Chocolate Frito pie
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I seldom order desserts when dining out, and when as kids we’d ride our bikes to 7-11, while the others would spend their allowances on confections, I’d always opt for a bag of Fritos.
I love Fritos. This humble little Texan chip is snack perfection for me. Its delicate curve, its strong yet light crunch, its toasted, sweet corn flavor brought out by its salty coating—all glorious! I’ve been known to just pop a Frito in my mouth and suck on it like candy, drawing out all of its corn goodness until the chip finally dissolves into a pile of mush. OK, that probably sounds odd, but trust me, it’s fun! And when you eat Fritos, you can pretend they’re good for you, as the ingredients are just corn, oil and salt—nothing artificial about these babies, they’re practically a whole food.
One of the best Frito dishes is something called Frito pie. It’s a bag of Fritos topped with chili, cheese and diced onions found at county fairs and football games all over Texas. But we’ll discuss that another day. Right now, I’m here to talk about a crazy concoction I created for Sugar High Friday hosted this month by David Lebovitz.
I’ve been doing lots of cooking with Mexican chocolate lately, and I have in my possession a large inventory of Chocolate Mayordomo, an unsweetened mix of cacao beans and almonds made in Oaxaca. It’s Mexican baking chocolate and not only have I used it for hot, frothy beverages but I’ve also used it in my chili and my mole. While I’m not prone to making sweets, after reading about a fancy-pants Manhattan chocolatier selling chocolate-covered tortilla chips for $20, I said to myself, I can do that! So with a bag of Fritos and a block of Mexican chocolate on hand, I decided to come up with a recipe for chocolate-dipped Fritos.
I melted the Mexican chocolate in a double boiler and added some sugar, some ancho powder, some cinnamon, some vanilla and a big handful of Whole Foods chocolate chips. After it melted, I tried to coat a Frito with the sauce, but it wouldn’t stay—it just clumped. Now I’m not a baker, and it was probably foolish of me to try and go about this sans recipe. But, the chocolate sauce tasted so delicious I just couldn’t bear to let it go to waste. So I threw the bag of Fritos in the pot of chocolate, stirred it up and voila—chocolate Frito pie!
Now I don’t know if everyone would like this dessert, but I found the first couple of bites tasty. The interplay between the chocolate, Fritos and ancho powder was balanced: not too sweet, not too salty and not too spicy. And the Fritos provided a sturdy, crunchy backdrop to the fudgy, nutty chocolate. If you’ve ever enjoyed chocolate tamales or chocolate-covered corn nuts, you know how well these flavors play together.
So I won’t leave you with a recipe, because I’m not sure what exactly I did. But if you have any ideas on how to make chocolate-dipped corn chips, let me know!
Frito pie! I’m from the Midwest, and like one of the other posters noted, we call those “walking tacos” here. I remember in grade school, “walking taco” days were the best days to buy lunch. You got a bag of Fritos and then the lunch ladies set out a whole bunch of different toppings. Some kids would dump the whole thing out into a plate, but I always ate mine in the bag. It was more adventurous that way. 😉
Loved this entry (found your journal through a post over at Simply Recipes), I’m just itching to experiment with chocolate frito pie too!
P.S. The way you eat a Frito is how I eat it as well. I seriously think it may be the only “processed snack food” (in the arena of potato chips and the like) that you can savor every bite.
Christine–It’s the only way to eat them!
Jessica–Ooooo, those sound delish!
Mona–Thanks for stopping by, and yes, it’s always better to eat your Frito pie out of the bag. And hey! Another one who savors the Fritos.
I have a recipe I’m working on. If it works out, I’ll send it to you. It’s like that old “Cracker Candy” but uses Fritos and Pretzels. On paper, it looks pretty gross but my test batch was good. The problem right now is I need to test it with actual Fritos. I did the test batch with Bugles.
In college at the university of Texas i had a friend that introduced me to what he called the “seventy-five cent meal”.
It is very easy to make:
Step 1: Purchase bag of fritos (maybe more than 75cents these days, but no mater.
Step 2: Open bag
Step 3: Apply “free chili” intended for use on the rotating hotdogs. Add onions if also available.
Step 4: Enjoy frito pie on the go!
Sometimes clerks would try to argue that it was an inappropriate use of the “free chili”…but the funniest response was an older man that said “They didn’t know the beast they was unleashing, when they thought up that there free chili”
to make the chocolate un-clumpy start the whole thing by melting some butter or heating some cream with your spices. then add the chocolate. the fat will help to give the chocolate a less lumpy gloppy. that’s how i make chocolate covered pretzels… good luck! this sounds delicious.