As I mentioned last week, I made a lot of rice krispy treats.  I made five types…some were a hit, some were not.  Here’s my recap.  NOTE: There are a lot of photos in this post because….I made a lot of rice krispy treats.

I decided to make Strawberry, Vanilla Bean, Cake Batter, Butterscotch White Chocolate, and Caramel with salted Chocolate.

Can you guess what were the hits and which were the misses?

First I started with two HUGE bags of rice cereal and five 10 oz bags of marshmallows.  I decided to go with the store brand to see if these was something that doesn’t make a difference or not and I was making a lot of treats.  I will say now, the treats that were hits were hits regardless of the maker of the basic ingredients and the misses were because they were – let’s face it – just not the right ones for my taste palette.

The first treat I made was the strawberry.  It required half of a box of strawberry gelatin to be added to the basic krispy treat recipe (6 cups of puff rice cereal, 1/2 cup of butter, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and 1 10 oz bag of marshmallows).

I melted one stick of butter, then added 1 bag of marshmallows.

I melted the marshmallows and butter in 30 second increments that took about 1 minute total.

I added about 3 tbsp of strawberry gelatin to the marshmallow butter mixture.

Then my six cups of cereal

I then pressed my mixture into a greased tin pan (I bought a four pack) and let them sit.

Next I made the Vanilla Bean treats.  For these I decided to try margarine to compare flavors – I have decided that I like the flavor of butter better.  The recipe is very similar: 4 tbsp of margarine, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 10oz marshmallows, 6 cups of puffed rice cereal.

To my marshmallow and margarine mixture I added 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste and 1 tsp of vanilla.

These were a lot sticker, so I had to spray my hands with a little of cooking spray to press these into the pan.

Third I made the cake batter treats.  This recipe called for the addition of cake mix – 4 tbsp of butter, 10 oz marshmallow, 1/2 cup cake mix, 5 cups of puffed rice cereal, and 1 container of sprinkles.

1/2 cup to be exact

At the last minute I realized I had forgotten to buy the sprinkles and I had none in my pantry.  I did have tons of sparkling sugar though.

After I pressed the treats into the pan, I used my multi-colored sugar and went to town to add some color.

Butterscotch White Chocolate Cereal Treats was next on the list.  This recipe required

Butterscotch chips and one of my favorite ingredients

Peanut Butter!

This recipe did not need a fat ingredient, getting it’s fat from the peanut butter and chips.

 

I added white chocolate chips to my mixture because the original recipe called White Chocolate Wonder by Peanut Butter & Co.  I didn’t have that, but I did have some white chocolate chips and some peanut butter, so I tried my own version.

 

 

Once it was smooth, I added the puffed rice cereal and smooshed it into the pan.  Then I started thinking lets add some melted white chocolate over the top.

 

Butterscotch White Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats : 1 bag butterscotch morsels, 1 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, 6 cups puffed rice cereal.  Combine butterscotch morsels, peanut butter and white chocolate chips.  Melt in microwave about 1 min (in 30 second intervals).  Add rice cereal.  Press into 8×8 lightly greased pan.

 

The final treat I made, Caramel with Salted Chocolate, required caramel.  So, I made caramel.  I did this by combining 1/2 cup of sugar with 2 tbsp of water and placing them over med/high heat.

 

I left that mixture alone until it began to turn amber around the edges.

 

At that point I removed it from the heat and began whisking.

 

I then added 2 1/2 tbsp of softened butter to the mixture and whisked again.  Once that was incorporated, I added 1/4 cup of warm whipping cream.

 

Now that my caramel sauce was done, I melted my butter and marshmallows.

 

 

Then I combined the caramel sauce and marshmallow mixture.

 

I added my cereal, 6 cups, and smooshed into a greased pan.  I then made the ganache my pouring 3/4 cup of very warm heavy cream over 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

 

 

I let my ganache sit for a few minutes then poured it over my treats.  Maybe I should have placed the treats in the frig, but I’m not a huge fan of overly cold desserts.  Cheesecake, lemon meringue pie, key lime pie, jello, and a few other desserts should be cold…Rice Krispy treats, in my opinion, should not.  Oh yeah…after I let the ganache sit a little while I sprinkled the top with sea salt.

 

But maybe if I had my ganache would not have seeped through. 😦

 

Here’s the recipe: Salted Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats (courtesy of http://www.yourcupofcake.com)

Caramel: 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp water 2 1/2 tbsp of softened butter, 1/4 cup heavy cream

Cereal Treats: 1 10 oz bag marshmallows, 2 tbsp of butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 6 cups puffed rice cereal, and caramel sauce

Ganache: 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, 3/4 cup heavy cream, Sea salt for sprinkling on top

Make the caramel sauce: Place cream in small pan and warm, but do not boil (I actually placed mine in a small ceramic bowl and placed it in the microwave for 30 seconds right before I added to sugar mixture).  Combine sugar and water in small pan over med/high heat.  Leave alone until the edges begin to turn amber.  Turn off the heat and begin whisking.  Add the butter and continue whisking.  Add warmed cream and whisk.  Place to the side.

Make cereal treats: Melt butter and marshmallows.  Add vanilla to marshmallow mixture.  Add caramel sauce to mixture.  Add rice cereal and combine.  Press into lightly greased pan.  Set aside and make ganache.

Make ganache: Place chocolate chips in bowl.  Heat cream just until it is about to boil.  Pour hot cream over chips and whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth.  Allow to sit and cool a few minutes.  Then pour over treats.  Tilt pan to allow even coating of treats.  Let sit a few minutes more then lightly sprinkle with sea salt.      

Here are all of the treats lined up on my dining room table setting and waiting to be cut.

 

Now to tell you about my hits and misses.  Did you figure out which was which?

 

Strawberry was a phenomenal hit!!!  Babydoll and her sleepover guest loved them and any others that were left was taken as a dessert treat with lunch this week.

 

Vanilla Bean and Cake Batter were also hits!  They weren’t as well liked/loved as the strawberry by Babydoll, but they are her backups.

The Butterscotch White Chocolate was just too sweet for my palette.  As much as I love peanut butter, I could not take how sweet it was.  If I attempt them again I think I will cut the butterscotch morsels by half and double the peanut butter.  I will search the store aisle and find the White Chocolate Wonder and use that also instead of my own version.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the Salted Chocolate Caramel was a big miss.  I believe a lot of this had to do with the fact that the ganache seemed into the actual bar.  This changed the texture of the bar and made it something I really did not want to eat.  In the future, I think I will make these without the ganache top and just do the caramel krispy treats.

 

That was my Saturday, off & on because I took Sasha to get a haircut and met Stan and the girls (Babydoll and her sleepover guest) for lunch after he took the girls skating and dropped off his car at repair center.

I found several other recipes for rice krispy treats that I will try another time (they tend to be a big hit at gifts at my Girlfriends Dinner party).  I’m excited to try the pumpkin spice.  Plus I still have 3/4 of a bag of cereal to use up.  Do you have a variation that you would like to share?  I’m open to suggestions.

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the picture quality, first I am not nor do I claim to be a food photographer; and second I re-sized these pictures in WordPress, something I stopped doing a long time ago when I began using Windows Live Writer.  I had already transferred the draft to WordPress and decided to finish up here before I had decided on size of pictures.  There were so many I pictures I didn’t want it to take too long to transfer.  Lesson learned, I will complete my editing in Live Writer from now on. 🙂