Tag: marshmallows

Categories
Dessert Snack

The Sweet Granada’s avalanche bark truly rocks

Avalanche bark has a great texture, with crunchy rice cereal, fluffy marshmallows and chocolate chunks, along with the flavor of peanut butter.
Avalanche bark has a great texture, with crunchy rice cereal, fluffy marshmallows and chocolate chunks, along with the flavor of peanut butter.

I used to love field trips as a kid—visiting the Wichita Art Museum, the Kansas Cosmosphere, the zoo, the Kansas State Fair, etc.

It was always an adventure in a new place, and I’m the type of person who enjoys learning something new whenever possible.

As an adult, you don’t seem to get to do field trips as often, so when Joey told me we were going to go to Emporia to visit his new friend Kim, owner of The Sweet Granada: A Chocolate Cafe, he didn’t have to do any convincing for me to jump in the car.

Joey recently met Kim through a small business group, and she invited us to come hang out for a bit and see her operation.

Guys.

There. Was. Chocolate. Everywhere.

It was amazing.

When you walk in, you’re hit with a smell wall of deliciousness, and you immediately want to empty your entire bank account into their till when you see the display cases full of every kind of chocolate-y treat you can imagine. I was, almost quite literally, a kid in a candy shop.

We had a great visit with Kim, got a full tour of their operation, and she even sent me home with a recipe to share with all of you for a treat they make at the shop.

This stuff is not only easy to make but delicious, too. It’s a perfect treat for the upcoming holiday snack table. The only alterations I made was to pare this recipe down, since Kim is used to making everything in bulk.

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Avalanche Bark

Avalanche bark has a great texture, with crunchy rice cereal, fluffy marshmallows and chocolate chunks, along with the flavor of peanut butter.
Course Dessert
Keyword chocolate, crisp rice cereal, marshmallows, no bake, peanut butter, Sweet Granada

Ingredients

  • 22 ounces white chocolate or vanilla almond bark
  • 1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
  • 1/4 rounded cup crisp rice cereal
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chunks I used bittersweet

Instructions

  • Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking dish by lining it with parchment paper.
  • In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the almond bark, heating 30 seconds at a time and stirring in between, until it is all melted. Stir in the peanut butter.
  • Once everything is smooth, stir in the marshmallows, cereal and chocolate chunks.
  • Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with a few more toppings, if desired.
  • Let the mixture cool completely on the counter or in the refrigerator and then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

This stuff was great. It was rich and had a fantastic texture. I had to immediately give away as much of the batch as possible to keep from eating the entire pan myself.

Plus, I had other goodies from The Sweet Granada that I needed to spend my calories on. (I highly recommend the dark chocolate pretzel caramel bar. That was my favorite.)

If you’re ever in Emporia, I highly recommend your own field trip to The Sweet Granada at 803 Commercial St. And if you can’t make it over there, get online and do your sweets shopping that way—they ship! You can find them at https://sweetgranada.com/. Locally made treats are a great gift for those hard-to-buy-for folks, or you can just let a group of experts make your holiday treats for you and save yourself some time and energy this year.

I love getting the chance to see how different small businesses do their thing around our state, and it was so fun to meet Kim and see her adorable shop and taste her delicious goodies.

That will definitely not be my last visit to The Sweet Granada. Joey just better watch out, because next time, it won’t be a field trip—it’ll be a shopping trip.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 4, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Side Dish

Candied pecan casserole makes for sweet memories

The only thing missing from this candied pecan sweet potato casserole to turn it fully into a dessert is a graham cracker crust.
The only thing missing from this candied pecan sweet potato casserole to turn it fully into a dessert is a graham cracker crust.

For the last few years, some dear friends of ours invited us over for “Friendsgiving” at their home around Thanksgiving time.

It’s always been a great time to get to know new folks and share in a huge potluck meal.

Of course, this year, that meal couldn’t happen, but instead, Joey and I might have begun a new Thanksgiving weekend tradition. I call it “Strunksgiving.”

Adam Strunk and his fiancee, Sam, have been a part of our “COVID bubble” over the past few months, as we’ve been careful to maintain very little contact with folks. During the summer, Adam and Joey spent several weekends hanging outside, smoking a variety of meats, and when Thanksgiving rolled around, they decided to try a turkey.

That idea ballooned into all of us adding side dish after side dish to the menu, ending up with enough food to feed an army. As I often do to my friends, I made Adam and Sam into my guinea pigs and decided to try some new recipes, one of which was a sweet potato casserole that may as well have been on the dessert table.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Creme de la Crumb.” You can find the original at https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/candied-pecan-sweet-potato-casserole. (I doubled the vanilla in my version below.)

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Candied Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole

The only thing missing from this candied pecan sweet potato casserole to turn it fully into a dessert is a graham cracker crust.
Course Dessert, Side Dish
Keyword brown sugar, marshmallows, pecans, sweet potato casserole, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

Base Ingredients

  • 5 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 cup butter melted
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup milk

Topping Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup butter melted
  • 1 cup pecans chopped
  • 3 cups mini marshmallows

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, and set it aside.
  • Place the cubed sweet potatoes into a stock pot and just cover them with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.
  • Drain the potatoes and dump them back into your stock pot.
  • Mash them, and then stir in the eggs, vanilla, melted butter, brown sugar, salt and milk until everything is well combined.
  • Spread the potato mixture evenly into your prepared dish.
  • In a small bowl, create the topping by combining the brown sugar, flour, melted butter and pecans. Stir until they’re well combined and sprinkle the mixture over top of the potatoes.
  • Bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes, until the topping is caramelized a bit.
  • Remove from the oven and spread the marshmallows over the top. Bake for another five minutes. (If your marshmallows aren’t as browned as you like after five minutes, flip your oven over to the low broil setting and let the casserole cook under the broiler for a couple more minutes.)
  • Serve hot.

If you enjoy sugary sweet potatoes, this is the dish for you. The brown sugar and marshmallows contribute their traditional sweetness, while the pecans offer up a nice, extra crunch to take it all over the top. I actually halved this recipe and made it in an 8-inch dish, and it was a great amount for us.

It got two thumbs up from the tiny assembly.

We had a wonderful time with just the four of us, with great conversation and way too much overeating, but we decided before the pie was served that we were definitely making a regular tradition of sharing a meal together. It looks like “Strunksgiving” is here to stay.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 3, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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