In The Kitchen: Evil Chocolately Caramel Chex Mix

I was cruising around Ravelry one day, as usual, and there was much discussion of this fantastic chex mix that had appeared at the Plucky Knitter Retreat. Once I saw a picture, I had to try it for myself.

The original post calls it Better Than Sex Chex Mix, but I don’t know if I’d go that far. It’s delicious and chocolately and wonderful and terrible all at the same time. Once you take a bite, it’s hard to stop.

I definitely recommend using Chocolate Chex if you can find it – it’s worth the effort.

Evil Chocolate Caramel Chex Mix
from Chef In Training

Ingredients:
8 cups Chocolate Chex cereal
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup caramel bits
1 Tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips*
1 tsp. coarse sea salt.

Directions:

1. Pour cereal into microwaveable bowl.
2. Line large cookie sheet (or two smaller ones) with aluminum foil (or parchment paper or similar non-stick surface).
3. In small bowl, microwave together the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup for 1 minute, stirring well. If needed, microwave 30 seconds at a time until melted and smooth. Stir in baking soda until dissolved, then pour over the cereal and mix well (until evenly coated).
4. Microwave cereal mixture for 3 minutes, stirring well after each minute. Note: my mix started to smell a little burny, so I cut the last minute down to about 30 seconds.
5. Spread out onto cookie sheet(s) and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Once cool, break into pieces. Make sure to let this cool enough so you don’t melt your candy pieces in the next step.
6. Evenly sprinkle mini Reese’s cups and mini marshmallows over the mix.
7. In small bowl, melt the caramel bits and heavy cream in the microwave – about 1 minute. Drizzle over cereal mixture.
8. Repeat with the chocolate chips & the white baking chips.
9. Sprinkle salt over the mixture before the chocolate sets.
10. Refrigerate until the chocolate & caramel are set. (Don’t skip this part – the chocolate & caramel won’t set up quite enough at room temperature.)
11. Break into bite size pieces & store in a covered container.
12. Serve to all your friends who will curse you for bringing this into their lives.

*For the white chocolate chips, I found that some brands melt better than others. Ghiradelli worked fine, Nestle did not. Better yet would probably be a white chocolate that’s made for melting instead of just baking chips – some chips resist melting.

In the Kitchen: Peanut Butter Cups

In an attempt to get all my recipes and cooking talk in one place, I’ll be periodically re-posting recipes from my time writing on the Kitchen Mirror here. In some cases I may update pictures & proof-read, but for the most part it will just be a re-posting of what I had there. The posts are not in chronological order – I’m trying to post holiday appropriate recipes near the holidays they go with & fill in others around them.

Originally posted September 7, 2008

I have a thing for sweets and sugar. It is my downfall, seriously. No matter how many times I try to get on track to eat healthy, something sweet and delicious sneaks into my mouth. Especially if it’s chocolate. Chocolate can turn me into Homer Simpson, complete with drool.

So, recently I’ve decided to cut down (if not out) on the amount of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in my diet. Which doesn’t mean that I’m going to be all freakazoid about it and insist on ingredient lists when I’m out eating, but I’m really trying to be more conscious about the foods I’m putting into my body and right now, I’m still learning what those are. This has led to the possibly annoying habit of reading ingredient lists on EVERYTHING until I figure out what the limits are.

Which has nothing to do with today’s cooking experiment, but it will probably flavor my future posts here, so heads up.

Now, let’s get to the fun stuff, shall we?

I love peanut butter. I love chocolate. I like making foods myself so that I know what ingredients are in it. And just the other day, I found this recipe for a home made peanut butter cup. Naturally, I jumped all over that.

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Doesn’t it look fantastic? It really was quite yummy.

What I did – I doubled the recipe because I wanted bigger pb cups and I used regular size muffin papers to make them in.

What happened when I did that – I ran out of chocolate about halfway through topping the cups, so I improvised. I used the rest of my bag of chocolate chips and tossed in some semisweet Scharffen Berger chocolate squares I had in my candy stash (oh, yes, there is a candy stash), melted it all together in my microwave and still ran out.

Oh, well. In the end, these were delicious, but I think that next time I’ll follow the directions to make them smaller by using the mini muffin cups.

In the Kitchen: Delicious Tomato-y Grilled Cheese

In an attempt to get all my recipes and cooking talk in one place, I’ll be periodically re-posting recipes from my time writing on the Kitchen Mirror here. In some cases I may update pictures & proof-read, but for the most part it will just be a re-posting of what I had there. The posts are not in chronological order – I’m trying to post holiday appropriate recipes near the holidays they go with & fill in others around them.

Originally posted April 23, 2009.

Did you know that April is National Grilled Cheese month?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know until one of the StL locals twittered about it, then posted a link that inspired this sandwich.

Looks like a delicious mess of gooey cheese, right? It is, and I’m going to tell you how I did it.

I started with this recipe from Pithy & Cleaver for the Tomato Soup Grilled Cheese and made a few modifications based on preference and my inability to find Sun Dried Tomato Paste at my local grocery. Really, I was trying to make this a tiny bit healthier without losing the flavors that drew me to the recipe in the first place.

Ingredients:

For the creamy tomato soup spread
1 1/2 tablespoons lowfat cream cheese
2 tsp regular tomato paste
scant 1/2 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground pepper (or just regular black pepper if you happen to think you have a pepper grinder when, in fact, all you have is plain ol’ black pepper)
diced/minced garlic, or maybe a little garlic paste. Something garlicky.

