Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
You’d think I had made tiramisu
We had a pot luck today to say goodbye to one of our favorite admins. She’ll still be with us (corporate-wise) but she’s moving to another office about four or five miles away. Anyway, for once I decided not to sponge off everyone else and bring some food of my own. But I was exhausted yesterday and figured I’d make something fast, easy, and yummy.
Rice Krispie Squares. According to the instructions on the marshmallow package — nothing special, except I decided to throw in a bag of Heath Bar Crunch bits, which gave the end product just enough chocolate-and-toffee zing to be noticeable. One bag of bits was hardly enough to be noticeable among all that gooey krispie goodness. What I’m trying to say is, my squares had freckles, they weren’t exactly mochachino.
I made a big 10″ by 14″ casserole dish of them, too, and guess what? All but one square disappeared. Some people ate two or three squares, which amazes me, since I had one and found it rather barfy after the second or third bite. But people went nuts for my Rice Krispie Squares. It’s incredible. Is it a comfort food thing? Would I have been even more popular had I made potato pancakes? (Oh, wait — that’s my comfort food.)
And how do I top myself next time?
D.
There’s a teashop near us that makes amazing rice krispie squares. They add bits of demerara buttercrunch (like your Heath bits without chocolate), and candied orange peel – tiny pieces, maybe 1/8″, just enough to add some flavour beyond SWEEEEEET! – then a thin drizzle of chocolate across the top.
I don’t know what it is about rice krispy squares, but yeah, people love ’em.
And how do I top myself next time?
Tiramisu.
Rice krispy squares are definitely comfort food. If you had really wanted to wow them, I bet they would have loved those layer bars where you make a graham cracker crust and layer chocolate morsels, walnuts, sweetened condensed milk and shredded coconut. What are those damn things called? Definite comfort food.
I’m a purist when it comes to rice krispy squares, so I would have found your addition barfy too.
Here is what won me the bake-off in my department last week:to Duncan Hines spice cake add a can of Comstock apple pie filling, and 3 eggs. On top sprinkle sugar and cinnamon. I didn’t think it was that impressive, but it cut like a dream, and people couldn’t get enough of it.
Persimmon cranberry raisin walnut spice bread. Yum.
I like to bake with persimmons. Feels like channeling my grandmother. In her memory I also do rhubarb-berry cobbler in the spring (good with ice cream; even better with Gruyere double cream).