When I make Rice Krispy Treats, I can't stand leaving them plain. Anyone can do that. I like upping the ante, adding ingredients or replacing plain marshmallows with flavored ones. Here's a recent variation that was inspired by an orange cranberry scone I purchased at the local Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago.
Rice Krispy Treats
Ingredients:
- 1/4 c. margarine or butter
- 1 tbsp. fresh orange zest
- 1 cup of dried cranberry pieces
- 4 c. mini marshmallows (about a 10 oz bag will work)
- 6 c. any kind of crispy rice cereal
Directions:
- Prepare an 9x12 (or similar size) baking dish by coating the inside with butter.
- Put orange zest, cranberry bits, and margarine or butter in a large glass bowl and melt it in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds.
- Take bowl from the microwave and stir the contents a few times with a wooden spoon. Add marshmallows and mix well, coating marshmallows with the orange-butter mix.
- Microwave it again until the marshmallows start to swell and are double in size.
- Take bowl from microwave and still using a wooden spoon, immediately add the crispy rice cereal, thoroughly mixing all ingredients.
- Coat wooden spoon with butter and press mixture into your baking dish.
- When cool, cut into squares and serve.
This recipe makes about 2 dozen squares.
Tips:
- You can also melt white chocolate and drizzle it diagonally back and forth over the squares while they're still slightly warm.
- While you don't -have- to use a glass bowl and a wooden spoon, they work a heck of a lot better than plastic dishes for this.
- You can replace the orange and cranberry with lemon and blueberry, or lime and strawberry, and they're JUST as good as this version. I promise.
