Power to the Puffies

A great friend of mine refers to pigeons as puffies and while the entire lexicon he's developed around puffies is best left for another day, I couldn't help but think of those poor little puffies - denied the right to self-determination - while I made these really delicious puffed kamut squares. This is basically a puffed wheat square...remixed.

I need to rewind a bit and tell you that until I moved out west, I'd never tasted a puffed wheat square. Then, one fine day, at my team's bake sale, I happened upon a real beauty of a baked good: subtle sweetness, crisp without crunch, dark but welcoming flavour and absolutely disarming. I brought one home for Manski and that was the end of that. We needed to make ourselves a batch of these.

I've concluded that the wet ingredients, once combined and cooked would make an amazing drizzle for ice cream, rich plain yogurt, cheesecake, etc. My recipe need some improving. I would recommend adhering strictly to the 6c measure for cereal, as I added a little more and it caused mine to be a bit less cohesive than I had hoped. You can see in the photo that there's a bit of a lover's quarrel/crumble going on. Either way, a total flop still produces some delicious output. I'm also adding a pinch of salt to the recipe, because I think it will give the flavour a great edge.
I need to give a shout out to Veggie Prairie Girl for providing the recipe, which I mildy (maybe even wildly) modified.


Puffed Kamut Squares
1/2c butter (I used 1/4c coconut oil and 1/4 butter since I was low on butter)
1 and 1/2 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
One pinch of coarse salt
1/3 c agave nectar (stick factor is better with corn syrup I think, but...)
1/3c brown sugar (I used organic muscovado for more "stick")
6c puffed kamut cereal (or puffed grain of choice)

1. Grease 8x8 pan (I used 9x9 and it worked out great) and
2. Dump (or gingerly place) the measured cereal into a bix mixing bowl
3. Combine first 5 ingredients in saucepan and heat until just one brink of boiling
4. Pour wet ingredients into bowl of cereal and mix together until uniformly coated
5. Turn out mix into greased pan and press down until flat, using fingertips
6. Using a spatula/rubber scraper, spank (yes, I said spank) it down until it's well compacted
7. Allow it to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Oh, and pop by Jess' blog The Process of Healing if you're interested in checking out a guest post by yours truly.