Holiday Crispy Treats

Let me just say that while I don't consider myself a food snob, I don't normally go for the type of holiday treat that involves using sweetened condensed milk, Rice Krispies and marshmallows. However, these festive treats are so seductively delicious that I simply can't resist.

My good friend Michelle made these for me a number of years ago and I was instantly hooked.  Her recipe involved melting sweetened condensed milk and McIntosh toffee bars together to make a caramel.  Then you dip a marshmallow into the caramel and roll the whole thing in the holiday Rice Krispies.  In the years since I was first introduced to this recipe, it's become very hard to find McIntosh toffee bars, so I've adapted the recipe a little.  Instead, I caramelize brown sugar and butter together and then add a can of sweetened condensed milk.

I find these treats don't have a long shelf life (not that they need it since they get eaten up quickly) because the Rice Krispies tend to go stale if they sit out at room temperature.  Thus, I recommend making them and freezing immediately.  When you're ready to eat them, take out only what you'll need preventing wastage.  Not to mention, the treats taste extra delicious when they're nice and cold.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of salt
Few drops of vanilla extract
Bag of large marshmallows
Holiday Rice Kripies

Preparation:
Pour about 5 cups of Rice Krispies into a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside  Cover two jelly roll tins or small baking trays with aluminium foil.  Finally, have a few toothpicks or bamboo skewers ready to go (to use for dipping the marshmallows into the caramel).

In a medium sized heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar on medium low heat. Add the can of sweetened condensed milk and stir (the mixture will most likely start to bubble up a bit, but stirring constantly will help settle things down).  Continue to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula (on medium low heat) until it's a nice golden caramel colour.  Add a pinch of salt and a few drops of vanilla and stir to incorporate.

Bring the pot of caramel over to your bowl of Rice Krispies and prepared baking sheets.  Using a tooth pick or bamboo skewer, stab a marshmallow on one end so that you can dip the whole thing into the hot caramel.  Once dipped in caramel, roll it in the Rice Krispies and then place on the baking tray, spacing the treats apart from one another.  Keep doing this with the marshmallows until you've used up all your caramel sauce. You may need to periodically heat up the caramel sauce if it starts to harden (making it difficult to dip the marshmallows).

Once you've finished dipping and rolling, place your trays in the freezer.  Once all the treats are frozen through, you can place them all together in a freezer storage bag.  Freezing them first on the trays prevents them from all clumping and sticking together.

Happy Holidays!