Crisp, Crunch, Chocolate, Chew: Sweet and Salty Rice Crispy Treats

I have loved Rice Krispies treats since I was a kid and I still find the crisp-sweet-stretchy bars to be irresistible. I was a little surprised to see a recipe for "Sweet and Salty Rice Crispy Treats" in Edd Kimber's One Tin Bakes, but happy to give the recipe a try. While of course you could add anything into these treats, the recipe is written to include milk chocolate, salted peanuts, pretzels, and cacao nibs.
 
These treats are made with browned butter, so you brown butter; add salt and marshmallows and cook until the marshmallows melt; add rice cereal, and then dump in everything else (milk chocolate, salted pretzels, and salted peanuts -- I didn't have any cacao nibs on hand so I skipped those). I used Cacao Barry Lactée Supérieure milk chocolate, which has very high fluidity and melts easily. The pistoles completely melted into the hot marshmallow mix, so there were no distinct pieces of chocolate remaining when I pressed the treats into a parchment-lined pan.
I had reserved some peanuts, pretzels, and milk chocolate pistoles that I added on top of the treats. The chocolate started to melt, and since there were no intact chocolate pieces inside the treats, I smeared around the melted chocolate a little to distribute it more widely. 

These Rice Krispies treats were delicious. I really liked the fact that they were held together with what was essentially chocolate marshmallow and I was particularly appreciative that the marshmallow retained its chewy and stretchy texture. For me, one of the most appealing aspects of a Rice Krispies treat is the mix of textures, including the stretchiness of the marshmallow. And these had the added crunch from the nuts and crisp bite of the pretzels, which also delivered a fantastic balance of salty and sweet. I wish I had used cacao nibs, because I love their crunchy texture as well. 

If I have one criticism, it's that the treats were a bit thin, so I would add more cereal next time. The recipe specifies 8 cups of of cereal, or 200 grams. I used the weight measurement. But afterwards, I noticed that Shauna Sever's recipe for Next-Level Crispy Treats (made in the same size pan as this recipe) calls for "8 cups/256 g crispy rice cereal." When I made that recipe I used the 256 grams and I was happier with the volume of the recipe and the height of the finished bars. I think it's a good thing that I want more of these treats!

Recipe: "Sweet and Salty Rice Crispy Treats" from One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber. 
 
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