CAKE DAD: pistachio puppy chow soft launch

a quick hello and a quick no-bake recipe

you don’t even know the weird parts of the internet i wind up on trying to find pictures of celebrities and desserts.

Happy fake spring. Wow, how many lifetimes have passed this winter? The snow is melting and the people are frisky. At this point, I’ think I’m just doing a bit where every other newsletter I’m returning after a few months like,”heyyyyy…how y’all doin”. I have so many half-written essays. But wow! Life for the last two years, am I right?

This week’s newsletter is short(ish) and light on the links while I prepare proper updates (aka the goss). A brief note, I have gotten rid of hidden paid content here. If you’d like to support me/my projects and have the means I have my monthly fee set as low as I can. If you can’t/won’t/wouldn’t/can’t right now, that’s fine! I’m just happy you’re here.

If you missed it on Instagram, I’m getting published in a book for the first time! I have contributed a recipe to Queers at the Table, a queer food anthology of essays, comics and recipes edited by Megan J. Elias & Alex D. Ketchum and published by Arsenal Press. It’s out this fall and available for pre-order!

I can tell that I am slowly defrosting because I have been to the theatre twice in the past two weeks. Last week I saw For Every One Stuck Chasing The Clock at La Chapelle. It was a gorgeous performance piece about chronic illness that was heartbreaking and relatable and wow. We are so lucky to see artists make art. Funnily, I lived in residence at Concordia with one of the performers and it’s always funny seeing how people weave in and out of your life. Last night I saw Resurrection at Centaur Theatre- a kind of performance piece/cabaret/live podcast about AIDS activist Michael Callan. It was incredible. I was happy that I was seated far away from anyone because I was crying in a truly ghastly fashion. Both shows are over now but if ever they come back or tour- go! But now, chocolate.

Dubai Chocolate Bar. Photo: Leonora Brebnerion

The Dubai chocolate bar came onto my radar sometime in the last year, probably last spring. Sarah Hamouda, the founder of Dubai-based Fix Dessert Chocolatier is credited as its creator. It is an enormous milk chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream and kadayif, a crispy skinny noodle-y spun filo used in Middle Easter desserts. I wanted it so bad. I have a recipe for gluten free filo sheets (google gluten free warqa, the trick is to paint the layers). But they are not even close to being noodley/crispy enough for this application. So I just kind of put it in the file of, “things I will never get to eat”, and forgot about it.

Until, I saw someone make the chocolate bar with rice Chex on the gluten-free reddit. Honestly it was the first time that I had felt inspired or excited to make something in months plus I had been wanting to buy a jar of pistachio cream since I demolished the one I brought back from Italy in like three days. Just a warning, pistachio cream costs like $15 here!¹ (and was 3 euros in Italy, crying in Italian). I bit the bullet and made the chocolate bars in a circular silicone mold I already had. It was divine! But annoying! I fear tempering chocolate. Late that night while I mindlessly hoovered fistfuls of Chex cereal standing barefoot on the kitchen floor I saw the muddy buddies recipe on the side of the box.

For the unfamiliar, Muddy Buddies, or as I was taught, “puppy chow” is an easy, no-bake recipe popular in the Midwest and adjacent regions. I learned how to make it sometime in the 90s. It was either in my Ontario Girl Guides troop or from one of my various children’s cookbooks. It’s composed of melted chocolate and peanut butter melted to coat Chex cereal and then tossed in powdered sugar. It does, in fact, resemble dog food. So naturally I had to make it with the ($15!) jar of pistachio cream that I had bought to make chocolate with. And it is good! Maybe not better than the chocolate bar, you do lose the creamy component. But, it is MUCH easier and more snackable. I am not a big fan of super sweet and would personally omit the powdered sugar coating all together if you’re not transporting the mix and/or don’t care if it sticks together. You can also totally mix everything together rather than making separate green and brown mixes. But you know, aesthetics.

This one is everything that I love in a recipe/outfit/culture/anything: high/low balance, sweet/salt balance, colours, textures, and it’s kind of dumb! If you make it send me pictures!

Dubai (Pistachio-) Chocolate Puppy Chow

gluten-free, dairy-free/ vegan option

5 cups rice chex, divided in 2
¼ cup white chocolate chips
¼ cup dark chocolate chips
¼ cup pistachio cream * divided in 2
2 tbsp butter/coconut oil, divided in 2
¼ tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar **
pinch of sea salt

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. In the medium bowl of a double boiler over simmering water, melt white chocolate chips, 2 tbsp pistachio cream, vanilla and 1 tbsp butter/oil. Mix gently with a spatula until smooth.

3. Remove the white chocolate mixture from heat. Gently mix in 2.5 cups of chex cereal until the cereal is thoroughly coated. Pour mix into a large ziptop plastic bag with ⅓ cup of powdered sugar and shake to combine ,add more sugar if needed to coat. Pour onto half of the prepared sheet and spread into an even layer. Set aside.

4. Return bowl to double boiler and add dark chocolate chips, remaining pistachio butter, remaining butter, and a pinch of salt. Melt until smooth. Repeat the previous step. Coating the chex cereal in the chocolate mixture, then placing in ziptop plastic bag to coat in powdered sugar. Pour dark chocolate chex onto the baking sheet to set.

5. When the coating is firm to the touch, put the mix in a party bowl and share!!! Adding ½ cup of shelled pistachios now would also be, very, very good I’d imagine.

*for vegan alternative substitute vegan chocolate chips (i.e. enjoy life brand ) and substitute ¼ cup pistachio cream for 2 tbsp pistachio butter and 2 tbsp tahini mixed with an optional 1 tsp dried coconut milk (not necessary but good).

**you can totally skip the icing sugar if you don’t like things too sweet, the mix will stick to itself a bit more, but the flavour is better, at least to me

PS Does anyone remember this???

1. I have a real, “anything for you, princess” attitude towards myself these days