2011-01-30

Chocolate Covered Crunchy Rice Squares


Enjoy Life Foods put out a request for recipes featuring their products to share in their monthly newsletter.  The deadline is tomorrow, and I've just finally gotten my submission done.  I decided to make an allergy friendly version of a chocolate covered peanut butter crispy rice bar.  After researching, testing, adjusting and testing again, I finally have a bar that tastes good and is structurally sound.  (My first attempts were some amazing tasting piles of goo.)  After photographing, editing and typing I clicked on over to the Enjoy Life website.  There I found an alarmingly similar recipe for Crunchy Power Bars.

Ouch.

Here's my version, anyway!

Chocolate Covered Crunchy Rice Squares
(Click here for printable recipe.)

½ C brown sugar
½ C agave (may substitute brown rice or corn syrup)
½ C sunflower seed spread (may substitute tahini)
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
4 C Enjoy Life Crunchy Rice Cereal
1 ½ C Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips for topping

Line an 8” x 8” pan with aluminum foil.  Combine brown sugar and agave in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring.  Remove from heat and stir in sunflower seed spread, vanilla extract and salt and mix until smooth.  Add Crunchy Rice Cereal and stir until combined.  Press mixture into pan and smooth top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.

Heat chocolate chips in microwave for 20-30 seconds, then remove and stir.  Continue heating at 5 to 10 second intervals and stirring between until chips are melted.  Spread chocolate on the top of bars.  Cool in refrigerator until firm and cut into squares.


Two more contests are also coming to a close on the 31st. Monday is the last day to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Juniper Skinner's new book "Food Allergies and Me." Also, if you have a moment, please stop over at Alisa Cooks and vote for my entry, Pudding Pound Cake, in the ZenSoy recipe contest, which will enter you for a chance to win as well!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look really good - craving time!

Come to think of it, this is really similar to my recipe, I'm sure you copied me - right? Kidding - the thing about such simple (but yummy) recipes is that there are only so many variations possible. I had a guitar teacher who used to say "We're all making the same soup with the same small handful of notes, of course things sound the same!" or taste the same, in our case. Good luck on the contests - I'm sure these will be winners!

Allergy Mum said...

That goods so yummy. The problem I have is that every time I make rice krispies square is that they turn hard as rocks within a day of making them. Do yours harden up that quickly as well. And if not, how do you keep them soft.
Allergy Mum - http://allergymum.blogspot.com/

Libby said...

@Shelly, I'm sure I was subconsciously inspired by you!

@Allergy Mum, mine don't usually last long enough to get hard, but if they do, 5 seconds in the microwave returns them to stickiness.

Allergy Mum said...

Microwave - Great tip. Thanks.
Allergy mUm - http://allergymum.blogspot.com/

Alisa Fleming said...

Those look awesome Libby! And no, your recipe is totally different and sounds waaaay tastier :)

Desperation Pie said...

These look fantastic! I make tem with crispy rice cereal, brown rice syrup, and sunflower seed butter. Super simple! Need to add chocolate sometime - yum!