Stop 16: Michigan Rice Krispies Treats

As you can see, we've deviated a bit from the straight and narrow trip south that we were so pleasantly heading on before.  Actually, what am I talking about?  We went from New York to Vermont to Delaware to Kentucky before this.  Never mind.  As expensive as baking is, if this were a real trip, I'd be way out of money by now.  Have you seen the price of gas recently?

Anyway, back to it.  I think I have looked at the east coast/south recipes too often because the idea of making any of them this weekend was terribly unappealing.  I wanted to make something to have when people came over on Saturday night (for the second week in a row-I'm a regular hostess-with-the-mostess!), and that would transfer well to the pot-luck on Tuesday, where, I hope they're okay with leftovers yet again.

Rice Krispies Treats were the perfect answer.  For one thing, they're easy.  For another, they're EASY.  For a third, I am the one person you've probably ever heard of who has messed up Rice Krispies Treats in the past.  Yeah, for some reason, they always seem to come out dry.  Knowing me, I probably don't put in enough butter.  I do like to make everything as low-fat as possible, but that seems like a bit much, even for me.

It turns out the reason we get to make Rice Krispies Treats in Michigan is because Mildred Day, an employee at the Kellogg Company (based in Battle Creek, Michigan), created them to sell at a fund-raiser for a Campfire Girls Group.  They were first featured on a Rice Krispies box in 1941 and have been showing up ever since.

Because Brown likes to mix it up, he gave two alternative recipes to the traditional treat.  One involved grinding dehydrated strawberries into a powder and mixing it in with the marshmallow and butter mixture.  The other was adding a chocolate/cream mixture and adding that in.  I thought the strawberry version sounded downright disgusting and as for the chocolate, I had a much better alternative.

I made the treats and they came out very well.  Soft and chewy and just buttery enough.  Perfect.  I left half of them plain and put them aside.  The other half I decided to dress up in my own special way.  Along the lines of the paradise brownies from last week, first I smothered them in a peanut butter powdered sugar concoction and then I covered that in a dark chocolate ganache.  I left everything set in between and they came out really well.  Oh, I also dumped some leftover Reese's Pieces on top, because, well, come out.  How could I not?

 They really did come out gluttonously delicious.

I also made Coconut Cupcakes because I like to overdo it.  Those are up next!