Rice Krispie Squares

I may have stretched the truth a little when I said I was making Rice Krispie Squares. Sure, all I did was add a few ingredients to the base recipe, but how many more ingredients does it take to make a new recipe in itself? I'll leave that question for the philosophers, in the mean time, I modeled this version off of an energy bar I recently bought from a vending machine; It was called "Grannys Power Bar" or something like that. As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to buy it, once I had tried it, I read the ingredients list. It was basically Rice Krispie squares filled with dried fruits, coconut and a whole plethora of other items.

It had become my mission now, to reproduce this bar, it consumed my life, or rather I went home and looked at all the dried fruits and seeds I had and made a big pile of them in anticipation of today.

I started by making my own Marshmallows ahead of time. Once they were finished, I tossed them in a pot with some butter.

While the marshmallows were melting into the butter, I was chopping and slicing my dried fruits like a mad man. I know what all but two of the ingredients are, so if someone out in the interwebs can identify them, I will be eternally grateful to them.Starting at the top and working clockwise: Unknown dried fruit, raisins, dates, cranberries, unknown seeds, dried pears and coconut in the middle.

Once the marshmallows and butter had melted together I mixed in some vanilla extract.

I mixed the seeds and fruits into the marshmallow/butter mixture and stirred vigorously to thoroughly mix the seeds and fruits so it would be closer to homogeneous.

I mixed in the Rice Krispies and folded them into the gooey mixture until everything was coated and it stuck to me, the pot, me, the spatula and me. It was messy! I learned my lesson and coated the back of a spatula with butter and I pressed it into the pan, this was probably the cleanest portion of the process. I set the pan out to cool so that I could cut it into smaller pieces.

Using my multi-purpose pizza cutter, I cut the cooled Krispies into bars. I judged by eye, so I ended up with some runt pieces which were quickly eaten.

 I breaded the Krispies in Graham Cracker Crumbs. The natural stickiness was enough to hold on the coating.

 All the bars are breaded and are waiting for the final stage, which truth be told, I had not thought about. I wanted to dip them into a yogurt based sauce that was solid at room temperature. But to be honest, I haven't a clue as to where to start. So I am am going to have to table that idea until some time in the future when I do this again.






I would like to say how much this cost, but I don't have all the costs for the marshmallows, and all the dried fruits and seeds are also of an unknown value. The best I could do is speculate based on the cost of the Rice Krispies and butter used. Though that number would be way off.