Caramel Crispy Treats

Oh don't you just love picnic desserts? I especially like the really portable ones you don't need a plate for. The type you can grab just one more of while you're walking past the buffet table . . . the kind you can quickly lick away the evidence of eating . . .

The heat has turned up here in Mizzou so I thought I'd work with some of those lovely bars made of rice cereal and marshmallow. They're made on the stove so you don't heat up the entire house with them. They're pretty quick too.

Of course, I couldn't just leave them alone! I've been hankering for some caramel goodness lately and thought why not combine the two?

Here's the main things you'll need. I didn't take a picture of corn syrup because . . . well . . . being a clear liquid it's not very photogenic! 

Does the thought of making caramel make you nervous? Hot sugar, boiling pans, cream, crystallization . . . don't worry, we're not making REAL caramel. We're going to be making a tasty substitute.

Let's get the rice crispy treats started by melting a little butter. I hear tell you can do this in the microwave but frankly I always get the whole butter-marshmallow mixture too hot in there and end up with crispy rice asphalt balls! So get the butter melting . . .

This butter is boiling hot and bubbling. At this point it occurred to me that I've never tried brown butter in a crispy rice treat. Browned butter makes all sorts of simple things taste all nutty and roasty. Why not! Go ahead and cook your butter until it starts to get brown . . .

Keep stirring the butter because as it browns you'll discover every hot spot in your pan. We don't want black butter just brown! This is good so I went ahead and turned off the heat completely . . .

Everything is plenty hot enough already so stir vigorously! You'll see the little toasty bits of butter clinging to the marshmallows. Makes them look like toasted marshmallows! Kind of tastes like roasted marshmallows too! Keep stirring until the marshmallows have mainly melted into the butter. If you're using a really thin pan you might have to turn the heat up to low.

Dump in the cereal and get to stirring! This will finish up those last few lumps of marshmallow.

As soon as it's mixed together go ahead and dump it into a greased 9X13 pan.

Now the best tool for spreading them is a nice wet hand.

Be gentle! You don't want to go squishing the crispies!

Looks good enough to eat!

Maybe I'll just stop right here?

What? No? You want caramel on your treats? Okay . . .

New pan! More butter!

Get it melting while you measure out some brown sugar . . .

Mmmm, brown sugar! Quite possibly one of the most photogenic of all brown foods! I had just a bit of dark brown sugar in the pantry that was going a little dry so I decided to use it up. Finished out with the regular light brown. You can use either or a combo in this recipe.

In it goes!

Now for the corn syrup. The corn syrup helps the sugar and butter know that they're supposed to become smooth and glossy. It's a carbon-hydrogen-bonding-organic-chemistry sort of thingy.

Stir it all up and bring it to a simmer. As soon as the sugar melts you're ready.

A little salt while we're waiting for it to simmer. It enhances the smoky toasty notes in the caramel.

It's just starting to bubble along the sides.

It's done! Now I know you're tempted to taste it but . . . it's really very, very hot! Wave the spoon in the air a little before you do! As it cools it'll get thicker and thicker.

In 10-15 minutes it'll get pourable. See how it's forming a ribbon?

Oh the glory!

Spread it around!

All the way to the edge!

If you have no shame you can add sprinkles! Itty bitty chocolate chips!

Come to mama!

Mmm! The chocolate chips are starting to melt a little.

The treats have that satisfying crunch and chew I love them for. The caramel and brown butter sets off their lovely light flavor perfectly! The little sprinkle of chocolate on the top gives a real pow of bittersweet chocolate flavor. It almost overwhelms the caramel. Maybe I should of went with the honey roasted peanuts?


Caramel Crispy Treats

for the cereal bars
6 cups rice cereal
4 cups mini marshmallows
1/4 cup butter

for the caramel
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt

garnish
1/4 cup chocolate chips or nuts

To make the bars: Melt butter over medium heat in a 4 quart sauce pan. Cook, stirring regularly until butter begins to brown. This takes 1-5 minutes depending on the pan you use and the heat level you choose. Turn off heat and add marshmallows. Stir until melted, turning on heat to low if they're not melting fast enough. Add cereal and mix together until all pieces are coated. Spread into 9X13 pan.

