Canada’s sticky, sweet, centenarian snack was born in Alberta

Brittle, yes, but not fickle.

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There are Canadians who would not recognize the most distant ancestors of the beloved puffed wheat square, but they’re not in Red Deer, Alta.

A.J. Russell was born in rural New Brunswick in 1868 but went West after a years-long rough patch in business early in life.

His story is one of a plucky 19th-century self-starter who left home at 14 and worked as a lumber camp cook and in other vocations including the restaurant business before landing on candy.

The original recipe for the celebrated snack seen by some to emulate the hardscrabble ethos of the Prairies employed molasses as a sweetener with sugar rationed due to the First World War. Puffed grains were popularized as a nutritional staple for their ability to stretch a pantry, also during wartime.

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Russell’s descendants told the CBC in 2019 that he created what we know as a puffed wheat square by adapting one of his popular brittle recipes for a Quaker Oats Company candy bar recipe contest.

(The major Canadian Quaker plant in Peterborough, Ont. was originally established as the American Cereal Company in 1902, lured as many manufacturers were by the city’s abundant hydroelectric power.)

Online recipe authors stress cooking time is key to a puffed wheat square with that ideal ooey-gooey adjacent consistency: Don’t boil the candy mixture for too long.

“Drop a small dollop of the mixture into a cup of cold water. If it forms a ball, you are good,” advises Visit Red Deer. 

Other recipes mix in marshmallows for texture and peanut butter for a flavour contrast.

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