Chocolate mallows—inspired by our Sapporo trip

On a recent family trip to Japan, I was amazed at Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. It’s probably the most unique airport I’ve seen.

Part carnival, part shopping mall, it has everything to keep waiting passengers entertained, prodding arriving passengers to spend a few hours there before proceeding to their hotels in the city, and departing ones to arrive there early, so they can have time to enjoy all the facilities before boarding their flights.


Imagine a world of chocolates, for instance, which occupies an entire section of the airport. Here, one shop after another sells pastries, ice cream and chocolates, particularly Japan’s famous Royce brand.

There’s also a showcase factory where visitors can view the many stages of chocolate making, as well as a museum that traces the origins of cacao.

My daughters were ecstatic over the Hello Kitty Happy Flight, which reminded them of their childhood. Here their favorite Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty, My Melody and Little Twin Stars greeted them in every corner.

In the pretend airplane, Hello Kitty was dressed as a flight attendant, while at the European Plaza, Sanrio characters posed beside replicas of famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

There was also a short musical presentation starring Sanrio characters.

Back in the Chocolate World, we viewed a display of vintage chocolates cans and packages. Some of the chocolates may no longer be in the market, while others have modernized their wrappers and packaging.

I was especially drawn to Whitman’s chocolates in the familiar yellow sampler box, with its assortment of nougats, chocolate-dipped nuts and vanilla cups.

Milky Way and Baby Ruth bars in old-fashioned wrappers also triggered feelings of nostalgia.

Also on display was a recipe for King Mallows, made with marshmallows and Nestlé’s milk chocolate bar. I remember that chocolate bar well—a thin block of chocolate emblazoned with the word Nestlé on it, its wrapper clearly branded Nestlé in bright red color.


Unfortunately, Nestlé seems to have stopped production of this variant.

Still, the recipe looked so enticing. Hence, soon after returning to Manila, I tested it in my kitchen, using Nestlé’s semisweet chocolate morsels as substitute for the chocolate bar. Not only did the recipe work, the chocolate marshmallow bars were also scrumptious.

Here’s the recipe. With only two ingredients (plus the shortening for greasing the pan), it’s easy and simple to make. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill in the refrigerator before cutting it into squares and gobbling it up.

Nestlé’s King Mallows

The original recipe for this used king-size Nestlé milk chocolate bars. Since it’s no longer in the market, you can use Nestlé semisweet chocolate morsels instead.

Ingredients
Shortening, for greasing the pan, or nonstick cooking spray
2 12-oz packs Nestlé semisweet chocolate morsels
2 c mini marshmallows



Use the shortening to lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8x8x2-inch pan, or use a pan of similar size. Alternatively you can spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Melt one pack of chocolate morsels in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is smooth.

Spread the melted chocolate on the greased pan. Sprinkle the mini marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Melt the second pack of chocolate morsels in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Spread over the marshmallows.

Cover the pan and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, or until firm. Before serving, cut into squares. Makes about 16 squares.

Cook’s tips:

Make sure the chocolate morsels are at room temperature, not cold, before you melt them. If the morsels are cold, or have been chilled, they won’t melt easily.

If you’ve chilled the chocolate morsels, take them out of the refrigerator and let them rest at room temperature for one to two hours before melting them.

Melt the morsels one pack at a time so they’ll be easier to stir.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Billionaire L’Oreal heiress Bettencourt dies aged 94

PARIS - French businesswoman and billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, whose family founded L'Oreal and still owns the largest stake in the cosmetics giant, has died aged 94, her daughter said on Thursday.

Bettencourt, listed by Forbes as the world's richest woman, was the heiress to the beauty and cosmetics company her father founded just over a century ago as a maker of hair dye.

Her death opens a new phase for L'Oreal, France's fourth-largest listed company, altering the relationship it has with key shareholder Nestle, the Swiss food company.

Bettencourt and her family owned 33 percent of the company. Her daughter Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, who sits on L'Oreal's board along with her own son, said in a statement the family remained committed to the company and its management team.

"My mother left peacefully," Bettencourt-Meyers said, adding that she had died during Wednesday night at her home in Paris.

