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Tidbits: Nut crisps

By Al Sicherman, Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Source: MCT News Service

The Keebler folks don't crank out new versions of their Wheatables "made with stone-ground wheat" crackers every five minutes. If you had asked Mr. Tidbit a month ago, he would have said your only choice, besides original "golden wheat," was "toasted honey wheat." But now there are Wheatables Nut Crisps, either "roasted almond" or "toasted pecan." (Mr. Tidbit will not attempt to differentiate between "roasted" and "toasted.")

Until he saw the package, with a picture that shows pretty clearly that these are Wheatables, with (as the back of the box says) "a sprinkling of delicious nuts," Mr. Tidbit unthinkingly assumed that Nut Crisps would be crackers made of ground nuts, so he was disappointed. In fact, now that he's over that, he can say without reservation that Wheatables with a sprinkling of nuts are very nice.

(And, if you care, Blue Diamond offers several kinds of Nut Thins crackers, which are made with rice flour and pecan meal or almonds.)

LOTS OF STUF

The Nabisco folks, on the other hand, do crank out new Oreo products every five minutes. The latest is a surprising (even to Mr. Tidbit) version of Oreo Cakesters. Don't know Cakesters? Picture a slightly oversized Oreo, in which a thinnish puff of dark chocolate cake replaces each of the two cookies in the sandwich.

Got that? OK, now you're ready for the big news: DoubleStuf Cakesters. And take it from Mr. Tidbit, while the DoubleStuf Oreo cookie contains plenty of extra filling, the DoubleStuf Cakester is even more doublestufy. Each DoubleStuf Oreo cookie weighs 25 percent more than a regular Oreo cookie. But each DoubleStuf Cakester weighs 33 percent more than a regular Cakester. (There are 12 regular Cakesters in a box, but just 10 DoubleStuf Cakesters.)

Note: At 125 calories, 6 grams of fat and 11 grams of sugar, the regular Cakester is not exactly a diet item; the DoubleStuf Cakester weighs in at 175 calories, 9 grams of fat and 17 grams of sugar _ and inside the box, they're in 350-calorie two-packs.

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