try Angel Delight

Bloody hell, it takes some whisking. My arm hurts and I used the electric whisk. I seem to remember that we did it by hand when I was a teenager, so I must have been fitter than I thought. But the good news is that the chocolate flavour actually tastes quite nice. I wouldn’t want to eat more than a small bowlful but for a chocolate pudding it’s pretty low in calories, which is important to some people. It’s like a fairly rich but light-textured chocolate mousse, with a slightly powdery finish. A wee bit chemically, but then it’s made of chemicals so that’s to be expected. It also makes a good gloppy squishy sound when you pull out a spoonful, which Nigel Slater insists (in his autobiography) is the one and only sign of a good trifle, and one of the things that makes desserts like this popular with kids.

Here’s a pic. Choc chips and googly eyes model’s own.

I’m checking this off cos I’m having a bit of a goal cull, but butterscotch and banana will get their turn in the limelight at some point.

I haven’t had this stuff since I was 16 years old, and my friends and I used to binge on it at sleepovers, sometimes mixing it with Smarties for that extra sugary hit. It remained in the back of my mind until the lovely Roxi was recently initiated into the Angel Delight club by her new hubby Cookie, and she really wasn’t impressed at all. But it got me thinking about this delicacy of yesteryear, and today at Tesco I found it on special offer – three packets for a pound! How could I resist? It was a sign from the heavens, and I bought barmy banana, bonkers butterscotch, and corking chocolate. Headapollo is steadfastly refusing to join me on this one, having just cooked us both a delicious and steadfastly upmarket leek and taleggio risotto, so it looks like I’m going alone on this one. But I’m still gonna use his electric whisk.

I used to think that Twinkies and Hohos are the very worst junk food the world has ever known. It seems I was wrong. Angel Delight is a powdered mixture of sugar, starch, oil, emulsifiers (one of which is propane), gelling agents, lactose, milk proteins, whey powder, salt, and artificial colours and flavourings. It is added to milk, and left to set. The result is neither angelic nor delightful.

I am not above eating junk food, but I do think that it should offer good flavour, in return for the damage it does to one’s health. Not so, in the case of Angel Delight. The flavouring tastes as artificial as it is, a fact the manufacturer has attempted (unsuccessfully) to cover up with an excess of saccharine. The runny texture is even worse than the taste.

I hasten to add: Twinkies are, at least, cute-looking, whereas this stuff (correct me if I’m wrong) looks like it was scraped off a sidewalk shortly after a canine passer-by left his calling card.

The only redeeming thing about this gastronomic horror is that Jell-O Instant Pudding (which is, at least, edible) is elevated, by comparison. That still doesn’t justify the existence of this sad, sad stuff.