Cereal treats!

Today's magical recipe is something super simple and quick. It is also heavenly and is able to be tweaked however you want to they are: cereal treats!!! (I need to get a better name for them, but until that day comes, they shall be known as cereal treats.)

Now what are cereal treats? Well they are pretty much Rice Krispie Treats with a twist. Ok, not too exciting, but still a lot of fun to make (and they have a habit of disappearing). These are also awesome because you can make them in a dorm, even a dorm with no kitchen because there is a recipe on the Rice Krispie box for how to make them in a microwave!

What you will need:

one bag of marshmallows

3 tablespoons of butter

one package of the variety of cereal (I also got a small container of Rice Krispies just because)

chocolate or whatever other sweets and things you want to add

Now you want to begin by setting up your ingredients because once you start melting the marshmallows you will be on a time crunch, so first you want to measure out 6 cups of cereal (each box is about a cup to cup and a half) Also if you have any other bits you want to add in, you want to get those ready as well. Whether it's cutting them (if it's a large solid piece of chocolate for instance) or or whatever. Just make sure that it is all ready because you will burn the marshmallows if you try to do this after things have been heated (butter or marshmallows).

Once you have everything all set up, then melt the butter in a large pan. I use our wok because it has high sides, so nothing spills when everything is mixed together.

 Once the butter is completely (or 99%) melted add in the entire bag of marshmallows. Turn heat to about medium (to slow down how fast they melt) and constantly stir until they are completely melted.

This is about the consistency you want the marshmallows to be. You just want them to be a little bit more melted. You can tell that it's melted because the lumps are really just a show. You can stir them gone. If your marshmallow mixture starts to brown a bit it is fine. It is simply caramelizing, but this is a good sign that they are pretty much done. Any more time and they will begin to burn. Take the pan off of the heat.

Once you take it off of the heat, slowly add in the cereal. You most likely wont use all of the cereal, but it really depends on how you like your treats (more or less chewy). You also want to stir the mixture after every time you add in some of the cereal. This makes it easier to mix and gives you a more accurate idea of how the final product will be.

This is when you can add all of the other sweets and items as well. I used a handful of Hersey drops and slightly mixed them in. The heat from the marshmallows melted the chocolate down, so they became little pockets within the treats.

Final look of mixture before moving them into different pans.

Now that you are happy with how the mixture looks, it is now time to prep the baking pans. Now depending on how thick you want the treats decides on which pan(s) you use. These are two 9"x9" pans that I used because we like ours in a decent size. All you need to do to prep them is to spray them with Pam or other oil based product meant for baking.

Once the pan(s) are prepped then you just scoop the treat mixture into the pan(s) with the spatula.

Once you get it all in the pan(s) then you grab some wax paper and carefully pat down the mixture to get in all of the corners of the pan(s). I ended up only needing to use one of the pans, but it is always better to be prepared.
Some of the marshmallow may still stick to the wax, but it will be very little and can be easily picked off (or you and simply fold the wax paper so the areas covered in marshmallow are no longer in contact with the mixture).

Once you have the mixture how you want it, cover it with foil and place it in the fridge for a few hours. Once it has cooled you can remove the pan, cut them into the desired sizes and wrap up in wax paper for individual consumption.

You now also have whatever remains in the pan and spatula to eat and enjoy in the meantime.

Now this recipe is wonderful because you can add whatever you want to it. It's a very flexible recipe that allows your creative juices to flow. You can add things that are more savory like potato chips or peanuts. Or sauces poured over the whole batch. It's really up to you! So eat and enjoy.

And let me know of any cool experimentation you do with this recipe and how it turned out (photos would be awesome)!