Happy Monday everyone!
We’re all hunkering down and preparing for the “Frankenstorm” that’s supposed to be hitting the East coast today–should be interesting! I wasn’t quite prepared for snow this early, but I’m definitely glad I upgraded to a 4-wheel drive car in time. I even made sure I had on overnight bag with me today just in case I can’t make it back up the hill. I’ve been living near the beach for the last 6 years, what can I say.
This weekend, we also hosted a Halloween party to celebrate just a little in advance of the holiday on Wednesday. I’ll get into the fabulous details of the entire event on Wednesday (to relive the fun on actual Halloween!), but I definitely wanted to share with you one of the biggest hits of the party–the candy corn rice crispy treats.
I saw this recipe in October’s Martha Stewart Living and knew I needed to make them for the event. I’ve never made rice crispy treats before, but I’ve certainly eaten enough of them to know that they couldn’t be too hard to make and really, who could turn down cereal + butter +marshmallows? Plus, this version incorporated lemon zest + orange zest in the appropriate layers for a little unexpected but amazing citrus twist.
Martha Stewart even had an amazing step by step video on their website for those novice rice crispy treat makers like me.
First, you heat a little (3 tablespoons) of butter over medium heat.
Next you stir in 4 cups of mini marshmallows until they become nice and melty, and then add 3 cups of puffed rice cereal and immediately pour the mixture into a loaf pan.
You repeat this step twice, adding the respective zests and food coloring, until you have a nice layered loaf.
I searched high and low, but for the life of me, could not find regular puffed rice cereal at the grocery store except for this whole grain, natural version. Unfortunately, the brown tint to the cereal dulled the layer colors quite a bit, but you can still make out the subtle variations in color.
Once the loaf solidifies in the fridge for at least 2 hours, you cut 10 even pieces and then the recipe calls for you to cut those into halves, but I cut them into thirds for smaller servings. You then just mold each piece into a candy corn-ish shape.
I think mine look a bit more like tombstones than candy canes, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, which you can find on the Martha Stewart website here (as well as the amazing video!). They would be the perfect classroom treat to bring in as well!
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I love the puffed rice and the Candy corn shape and color! I’ve never tried rice crispy treats in any other variation than “original” ;) Looks like fun mixing it up to reflect Halloween – my nieces and nephews would gobble these up! Hope you’re having a great day so far!
Thanks Julia! My friends must have similar appetites because they were gobbled up in about an hour too lol
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