For sandwiches
1 slice Asiago cheese
1 slice cheddar (medium, sharp, whatever – I used Sargento medium reduced fat)
2 slices light wheat bread (I use Healthy Life’s Flax Seed Bread – low in carbs, calories, and HFCS free!)
butter or margarine (I used Brummel & Brown)

Take all your ingredients for the tomato soup spread and mix them together. The original recipe said this was enough for 2 sandwiches, but I used most of it on my one sandwich. So I guess it depends on how tomatoey you want your sandwich.

Next, butter each piece of bread lightly on one side. On the other side, spread the tomato mixture. Heat up your griddle or skillet, but keep the heat around medium or low – I actually burned the first side of my sandwich. Put one piece of bread on the griddle butter side down, place 1 slice each cheese on the bread, then top with the other piece of bread. Let it cook for a few minutes – until the bottom is appropriately golden brown – then flip and cook another couple minutes.

Serve with…something. I didn’t get that far as my sandwich finished cooking before I could get a can of soup in the microwave. And then I inhaled the sandwich and followed it up with some pot roast & veggie leftovers from the fridge. WHATEVER. IT WAS DELICIOUS.

This is a recipe that it would be clearly easy to make several at a time, especially since the cheese slices come in packs of 10 around these parts. I probably could have eaten 3 more of them myself, but I didn’t.

Oh, and as for that “healthy” thing I was trying to do, it wasn’t too terrible – if you use the same bread I did (which runs 80 calories for 2 slices), you get a sandwich with 262 calories, 21g carbs, 14g fat, & 19g protein.

In the Kitchen: Salted Brown Butter Krispie Treats

In an attempt to get all my recipes and cooking talk in one place, I’ll be periodically re-posting recipes from my time writing on the Kitchen Mirror here. In some cases I may update pictures & proof-read, but for the most part it will just be a re-posting of what I had there. The posts are not in chronological order – I’m trying to post holiday appropriate recipes near the holidays they go with & fill in others around them.

Originally posted January 12, 2010.

Over the holidays, I did a lot of baking. A LOT. I whipped out some old standards (Guinness Cupcakes, anyone?) and tried a few new recipes I found just for the various events I attended.

One recipe I trotted out for the family Christmas Eve gathering were the Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats from Smitten Kitchen.*

I love all things salty/sweet, so adding salt to rice krispie treats seems like it would be a no-brainer. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.

I didn’t make any modifications to the recipe, although I’m not sure if I browned the butter or just melted it really thoroughly. I hadn’t browned butter before & I was terrified of burning it and ruining the whole batch, so I may have removed it from the heat a bit early. I did, however, sprinkle a little extra sea salt over the tops of the treats right after I pressed them into the pan.

The treats were a huge hit at the party, although I wanted to eat them all myself. My cousin’s response to them was awesome. “Did you use salt or crack in these? Because I can’t stop eating them”. There were very few left by the time I hit the road to head home & I almost wish I had brought them home with me. Alas, I left them for the family.

Next time I make these (oh, yes, there will be a next time), I’ll likely try out this cereal instead of Rice Krispies – I just found out from Stef at Cupcake Project (via twitter) that Rice Krispies are harborers of high fructose corn syrup, which I’ve mostly cut from my diet. Stef also suggested the Erewhon version as a good substitute. As long as I can find good alternatives**, it’s easier to do than you’d think.

*I have so many of her recipes bookmarked right now it’s ridiculous.

**The holdout? Dr. Pepper. I can’t drink diet sodas because of the aspartame. I also remembered AS I WAS WRITING THIS that I was going to have friends bring me some Dublin Dr. Pepper (made with cane sugar!) from their trip to Texas over the holidays. Shoot.

Note: Since I originally posted this, Kellogg’s has quit using HFCS in Rice Krispies. I never did try the other crispy rice. At the family Christmas party in 2011, I did discover that Rice Krispies are NOT gluten free unless you get the ones specifically labelled “gluten free” – the original recipe contains malt flavoring. I’ve also given up Dr. Pepper since then, too. Twice.
Also, I have mastered the browning of the butter now. I love a good browned butter recipe.

In the Kitchen: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

One new recipe I tried for Christmas dinner is something that would be good any time. It has also made me realize that my favorite way of preparing vegetables is to roast them – just a little drizzle of olive oil & sprinkling of salt (or other seasoning) makes for a delicious pan of roasted vegetable goodness.

I found the recipe in a list of holiday sides on the Southern Living website. As their picture was enticing & I was looking for something simple but delicious, I decided to try it out.

It’s easy enough to make:

1. Get about 2 pounds of brussel sprouts & cut them in half (I used frozen & they worked fine).
2. Drizzle with about 2 tbsp of olive oil & a little salt & pepper in a baking pan (I used a 9×13 Pyrex pan).
3. Bake at 425 about 20 minutes (or a little longer for frozen – I think I went about 30).
4. While baking, fry about 8 slices of pancetta, bacon, or prosciutto until crispy.* Crumble & set aside until sprouts are done.
5. Top finished sprouts with a bit of parmesan cheese & the bacon crumbles.
6. Enjoy!

I would suggest maybe cutting the recipe in half if you’re only cooking for two or three people. Otherwise you may wind up with leftovers. They reheat just fine, but if you’re like me and forget you have leftovers in the fridge, it would be better to keep them to a minimum.

*I used prosciutto on accident – I grabbed the wrong package in the grocery store & didn’t realize what I’d done until I was cooking on Christmas day, so I went with it & it worked out just fine.