For caramel: Add caramel ingredients together into small sauce pan and bring to a simmer. As soon as sugar dissolves remove from heat and cool for 10-15 minutes.

Pour caramel over bars and spread to the edges. Add garnish if desired.

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways . . .

I love watermelon . . .

It means summer to me . . .

It means parties and playing and juicy sweet goodness!

Imagine my surprise to find an old fashioned seeded watermelon at the store the other day! I told my husband, I WANT THAT!!! So he got it for me!

I'm a cheap date.

When I got it home I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. It's a lot of watermelon after all and nobody in my family has the passion for it quite the way I do. I thought I'd make ya'll a cocktail because watermelon cocktails are THE BEST! Plus it's a holiday weekend and you're going to be needing some beautiful refreshing cocktails right?

Then I thought . . . (dangerous I know!) I thought this is the perfect watermelon for a watermelon basket! I should cut a watermelon basket so everybody can see how EASY it is.

But . . . nobody will be impressed anymore when I bring one to a party . . .

Oh well! It's more important that everybody have beautiful watermelon baskets!

So now like all those fancy chefs on television I give you watermelon two ways . . .

Wash up your watermelon and start to give it little pokes to see which two sides are the most "stable." I'm going to split it in half so I want two stable sides opposite each other!

Okay, I've found them! If your watermelon doesn't have any stable sides just throw them on a tray of ice when you're serving. People will think you're trying to keep them cold. When I have a truly twirly one I'll occasionally slice a flat surface into it. Remember you're the boss of the watermelon!

My stem ends are pretty much centered so I'll work around them. You want a nice wide knife with a good point on it.

The further you stick the knife in, the bigger the point.

Just stick the point at the top of the last slice and push in! It'll slice down from here.

Flip the knife over and it'll slice in the upward direction!

Now my watermelon was so perfectly ripe it actually cracked a little occasionally. But nobody noticed. Well, I didn't notice.

I'm half way there!

I had to fudge a little to get it to match up at the end. No big deal.

Now flip it on it's side and push the two halves apart!

Voila! You're not even noticing that they're not perfect are you!

Mmmmm! Fruit with seeds tends to be so much sweeter than their non-seeded counterparts.

Now about those seeds! They tend to run in channels in the watermelon so go ahead and . . .

. . . and dig out those channels. This pure juicy goodness is going into our 2nd watermelon recipe so throw it in a colander over a bowl to collect the juice.

I just cut out chunks of melon . . .

Throw any seedy parts in the colander.

I just chunk up the now seedless watermelon. Now if you're finicky you can use a melon baller and cut nice little balls out of the melon. But I want to eat as much watermelon as possible.

Scrape the rind pretty clean.

That's all goodness for the cocktails!

Now you have two beautiful, disposable, bowls to carry fruit salad in! I have a tendency to cut up a cantaloupe and honey dew melon and throw all the chunks in the halves. You'll end up with a nice big bowl of leftover fruit too.

In general this whole operations takes about 45 minutes. So it's not that bad for a start to finish party dish.

Now on to the fun part!

You can use any type of colander you have! Just push the stuff through it with a wood spoon or potato masher.

You can even squeeze the pulp with your nice clean hands . . .

If you're tired you can even throw it in the blender . . .

 . . . I chose a low speed so as not to break up too many seeds.

There it goes!

Now that great big watermelon gave me about 3 Liters of watermelon pulp and juice.

Which is so convenient because it means this whole bottle of vodka is perfect! Raspberry and watermelon are delicious together! You could use a melon vodka with success though. But raspberry is my favorite!

Now for a food safe, freezer safe, container! This ice cream container will do.

If you pour it in the container nice and slow . . .

. . . all the bits of seed will stay in the bottom of the bowl. Not that they'll hurt you! Swallowing one of these won't make you pregnant.

Add the liquor! Then throw it in the freezer.

Through the magic of the Internet . . .

It's done! It is perfect sweet and perfectly refreshing!

The color! The color! It just screams SUMMER IS HERE!

This drink still has plenty of the watermelon pulp in it so I think it technically qualifies as a smoothie.

So there's fiber . . . and no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup! It's for your health really. Look mine even has leafy greens included!

Frozen Watermelon Cooler

4 parts pureed watermelon pulp
1 part raspberry vodka

Mix together and freeze!