I love Peeps. Not the creepy new ones that Just Born is releasing at every conceivable holiday, though. In fact, the
black Halloween ones are just
downright wrong, as are the filled marshmallows. But the marshmallow yellow chicks and purple bunnies are simply
perfect. They're sweet and sugary, light and fluffy. They're made out of sugar, corn syrup and gelatin, in much the
same way as homemade marshmallows. I always buy them around Easter and in the grand scheme of Easter confections,
the low-cal, no-fat Peeps are not a bad option, with only 32 calories per peep.
Peeps have a sort of cult following. Some people have relatives mail them across the globe when they cannot be in the U.S. for Easter. They are the No. 1 non-chocolate confection for Easter, which means that probably more adults eat them than kids. And people are particular about their peeps. Some people like them only when they're fresh and soft -- I count myself in with this crowd -- while others like them stale. I have heard of people who leave them sitting out until they are almost crunchy, as the colored sugar coating crisps into a shell after a few weeks. Peeps can be used to make s'mores and subject to a number of sweet variations.
Peeps are simple: they
are marshmallows, and cute ones at that. One look at the success of Cute
Overload and you can see that people are suckers for anything cute. You cannot beat the combination of cute and
tasty. That's why Peeps are so great.
[Photo Sarah Gilbert]
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