"I would like to reiterate, on behalf of our family, our entire commitment and loyalty to L'Oreal and to renew my confidence in its President Jean-Paul Agon and his teams worldwide."

In 2011 Agon was appointed chairman and chief executive of L'Oreal, owner of the Lancome and Maybelline beauty and make-up brands and of Garnier shampoos.

Nestle, which owns just over 23 percent of L'Oreal, had agreed with the founding family that the two parties could not increase their stakes during Liliane Bettencourt's lifetime and for at least six months after her death.

The Swiss company has been a major investor since 1974, when Bettencourt entrusted nearly half of her own stake in the firm to Nestle in exchange for a three percent holding in the Swiss company. She made the move out of fear that L'Oreal might be nationalised if the Socialists came to power in France.

Activist hedge fund Third Point recently urged Nestle — which brought in a new chief executive, Mark Schneider, earlier this year — to sell down its stake as part of efforts to improve its performance.

A Nestle spokeswoman on Thursday did not comment on the company's stake, only saying: "It's time to send our sincere condolences to Madame Bettencourt's family."

Legal battles

Fascination with Bettencourt's wealth, complex family relations and scandal-tinged life often propelled her into society pages and headlines, though she remained private and rarely gave interviews.

Her net worth was estimated at $39.5 billion earlier this year by Forbes, making her the world's richest woman and among the 20 wealthiest people in the world.

In a testament to the influence L'Oreal came to have in France, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday praised the stability Bettencourt had brought to the company through her ownership and said in a statement he hoped that the firm would maintain its close ties with its home market.

The marriage of the heiress to French politician Andre Bettencourt drew scrutiny when it emerged he had written anti-Semitic tracts at the start of World War Two. And Bettencourt was caught up in high-profile legal feuds almost until the last.

She had been under the guardianship of family members since a court fight, known as the "Bettencourt affair", ended with a ruling in 2011 that she was incapable of looking after her fortune because she suffered from dementia and had been exploited.

The case — brought By her daughter Françoise And which soured relations between the two — centered on Francois-Marie Banier, a celebrity photographer who befriended Bettencourt in the 1980s and received lavish gifts from her, including life insurance policies worth $400 million.

Another strand of the sprawling affair later led to allegations of illegal payments by Bettencourt to members of the French government associated with former president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. Sarkozy was eventually cleared in the case.

Paris-born Bettencourt joined her father Eugene Schueller's firm as an apprentice at the age of 15, mixing cosmetics and labelling bottles of shampoo.

She inherited the family fortune when her father Eugene Schueller, a chemist, died in 1957, though she delegated the day-to-day management of the firm. A widow since 2007, Bettencourt ceased to sit on L'Oreal's board in 2012. —Reuters

Nestle India targets growth in other businesses after Maggi scare

NEW DELHI – Nestle India Ltd. will focus on growing its dairy, coffee and confectionary businesses, its new boss said, as the company battles to bring back its popular Maggi noodles that were pulled from shelves over safety concerns.

The unit of Swiss food giant Nestle is at the center of India's worst food scare in a decade after a regulator found its Maggi noodles contained dangerous levels of lead. Nestle India has maintained that Maggi is safe, and is challenging the regulator in court.

Suresh Narayanan, who was named managing director of Nestle India last week, said his priority would be to expand other business segments to reduce the company's reliance on Maggi.

"It's a fact that Maggi is a big part, I am not diluting that fact," Narayanan told journalists over the weekend.

"But what for me is going to be key is to grow other categories as well: dairy, coffee, confectionery."

The Maggi scare has affected the company's other businesses too, he said.

Narayanan said he was hopeful that Maggi would come back but he would not "hazard a guess" on the timing. Maggi noodles have been recalled across India and production has been halted.

The appointment of Narayanan, an Indian national who most recently headed Nestle's operations in the Philippines, was seen as part of a damage-control exercise as Nestle had been criticized for its slow response to a reputation crisis.

Etienne Benet, Nestle India's former managing director, has moved to head office in Switzerland.

"My being an Indian, as my boss says, is icing on the cake. Being an Indian makes me familiar," said Narayanan, adding he was not in a "confrontational" situation with authorities.

"My fervent hope is that we are able to find a solution." – Reuters