[Sca-cooks] rice crispie (tm) treat analog

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I recently made some variation on rice crispie treats... i hate 
marshmallows and eschew corn syrup, unless absolutely necessary. And 
being a cosmic organic sort i bought

organic crisp brown rice cereal
organic brown rice syrup
organic chunky peanut butter
naturally colored hard sugar coated chocolate discs (yeah, cosmically 
groovy natural m&m analogs)
(because of the vegetable colorants, they are yellow, orange, cool 
red, and brown)

I used a recipe... didn't quite work out, but it could have...

Here's the recipe i found on the web - note, i am not vegan (there's 
animal parts in marshmallows)

Crispy Cashew Rice Treats
vegan
Makes approximately 10 squares

2 cups brown rice crisp cereal
3/4 cup cashews, toasted and chopped (or your favorite nut)
[i substituted the above mentioned m&m analogs]
1/2 cup rice syrup
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
(mild vegetable oil)

Combine cashews with rice crisp cereal in mixing bowl.
Bring rice syrup to boil in medium saucepan. Lower heat and simmer 
for about 2 minutes.
Add peanut butter and turn heat to low. Mix thoroughly, about 3 minutes.
Add peanut butter mixture to rice crisp cereal mixture and combine.
Press into oiled baking dish and let cool.
Cut into squares and serve.

Nutrition Info Per Serving (2 oz.):
290 calories (140 calories from fat), 16g total fat, 2.5g saturated 
fat, 2g dietary fiber, 7g protein, 29g carbohydrate, 0mg cholesterol, 
190mg sodium

I used 3 cups rice cereal, 3/4 cup rice syrup, 1 cup-plus peanut 
butter and 3/4 cup of m&m analogs. Not being a vegan, i used sweet 
butter to grease my pan. I followed the directions. The problem was 
that there wasn't enough sticky stuff to hold the cereal together. 
There was enough to hold most of it together moderately well, but it 
has a tendency to crumble. It may be partly because i used chunky 
rather than smooth peanut butter, and i may have overcooked the syrup 
a little.

I was going to make it for a party i attended the Saturday before 
Halloween, but didn't get around to making it. Now that i have 
finally made it, i've been eating it for breakfast and as an evening 
snack.

It is significantly less sweet than the standard goo - i don't like 
sweet - however, the m&m analogs made it too sweet for me. Next time, 
no m&m analogs and more nuts.

I am also toying with buying hazelnut butter and good quality fudge 
sauce in a jar (or making my own) and mixing my own Nutella analog 
without all the chemical crap and using this to hold the rice bits 
together.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita