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06 Oct 2013 Espresso Rice Krispie Treats
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espresso RKT bright1

As most of you know, I can’t be left in a room with a Rice Krispie Treat, or as my #1 grandson calls them, “Rice Christmas Treats”. Unfortunately, now he can’t be left alone in a room with a Rice Krispie Treat either, but it’s a problem that seems to run in the family.  His mother,  aunt and uncle can’t be left in a room with a RKT either (probably bad parenting).  We’re a Rice Krispie Treat crazed family which is odd, considering we don’t eat cereal (well, Abby eats cereal, but it’s a secret!).  I hate all boxed cereal.  Yes, I know that is a strong word, but I do.  I don’t think I have had a bowl of cereal in 40 years or more.  Yucky stuff, but stir in some processed marshmallows and a bit of butter and everything is magically transformed!

So! Now, I’ve finally found a GOOD recipe for an Espresso Rice Krispie Treats! I’ve tried some others over the years, including one epic fail using butterscotch pudding, but this one is a winner.  Where did I find it?  In the October 2013 edition of Cooking Light!  Are you shocked?  Me, too! This issue has NINE recipes for Rice Krispie Treats!  I am not inclined to make any of the other recipes, one of which is…, wait for it…, drum roll…, Maple Bacon!! Really? Really!?!  A  Maple Bacon Rice Krispie Treat?  (In Cooking Light?!) Ummm, no. But, if you do make them, you have GOT to let me know how they turned out, OK?  Are they supposed to be a breakfast food?!

Here, on In the Kitchen with Polly, I have four more recipes for Rice Krispie Treats: Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats (the all time favorite, the classic recipe made even better); Coconut Rice Krispie Treats and Chocolate-Chocolate Cherry Rice Krispie treats (which are both deeeeelicious–I don’t know which one I like better!) and Milky Way Rice Krispie Treats (which have a great taste but come in 4th place because they suffer a teeny-tiny bit in texture and are a bit, and just a bit, dense/hard… Not as ooey-gooey as the other four recipes).

This recipe calls for “toffee bits” which are Heath Bar Bits. Normally, I don’t like Heath Bar Bits because they taste a bit old and stale, but in this recipe they  complement and enhance the espresso powder perfectly (truth be told, I  made these the first time because I had half a bag of Heath Bar Bits in the refrigerator and didn’t know what to do with them).  Since then though, I’ve made these Espresso Rice Krispie Treats several times, always to rave reviews, except by #1 grandson, age: not-yet-five, who doesn’t like the coffee flavor (YET).  SCORE! More for ME! But it does mean that I have to make two batches of RKTs when I make these… 🙂

Espresso Rice Krispie Treats

  • 2-3 tablespoons butter
  • 10 oz. miniature marshmallows (check your package, you might have a 16 oz package of marshmallows and in that case, make 1 ½ times this recipe, which fits nicely in a 9″ x 13″ pan)
  • 1 tablespoon espresso powder (can be found in most grocery stores now, next to the instant coffee, gourmet stores carry it too, but at double the price)
  • 1 cup toffee bits (Heath Bar bits, the ones without the chocolate)
  • 6 cups crispy rice cereal (Rice Krispies, or one of the generic brands–which I usually use because they are so much cheaper and they work out fine)
  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan or large skillet over medium high heat.
  2. Stir in the espresso power.  Stir to blend.
  3. Lower the heat. Stir in the marshmallows. Continue cooking and stirring until the marshmallows are melted and the espresso powder has been evenly dispersed. Turn off the heat.
  4. Stir in the 6 cups of Rice Krispies and the toffee bits.  This is the only (slightly) difficult and messy part of the recipe.  Keep stirring until marshmallow mixture has been evenly distributed through the cereal.
  5. Transfer the mixture to an 11″ x 7″ pan (if you don’t have one, don’t worry, use the nearest size pan you have…or use a 9″ x 13″ pan.  In the larger pan, the squares will just be a bit thinner)
  6. Press the mixture evenly into the pan, you have to press down slightly to get the right consistency in your finished Treats.  The mixture will be sticky, and a bit hot, so use the wrapper from the butter to press the mixture down, or butter your fingertips and press down, some people wet their fingertips to do this, but I am always afraid I’ll make the top layer soggy.
  7. Let Rice Krispie Treats set and cool on counter before slicing and serving. Cut into any size or shape bars that you prefer.

That’s it!  Now you have a truly grown-up flavored Rice Krispie Treat!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!

08 Feb 2011 Milky Way Rice Krispie Treats
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One more week until Valentine’s Day.  I wonder if I can pull together a week of chocolate posts?  LOL.  Of course I can!  Is there any ingredient I like more? Aside from chocolate (and coffee), what is my private, secret, shameful indulgence?  Rice Krispie treats.  I can’t be left in a room alone with them. Terrible, horrible-immoral-things happen.  So what better way to start out my Valentine’s Day posts than with a recipe for a chocolate Rice Krispie Treats?!

I try every recipe for  Rice Krispie Treats that I run across.  I have quite a collection of Rice Krispie recipes: Coconut, Browned Butter, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate-Cherry.  Sadly, not all the recipes I’ve tried have worked.  The coffee ones and the butterscotch ones, both made with pudding, were major disappointments.  Not this one though.  I found this recipe on a British food site, The Greedy Gourmet. These, these my friends, are winners. Only one problem though, there are no marshmallows in them! =:O  In fact, the entire recipe has only three ingredients! (I might try to remake this recipe with some marshmallows at a future date  because I do miss some of that marshmallow gooeyness.)  With no marshmallows, these Rice Krispie Treats are more crispy than gooey, but they are ohhhhh soooo good!

