WFMW: Rice Crispy Candy

It’s not January 1rst quite yet, so I’m still allowed to talk about sugar instead of salad, right?

We pared our Christmas activities way, way, wwwwaaaaaayyyyy down this year.  The session between Thanksgiving and Christmas is super short, and there are lots of Christmas activities we all get involved in over there.  Cookie making, caroling as a camp, a staff Christmas craft exchange, staff breakfast …. you get the idea.  David’s long distance trips go in spurts, but he ended up with even more than planned because of a court hearing.  I really didn’t want to have one of those hectic get ready for Christmas months so we just dropped most everything we normally do at our house.

One of the things that didn’t happen was our traditional cookie and candy making.  You know how every family has their favorites? Well, ours includes chocolate covered peanut butter balls (some people call them buckeyes), date nut balls that are swoon worthy, lots of other chocolate dipped yummies, peanut blossoms, russian tea cakes, rice crispy candy, and thumbprint cookies. I knew that some of the groups from camp were going to carol for the staff.  In years past I’ve gotten caught red-handed (a pretty big oops for a house that deliberately doesn’t keep sweets on hand.  Hey kids, how about some apples? No?) at the last minute.  This year David tried to give me a bigger heads up.  Life was crazy and the first group still got snickers I grabbed last minute at the store.

The second group came at a less crazy time so the boys and I made rice crispy candy.  It’s probably my favorite thing to make because it is so, so easy and fast.  We decided to try making snowmen with the candy.  You have to work fast before the candy cools, otherwise it’s pretty child-friendly and fun.

To make the candy:

Melt:

1/2 c. butter (yes, really, just tell your arteries to work it off)

40 marshmallows (I just dump in a bag of the big ones)

When it’s melted, stir in 5 c. rice crispy cereal.

Let it cool just enough so you can handle it. (This is where you’d typically just dump it into a greased 9×13 pan and let it cool.) I started early and got scalded more than once.  Start forming balls in three sizes for the layers of the snowman.  Once it’s cool enough, the kids can jump in and help.  In retrospect, I would add the candy details at this point, then let them harden and assemble them.

We did it in reverse.  I assembled them immediately and then we tried to garnish them.  By then the rice crispy candy wasn’t so moldable and we had to attach the candies with chocolate which got pretty messy.

So since you get to learn from my mistakes, let the kids put eyes in the tiny balls and buttons in the medium sized balls as you are forming them.  When they’re completely cool, melt some chocolate and glue the three sizes together to make a snowman.  You can even add a scarf of chocolate if you like which covers up the messy issues beautifully.

I like adding chocolate garnishes using a ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut at the one corner.  Have you found any great tricks for dispensing melted chocolate?

I realize this is often used as a Christmas candy, but I think it would be a fun addition to a hot chocolate party for kids who have been out sledding.

Happy sugar over-load!

PS: Gingerbread men are easier because they are one piece and horizontal.

PS 2: Rural internet stinks. After multiple calls to customer service they are finally sending out a tech ….  a week from now.  Meanwhile, I guess we’ll embrace streaky images as a new art-form.

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