My local CVS had limited-edition strawberry Twinkies. First, the new Twinkies (under Chinese ownership) have a funky taste (even the regular ones). Second, the strawberry filling is excellent. Strawberry puree is listed as an ingredient, so it actually tastes good & not like a Starburst version of strawberry.
I own a
Twinkie baking pan & will try to replicate it this weekend. I'll either try using
roasted strawberries or else do the
freeze-dried strawberry trick.
My local mini-mart got in some more flavors of Twinkies:
1. Chocolate twinkies: Not good. Just like, cocoa powder (not bitter, but getting close) mixed in with a regular twinkie. Chocolate zingers are a million times better.
2. Chocolate peanut-butter-cream twinkies: Disappointing, primarily due to the not-so-great chocolate flavor. I think I may have reviewed this one before. Meh. Could've been awesome!
3. Fudge-dipped twinkies: This is a regular twinkie, dipped in chocolate. It was pretty decent (the chocolate coating was waaaaay better than the chocolate twinkies), but I've had it before & that one had the same problem - the shell falls right off the twinkie. Messy to eat.
All of them still had that weird funky aftertaste. Even after looking at the ingredients list, I don't know what ingredient is causing that effect; my guess would be that it's hidden in one of the natural or artificial flavorings. I used to live near a bakery that made custom-flavored twinkies (raspberry-coconut, legit peanut butter-chocolate ones, etc.) & they were so good that I bought a twinkie pan to make them at home. I don't make them super often, but they're always pretty dang good when I do!