The original recipe was made with Mars bars, which is a UK chocolate bar very similar to a Milky Way bar, so I subbed Milky Way bars. The original recipe also called for slicing some additional Mars/Milky Way bars and laying the slices on top of the treats, then covering the entire thing with some melted chocolate.  I didn’t do that.  Five melted Milky Way bars stirred into 4 cups of Rice Kripies sounded decadent enough for me.

Milky Way Rice Krispie Treats

  • 5 Milky Way Bars (about 11 oz. total)
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 4 cups Rice Krispies
  1. Prepare a 8×8 or a 9×9 baking dish by spraying with Pam or smearing with butter.
  2. Pour 4 cups Rice Krispies into a large heat proof bowl and set aside.
  3. Chop the Milky Way bars and place in a small saucepan with the butter.  Over low heat stir the Milky Way bars and the butter until both are melted and the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Remove from heat.
  4. Pour the chocolate mixture over the Rice Krispies and stir well.  Coat as many Rice Krispies as possible with the chocolate mixture.
  5. Pour the Rice Krispie mixture into prepared square pan.  Press lightly on mixture to remove air pockets and to level out and flatten mixture.
  6. Let set.
  7. Cut into serving sized squares and enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today.  Maybe you’ll put some of these in your kids lunch box this week? And, maybe, for Valentine’s Day dinner, you’ll consider a recipe for Hot Chocolate Lava Cakes.  My daughter made them for us last year…, yummm!  This year, she made four kinds of brownies.  I’ll be posting the two winners shortly (the bacon ones will not be posted…)

30 Sep 2010 Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
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In our recent taste tests, these were definitely the winners!   I think these won because they tasted the most like traditional  Rice Krispie Treats, but they were cranked up a notch, a big notch. The browned butter and the sea salt makes such a DIVINE difference. You’ll know when you taste them. Look at all that was left to photograph! My older daughter wants me to throw out the original recipe for Rice Krispie Treats and just use this one from now on.

I didn’t want to up this recipe to use a 9 x 13 pan, because there is quite a bit of butter in this recipe–and it has to be browned, which can be a tricky step.  I’d suggest making two batches, rather than one larger batch, if you are trying to feed a crowd.

I did put my batch in a 7×11 pan, rather than the specified 8×8 pan.

I found this recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

4 ounces (¼ pound or 1 stick) unsalted butter
10 ounces mini marshmallows
Heaping ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, I used Maldon Sea Salt (plus extra for sprinkling)
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (6 ounces)

Butter (or coat with non-stick spray) an 8-inch square cake pan. In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Don’t take your eyes off the pot, the period between the time the butter begins to take on color and the point where it burns is often less than a minute. As soon as the butter takes on a nutty color, turn the heat off and stir in the marshmallows. The residual heat from the melted butter should be enough to melt them, but if it is not, turn it back on low until the marshmallows are smooth. Remove the pot from the stove and stir in the salt and cereal together. Quickly spread into prepared pan, pressing firmly and evenly into the edges and corners (butter a spatula or use the paper from the butter for this job). Let cool and then cut into squares.

30 Sep 2010 Coconut Rice Krispie Treats
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I looooove coconut so I HAD to make these. Had to. I am glad I did, too. This recipe is a keeper! I have coconut loving friends that are going to want to me to make these. I’ll offer to bring them to their parties.  I’ll get a lot of invitations to of parties! Maybe not grown-up cocktail parties (LOL), but that’s OK.  Down home, multi-generational, potluck parties are more my style anyway.

I found this recipe at the Craving Chronicles but had to change it up a bit.  I wish I had increased the recipe to fit into a 9×13 inch pan, but I wasn’t smart enough. You can though, just increase all the ingredients by 50% (don’t throw out the extra ounce of marshmallows, throw the whole pound bag in there).  One more thing, I’ve made these several times now.  I don’t think I will put a chocolate drizzle on the top again.  The coconut goodness does it for me.  I don’t need the chocolate.  It kind of gets in the way.  But you do what suits your palate best :).

One MORE thing, in the photo, I put the chocolate on top of the coconut. Ooops.  If you do use chocolate, don’t do this.  The chocolate and coconut fall off. Chocolate first, THEN coconut, K?

Toasted Coconut Rice Krispie Treats

3 tablespoons butter
10 ounces mini marshmallows
½ cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon coconut extract
5 cups Rice Krispies cereal
½ cup toasted shredded coconut*

3 ounces (about ½ cup) bittersweet chocolate chips, melted (optional)

* To toast coconut, spread shredded coconut in an even layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 300F, stirring every few minutes, for 10-15 minutes or until coconut is golden brown. Don’t walk away from the oven! The coconut will brown very quickly, so keep an eye on it. Set aside to cool.

Prepare an 8 or 9 inch square dish by either buttering or spraying with cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add marshmallows and heat over medium-low heat, stirring until melted. Stir in shredded coconut and coconut extract. Remove from heat. Add Rice Krispies and stir until thoroughly coated. Spread Rice Krispie mixture into prepared pan. With the back of a buttered spatula or using a sheet of waxed paper, press mixture firmly into an even layer. If desired melt chocolate chips and drizzle over the tops of the treats. Spread slightly, if desired. Sprinkle toasted coconut and press lightly to adhere to the chocolate and the top of the treats. Cool at room temperature until chocolate hardens. Once cool, cut into squares and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today…, and don’t forget to send me that invitation to the party!

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