NEW YORK: The deep-fried Twinkie is jumping from the state fair to the home freezer.
Hostess Brands, the maker of lunch box treats like Ho Hos, on Friday launched packaged “Deep Fried Twinkies” that mark its first foray into frozen foods. The cream-filled snack in vanilla or chocolate is the result of a yearlong collaboration between Hostess and Wal-Mart, as both companies look to spark food sales with innovative products.
Battered and partially fried before being frozen, the Twinkies need to be finished for a short time in the oven, toaster oven or frying pan. They’ll cost $4.76 for a box of seven and for the first three months are available only at Wal-Mart.
It has a “retro cool factor,” said Ellen Copaken, Hostess’ vice president of marketing. “It plays into the comfort food trend. And it’s fun.”
The Twinkie, long one of Hostess’ largest sellers, is a bigger business now than even right before the company filed for bankruptcy in 2012, Copaken said. Executives had considered developing a deep-fried version, like those seen at local fairs, but put the plans on hold until Wal-Mart approached them last summer.
For Wal-Mart, which gets more than half of its sales from food and other groceries, the partnership is part of a strategy of working closely with suppliers to come up with new twists on existing foods or developing new ones, and getting them to the shelves faster. The company opened a food lab in June for that teamwork, a process that can cut costs and shave several months off a product launch, said Charles Redfield, executive vice president of food at Wal-Mart.
The food lab at the company’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters has 10 test kitchens and space to accommodate 12 individual taste tests at a time. Specific feedback from customers gathered there gets shared with suppliers to determine if an item needs more work. Being tested now: new flavors for its store-brand sparkling water, frozen stuffed doughnut bites, and vacuum-packed Paleo meals.
“Most of our customers have a desire to eat healthier,” Redfield said. “But at the end of the day, it has to taste good. Great healthy things that don’t taste good don’t do well.”
Hostess has given a nod to the healthier options, reformulating its Mini Muffins with fruit, no artificial flavors and more whole grains. But the Deep Fried Twinkies and candy-topped brownies are among several new treats it hopes will excite shoppers.
At nine grams of fat and 220 calories, the vanilla flavor of the Deep Fried Twinkies compares to 4 grams of fat and 130 calories in a regular Twinkie. One expert says Americans still like a sugar fix, typically at the end of the day.
“We are trying to cut down on foods that are higher in sugar content,” said Darren Seifer, a food industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group Inc. “But there is still room for indulgence.”
Twinkies have been around since 1930, but the company’s financial woes had put their future in doubt. Hostess products came back after the company was bought in 2013 for $410 million.
U.K. expat Christopher Sell added a deep-fried Twinkie to the menu at his Chip Shop restaurant in Brooklyn about 15 years ago, and the idea took off at state fairs. Hot-dog chain Papaya King in New York sells them for $3 each, excluding tax, and they’re faring better than the deep-fried Oreos.
“We wanted to do a sweet and savory combo,” Papaya King chain President Wayne Rosenbaum said. “The Twinkies seem to be the most popular.”