Brittle Me This

Let me just get right to it this week, because I can’t even begin to describe how in love with this brittle I am. In one of my many hours of online recipe stalking, I stumbled across a bunch of different sites that had recipes for quinoa brittle (the photos actually all look disturbingly like cat litter, but don’t let that dissuade you! This is definitely a case of “looks can be deceiving”). Now, I have previously toasted quinoa before and included it in a chocolate bark as well as including it in some fudgy candy cups, and it added a delicious flavour and crunchy texture that was quite enjoyable I must say, so the concept of including it in brittle format was most definitely intriguing. I swear it had nothing to do with the fact that I had a bit of quinoa still kicking around in my cupboard, and that I likely wouldn’t have to make even one trip to the grocery store to make this. Brittle is basically caramelized sugar and whatever else you want to put into it.

So what did I put into it? A scheisse-load of quinoa, sum rum-soaked fruit, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds…basically whatever textural goodness I had currently sitting in my kitchen that seemed like a good addition (so seriously, feel free to put whatever you like into these and I’m sure it will turn out delicious. Within reason of course, don’t be a jerk and put in ghost peppers or cabbage leaves or something weird like that and then come and punch me in the face because you feel I lied to you. If you don’t have at least a modicum of common sense at your disposal, then I just can’t help you 😉 ).

I realized when I got to the end of making this though that a) it was almost too easy and I like things to be a smidgeon more complicatetd and b) it was practically all healthy! (aside from a small amount of sugar and maple syrup – which actually has health properties of its own though, so still not bad), and I just couldn’t have that 😉 . Since I had so much extra time on my hands because of their sheer simplicity, I figured what better way to amp up the deliciousness factor (and amp down the health factor?) then by drizzling some dark and white chocolate on the top? There is no better way, so just don’t even try.

Now when I say this bark is easy to make, I’m seriously not kidding. If you had unexpected guests pull into your driveway, it would be almost ready to go before they even get the chance to ring your doorbell (I’m just making the assumption that you, like me, have a frequent occurrence of dolphins and sloths as your unexpected guests, so you get those extra few seconds of time to get on the dessert making before they actually make it to your doorstep. What? That’s NOT the usual for you??!! *sigh*, well, in that case, get some other member of your household to greet them and take their coats, and that should give you sufficient time to finish your bark-making before anyone makes their way fully into your house).

This is definitely a bizzarro-opposite world situation where your bite is worse than your bark, because in this situation folks, you will most definitely be barking up the RIGHT tree 😉 .