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Rice Crispy Bars

Submitted by adriana on Tue, 25/01/2011 - 22:26

 

Rice crispy bar jpeg.jpgOkay, this has got to be the easiest recipe ever.  It comes from one of my favourite websites called www.smittenkitchen.com  The lady who writes this blog lives in a tiny apartment in New York with her husband and little baby.  She always manages to get my attention, with her humour and her knock out recipes.  This one is a real winner and you will see from the picture, I was only able to photograph the last little piece because the rest of it got scoffed within minutes. 

The secret here is to brown the butter until it's quite a nutty brown.  This gives the bars a slightly caramelly flavour.  The next ingredient will surprise you.  A small amount ie, 1/4 of a teaspon of Maldon Sea Salt.  These two additions turn what is normally a child's sickly confection into something much much more then the sum of it's parts.  The small addition of salt, seems to lift this into another dimension so that it's no longer sickly sweet, but be warned, incredibly addictive.

Yield

24 bars

Preparation time

10 minutes plus 2 hours chilling time (for the bars, not you)

Ingredients

115g unsalted butter
285g marshmallows
1/4 tsp Maldon Sea Salt
215g Gluten Free Rice Crispy Cereal (Nature's Path)

Directions

Butter a square tin and line with greaseproof paper.  Set aside.

Place the butter In a largish saucepan over medium heat.  Melt the butter until foamy.  The foam will eventually clear (be patient) and you will see the clear, golden liquid underneath.  Using a wooden spoon stir to make sure the butter isn't burning.  It will go a lovely nutty golden brown colour- but do keep your eye on it as it can catch and burn very quickly after this point. 

When the butter is a nutty golden brown, add the marshmallows and salt and take the pan off the heat.  The residual heat in the pan should melt the marshmallows gently.  Stir a little to help the process, but if it ain't happening, then place it back on the heat until the marshmallows are completely melted.  Stir until smooth.  Add the rice crispies to the marshmallow butter mixture and stir through to coat evenly.  Using a spatula, place the mixture into the tin and press down firmly until it's even and fills all the corners. Chill in the fridge for about 2 hours.  When cold cut into squares or bars and watch 'em disappear. 

Notes

Look for big white fluffy marshmallows, not the little ones used for decorating.  The American ones called Stay Puff are the best, but having seen them in a very posh deli in London at £4.00 a bag, I think you can get away with using the ones in your local supermarket. Unfortunately I can only find packs of white and pink ones- which give the bars a bit of a girlie hue, but as it's mainly girls around here, I guess that's okay and 'Daddy ' doesn't seem to mind what colour they are as long as we leave him some.rice crispy bar on a plate jpeg.jpg