We’re so happy to have our good friend Alice back on the Tasty Kitchen Blog. She couldn’t have picked a more delicious recipe to prepare than Chrissy and Lauren’s Rocky Road Rice Krispie Treats. Great to see you, Alice!

 
Just when I thought I had seen every variation of Rice Krispie treats, Tasty Kitchen members Chrissy/Lauren (Chrissy and Lauren of From the Yellow Kitchen) delightfully prove me wrong with their fun and creative Rocky Road Rice Krispie Treats made with chocolate, Nutella, peanut butter, marshmallows, pecans, and rice cereal. These bars are a chocolate lover’s best friend, especially since no baking is required and they only take minutes to prepare. For the record, I’m partial to these types of recipes because of the “easy factor” with a huge chocolate payoff. Who is with me?!

Let us begin.

First you’ll need the following ingredients: chocolate chips, peanut butter, Nutella, mini marshmallows, pecans, and Rice Krispies. The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate, but you could easily substitute milk bittersweet, or dark chocolate depending on your personal preferences.

Mix the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and Nutella together in a microwave safe bowl. Heat the mixture in the microwave by cooking it in 30-second intervals, making sure to stir the mixture immediately after every interval until the chocolate chips have melted and the mixture is completely smooth.

Stir in the pecans, marshmallows, and rice cereal until all the ingredients are well coated with chocolate.

I added an additional cup of cereal to mine because I thought it could use a bit more. Use your own judgment in deciding to add more cereal, pecans, or marshmallows.

Transfer the mixture to an 8×8 pan or small baking dish coated in non-stick spray.

Spread the mixture until it is evenly distributed.

Add more pecans and marshmallows on the top and press down.

Place the pan in the refrigerator for one hour before cutting into squares. Tip: Forty minutes in the freezer works nicely, too!

The texture on these bars is not like a traditional rice cereal treat. It is more on par with a yummy chocolate bar somewhere between fudge and a haystack. I would also recommend allowing the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature before adding marshmallows, otherwise they melt and you don’t get those gorgeous (whole) marshmallow chunks in the middle of each bar.

My suggestions and tips are slightly different than the original recipe (based on my preferences). The original recipe is a good base which can easily handle more amounts of the listed ingredients based on your own personal preferences. Check out their original blog post too, for suggested variations.

Thanks ladies!

Printable Recipe

Rocky Road Rice Krispie Treats

by LittleYellowKitchen on February 26, 2011 in Brownies and Bars, Desserts February 26, 2011 Brownies and BarsDesserts

See post on LittleYellowKitchen’s site!

4.86 Mitt(s) 7 Rating(s)

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: -

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 9

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All the ingredients for a sweet and crispy Rocky Road treat with a little peanut butter and Nutella to top it all off.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• ½ cups Peanut Butter
• ½ cups Nutella
• ½ cups Mini Marshmallows
• ¼ cups Pecans
• ¾ cups Rice Krispies

Preparation Instructions

Melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and nutella for 2 minutes in the microwave. Stir.

Mix in the marshmallows and pecans. Fold in the Rice Krispies.

Pour mixture into a well-greased 8×8 glass baking dish. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Optional: top with extra pecan pieces and marshmallows.

 
 
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Alice Currah is the force behind Sweet Savory Life and Everyday Alice. She and her husband Rob are the proud parents of three children: Abbi, Mimi, and Elli. Alice is the winner of Saveur’s Cover Contest and is on the Forbes.com list of Eight of The Very Best Food Bloggers. She’s also a weekly writer for PBS Parents’ Kitchen Explorers. She’s the best-est.

 
When it comes to making homemade fruit leather, I will confess that I have been totally and completely intimidated. I mean, how does one even accomplish such a task? How does fruit go from actual fruit to … leather?

With that being said, I spent half of my youth chewing fruit roll-ups and consequently trying to rot my teeth, so I knew that this fruit leather had to be mastered. My mom would stock up on different flavors of fruit leather and it would often disappear within the week. When I came across Georgia’s recipe for Homemade Fruit Leather, I just couldn’t resist. It seemed foolproof. And delicious. And so enticing that I immediately bought more strawberries than one should ever need and got to work.

While the entire recipe is a bit time-consuming, it is quite easy. The majority of the time is downtime anyway. You can make this while you sleep!

These are the only ingredients you need: strawberries (or fruit of your choice), a lemon, water and sugar. Yes, it’s that simple!

The first step is to cut the fruit into small pieces. Don’t be concerned about them being uniform in size. Just do a rough chop so we can add them to a saucepan. I ended up with 2 1/2 cups of strawberries.

Make sure you taste test your fruit to see how sweet it is. This will give you a rough idea of how much sugar you need or want to add.

Slice your lemon and grab a bowl for juicing purposes.

Squeeze your lemon to extract the juice. You only need about one tablespoon. Fresh is best!

In a small saucepan, combine the chopped fruit, water and lemon juice. Heat it over medium heat and stir, then cover. Let the fruit stew for a few minutes until the berries begin to break down. I let mine go for about 5–6 minutes.

It should come out looking saucy. Now would be a good time to preheat your oven, so turn it on to 170 degrees F, or the lowest temperature it will go. It should heat up quickly.

Now it’s time to add the pureed fruit to the food processor. You can see that I lack patience judging from the steam rising out of the saucepan. Notice the cookie jar in the back. Sometimes (read: every single day) I get distracted by that (full) jar.

