FoCo Joe: “The Earthquake”
I have to say, Halloween was so great, but this week has really been meh. Getting back midterms is always stress inducing – the home stretch is so close yet so far. But let me tell you, this dessert has literally shaken up everything. Pun intended. I’ve had it at least once every day since Monday, and each time it tastes better than before. I’m always left full without feeling heavy. And I must mention the relative health benefits this dessert offers as well. “The Earthquake” is revolutionary for my culinary arsenal — a natural disaster turned miracle. Hopefully you’ll feel the same way when you try it.
Without further ado, here’s how to recreate this stomach rumbler. Not that I condone fighting fire with fire or anything.
Step 1: Grab a bowl —not a cup, trust me — and fill it with two to three modest scoops of Greek yogurt. Cups are too small to mix all the ingredients together. Everything will eventually be mixed together, so it’s not a big deal to go back and add more yogurt after the fact.
Another factor in this step is awareness of texture preferences. If you are looking for the hard GoLean Crunch and soft Cap’n Crunch textures to shine in this dessert, add less yogurt. A dessert with more yogurt will reduce the crunchy interplay between the cereals, as Cap’n Crunch tends to drown in the watery yogurt and lose its airy bite.
Step 2: Head over to the cereals and add one scoop (maximum) of both GoLean Crunch and Cap’n Crunch. Both are important. GoLean Crunch is tougher on the molars and earthier in flavor. Cap’n Crunch, meanwhile, is much less dense and more sweet — but still has a light crunch to it, of course. The two textures actually are really good together, especially with some Reese’s Pieces. Be precise with this step, and make sure the cereal portions make sense for the amount of yogurt in your bowl. For example, in a bowl with a good three scoops of Greek yogurt, too much cereal will be too heavy of a meal, while not enough cereal will make the dessert too thin and the creamy yogurt will overpower. Eyeballing it is critical, and you will become better at this with time.
Step 3: Add two spoonfuls of Reese’s Pieces. More than two is unnecessary with everything else going on.
Step 4: Scrape some chunky peanut butter and Nutella onto the side of the bowl. Make sure the spreads make contact with the bowl itself and not the cereals, as it will become more difficult for the spreads to separate from the butter knife. It’s also nice to have the spreads on the side as an optional complement to each bite, rather than stirred into the yogurt to create one homogenous mixture. The amount of peanut butter and Nutella are purely based on preference, though I would recommend no more than a golf-ball size of each. Adding more peanut butter and less Nutella, or vice versa, is totally fair game too.
Step 5: Enjoy! No need to mix intensely right away. Just scoop and re-scoop so that all the ingredients (save the spreads) interact with one another. Dip each spoonful into the dessert, with a little room left on the spoon for the spreads. Repeat spontaneously. Cherish this dessert forever — I kid you not, it is my new best friend!