent Posts
-
On the Chocolate Trail in Bariloche, Argentina
In March, Mark and I finally extended our chocolate trail explorations in celebration of our special anniversary to Bariloche…via Miami, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Antarctica, and Buenos Aires again. There were international flights, a cruise, a couple of domestic flights to get there. All of the travel was amazing, but Bariloche, sometimes called the chocolate capital
Read more › -
Sunday Yeast Polemics: On the Bread Trail
Leavened bread or not? While some of us may think of Passover, the question applied to Eucharistic bread and created significant division in the early Christian Church. The leavened bread for Sunday use was often baked at home by women. Over time, preferences shifted to clergy, church-produced, breads… and, the Eastern Orthodox Church preferred a
Read more › -
Sweet Treat: Chocolate and the Making of American Jews
You may wonder: how did chocolate help define American Jews? Through chocolate, we see that Jews were part of America since its earliest days. Well, since 1701 at least, Jews in the Colonies made part of their living through chocolate. Several Sephardim, leaders of their New York and Newport Jewish and secular communities, participated in
Read more › -
How About Some Uterus Challah?
When Logan Zinman Gerber felt enraged about the loss of reproductive rights in the U.S., she baked challah. Not any challah. She shaped it into a uterus. It wasn’t long after the birth of her daughter that Gerber, a longtime challah baker and staff member of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, considered
Read more ›
Some Previous Posts
(in alphabetical order)
- "Boston Chocolate Party" Q&As with Deborah Kalb
- 2022 Media for The "Boston Chocolate Party"
- A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate
- About Rabbi Deborah Prinz
- Baking Prayers into High Holiday Breads
- Boston Chocolate Party
- Digging into Biblical Breads
- Exhibit Opens! Sweet Treat! Chocolate & the Making of American Jews
- For the Easiest Hanukah Doughnuts Ever
- Forthcoming! On the Bread Trail
- Funny Faced Purim Pastries
- Good Riddance Chameitz or, The Polemics of Passover's Leaven
- How About Some Uterus Challah?
- Injera*
- Jewish Heritage Month: Baseball & Chocolate!
- Matzah - But, the Dough Did Rise!
- Plan a Choco-Hanukkah Party: 250th Anniversary Tea Party
- Prayers Into Breads
- To Shape Dough: A Trio of Techniques