Give the fruit mixture a good whirl. You want it completely blended. Speaking of blended, you can also use a blender if you do not have a food processor. (In Georgia’s blog post, she uses a blender.)

Taste testing time! Try a bit more of the pulp before adding the sugar. I am warning you: this stuff is good to enough to drink. I nearly slurped it all up and had to start over.

Add your sugar. I’m assuming that you could also make this recipe sugar-free if you’d like. I went with the entire 1/4 cup of sugar because I have very sweet teeth. If you have extraordinarily sweet fruit or would like it mild in sweetness, add the sugar one teaspoon at a time, blend, then taste test and go from there. Easy as pie.

Lay some parchment paper on a sheet pan, and give it a very thorough coating of non-stick spray. Don’t miss any spots! You can also brush the paper with vegetable oil. Whatever works for you.

Pour the fruit mixture onto the paper-lined sheet pan. Try not to drool.

Spread it out with a spatula so it is evenly distributed. Then place it in the oven.

Now it’s time to wait! And wait … and wait … and wait. This recipe takes about 12–15 hours total. Don’t fret—I was concerned too! But I am convinced that it is completely worth it now. If you do not have 15 consecutive hours to be at home with the oven on, you can also sit the fruit mixture near a sunny window where it will be warm. I first stuck mine in the oven at 3 pm. I let it go for 7 hours, checking it occasionally. The only downside is that I realized halfway in that I could not use my oven for dinner! Oh well. Pizza it was.

During the “dehydrating” process, I did notice the mixture was getting a bit brittle. I followed Georgia’s instructions and brushed the leather with some water using a pastry brush. It worked like a charm! At 10 pm, I inverted the leather onto another oiled, paper-lined baking sheet. I gave it a good brushing of water since I would not be checking it for 6-7 hours. I also left the oven open a crack to ensure it would not get too warm. Then I went to bed dreaming of homemade strawberry fruit roll-ups. It was like Christmas Eve!

In the morning, the fruit leather looked like this. I love the little seeds.

Using a pizza cutter, I cut it into strips.

Like a kid in a candy store, I couldn’t stop tasting it. It was so delicious. And so easy! I couldn’t believe that I could make fruit leather at home. I rolled it up just like the old school fruit roll-ups.

I sense a new obsession coming on. Since last week, I’ve been envisioning every flavor of fruit leather known to man. I am quite anxious to try peach leather. And how about fig leather? Or mango leather? Kiwi leather? I would love those crunchy little seeds. Or how about this kumquat and tangerine fruit leather by acharlestonkitchen? Could one make a cantaloupe and fresh mint leather? I think we all know what I’m going to be doing for the next 3 months.

 
This is probably one of my favorite recipes to date. It’s delicious and makes for a perfect snack. It’s much healthier than the processed fruit leather since you can determine exactly what goes into it. And it is so much easier than I previously thought. Thanks so much for the recipe, Georgia! (If you don’t know her yet, you should! Visit her blog, Georgia Pellegrini and enjoy all her other wonderful recipes and posts.)

Printable Recipe

Homemade Fruit Leather

by georgiapellegrini on July 23, 2010 in Desserts, Fruit Desserts July 23, 2010 DessertsFruit Desserts

See post on georgiapellegrini’s site!

3.25 Mitt(s) 4 Rating(s)

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 15 hrs

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 15

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An easy way to make dried fruit leather at home with any fresh fruit.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Strawberries Or Other Fresh Fruit, Chopped Into Small Pieces
• ¼ cups Water
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• ¼ cups Sugar (optional, Depending On The Sweetness Of Your Fruit)
• 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 150 -170 degrees F.

2. Place the fruit in a medium saucepan with the water and lemon juice. Simmer on medium heat, mostly covered, until they are very soft and mushy. Stewing the fruit helps it retain its color.

3.Transfer the fruit pulp mixture to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. If it is a fruit with seeds, a food mill will remove the seeds more easily than a food processor and strainer. Taste the fruit at this point, and add the sugar if it is not sweet enough. Keep in mind that as the fruit leather dries, it will concentrate the natural sugars in the fruit and become sweeter on its own. Add a small amount of water to the mixture if necessary so that it has a pourable consistency.

4. Cover a baking sheet with plastic or a silicon baking pad. The temperature of the oven is low enough not to affect the plastic.

5. Spray or brush your baking sheet with the vegetable oil, then spread the fruit puree onto the sheet tray with an offset spatula or knife to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. Place it in the oven for 6-8 hours. Make sure there is air circulating to prevent scorching. Alternatively place it in the sun for 6-8 hours.

6. Invert the fruit leather onto another baking sheet that has been covered in plastic or silicon baking pad and oiled, and remove the first lining. Place in the oven or sun for another 6-8 hours. If it becomes too brittle at any point, simply brush on water with a pastry brush to rehydrate it.

7. Cool the sheet tray and cut the fruit leather into desired sizes. Dust with corn starch to prevent sticking, cover in plastic and store in a cool place in a sealed container.

 
 
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Jessica Merchant is a personal trainer turned food writer and blogger. Her blog, How Sweet Eats, is where she proclaims her love for all things sweet, all things bacon, and everything else in between. She works her magic in her Pittsburgh kitchen, which she shares with her husband of 2 years.

  The sun seems to be shining more lately, and after all of the freezing cold weather most of us here in the US have been experiencing (snow in San Francisco?!) I’m definitely ready for warmer weather. And flip flops. And throwing everything we eat on the grill. I was drawn to this recipe for […]