S'mores Rice Krispies Treats {Recipe}

I'm back with this week's final instalment of "S'mores Week".  So far I've shown you...

Chocolate S'mores Cupcakes

S'mores Pops

Graham Cracker S'mores Cookies

and now... possibly my favorite of the bunch,

S'mores Rice Krispies Treats!!

As I was making these, my husband came in the kitchen and asked what I was making and I said "I don't know".  I just knew I wanted to make a really delicious, gourmet version of Rice Krispies treats that included all the flavors of s'mores.  I am SO happy with the final results and I think this is one of the most delicious things I've ever made!!  (And if you haven't noticed... I've made a few delicious things before!)  A good friend stopped by while I was photographing these and I gave her one, although she mentioned she wasn't a big fan of rice krispies treats.  Well, after a couple bites she said she was really sorry I had given her one... because they were SO good, now she was going to have to make some!  =)

S'mores Rice Krispies Treats

(Recipe by Glorious Treats)

3 Tablespoons butter

4 cups mini marshmallows (or about 40 regular/large marshmallows)

5 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup Golden Grahams cereal

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

(Top layer)

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate (or about 1 cup chocolate chips)

10 full sized graham crackers, broken in half (slightly more or less, depending on the pan you use)

40 large marshmallows (approximately)

Directions-

Butter (or spray lightly with cooking spray) a 9"x13" pan.

In a large microwave safe bowl, place 3 tablespoons of butter (cut into a few pieces), and 4 cups of marshmallows.  Microwave about 3 minutes (stirring after 2 minutes)  watch the microwave, cooking times may vary.  Cook in microwave until butter and marshmallows are melted.  Stir gently. 

Add rice krispies and golden grahams cereal and stir to combine. (try using a plastic or silicone spatula sprayed with a bit of cooking spray).

Add mini chocolate chips, stir quickly, and immediately pour mixture into prepared 9"x13" pan.  Press into pan (with spatula). 

Melt semi-sweet chocolate (or chocolate chips) in a microwave (at 50% power), in 30 second intervals, stirring between intervals.  Heat until just melted.  Spread chocolate on top of rice kripies treats in pan.

While the chocolate is still warm, lay graham cracker squares on top, leaving a tiny bit of space between each cracker (as shown below).

Put entire pan of "treats" in the fridge or freezer (or a cool location) until the chocolate has set (about 10-15 minutes).  Cut into squares with a sharp knife, using the lines between the graham crackers as a guide.  Place treats on a large baking sheet, separated slightly. 

Cut large marshmallows in half, (just a couple at a time), and place cut side down onto graham crackers, (as shown below).

When all the graham crackers are topped with marshmallows (ignore my photo, I ran out of marshmallows), use a kitchen torch (or propane torch) to toast the marshmallow.  If you don't have a torch, this would be a fun reason to get one... OR, you can toast the marshmallows in the oven.  Preheat your oven to broil.  Place baking sheet of treats in the oven, leaving the oven door slightly ajar.  Broil about 30 seconds, watch them, they can burn quickly!

Allow to cool, then enjoy!

(Or package in an airtight container for up to two days... but seriously, just eat them now!) 

And thanks to my dad for not thinking I was (too) crazy when I asked him to cut me some logs to "take photos of"  =)

I'm adding these treats to Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It post.

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Cherries on a Cloud {Recipe}

It's cherry season here in California, and I'm enjoying every moment of it!  This past weekend I bought a big bag of cherries from the Farmer's Market, then came home and made this delicious little dessert.  I used fresh cherries for this recipe, but I'm sure you could use frozen (defrosted) cherries, or canned cherry pie filling.  Feel free to try another fruit as well, such as blueberries, strawberries or blackberries.  The base of the dessert (the "cloud") is like a light cheesecake filling, so try topping it with any fruit you enjoy on cheesecake.   

Cherries on a Cloud

1-8oz block of cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk or cream

2 cups Cool Whip (or freshly whipped, lightly sweetened whipped cream)

1 1/2 cups fresh cherry halves (or fresh or frozen fruit of your choice)

3 Tablespoons cherry preserves (I used a delicious one from Trader Joe's- their own store brand)

~ Directions ~

Pit fresh cherries and cut in half or quarters.

Put cherry preserves in a small bowl and microwave until warm (about 20 seconds).  Pour cherry preserves over fresh cherries and mix together, then set aside.

Beat cream cheese in the bowl of an eclectic mixer, or with a hand held mixer, until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and milk and continue mixing until fully incorporated and smooth.  Fold Cool Whip into the cream cheese mixture and stir gently until fully combined.  Spoon or into dessert dishes (or fill a piping bag with mixture and pipe into dessert dishes).  Use a spoon to make a well in the center of the cream cheese filling, and fill with cherry topping.   

Chill prepared dessert in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  This dessert may be prepared up to a couple hours in advance.

Makes 8 mini servings or 4-6 medium sized servings.

Final recipe by Glorious Treats.

Inspired by a recipe in A Little Taste of Heaven, by Philadelphia brand cream cheese.

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Taste the Rainbow... Jello!

For quite some time I've had THE rainbow cake on my "to bake" list, but so far I haven't found the time or right excuse to make it.  But after the ridiculously weird and rainy weather recently, I just needed to make something fun and colorful.  So I headed to the store, and bought six boxes of jello and some cool whip, and made rainbow jello!  This is a bit of an all day project, but in general is quite easy and produces an eye catching dessert!  Obviously, the same general concept could be use with other color combinations... red, white and blue, school colors, team colors, you name it!  If you want to do red "white" and blue, since there is no white jello, use lemon jello mixed with cool whip as the "white" layer, as I did HERE)

~ How to make rainbow jello ~

You'll need one small box of jello for each color you want... so in this case, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. And one large tub of cool whip.

Prepare purple (or whatever color you want on the bottom) jello as directed, using the "quick chill" method, meaning add some ice.  Pour jello into glasses, (or a 9'x13' baking dish sprayed lightly with cooking spray), reserving about 1/3 of the liquid jello.  Put glasses, or dish in the refrigerator and chill for 15-30 minutes, or until slightly set.  Mix about 1/3 cup of cool whip into the remaining purple jello.  Pour the jello/cool whip mixture on top of the slightly set purple jello already in the glasses (or dish). 

Repeat process for each color.

I've seen recipes that use sour cream, or yogurt in place of the cool whip, so feel free to do that if it saves you a trip to the store  =)

Once set, top with some additional cool whip and sprinkles if desired. 

Have a delicious and colorful day! 

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Blackberry Cobbler {Recipe}

My older sister has a 60 acre farm and orchard.  I've been helping her with her Farmer's Market booth once a week, and it's fun for us to work together.  In addition to enjoying the time with my sister, another big perk of the job is free produce!  Gorgeous, hand picked, pesticide-free produce!!  Last week this is what I came home with....

As I was driving home with my loot I started thinking about what I might make with the gorgeous produce.   Of course desserts always rule in my mind, so I narrowed in on these beauties...

I settled on the idea of using the blackberries and peaches to make a yummy cobbler   I searched my cookbooks for a recipe and found several very similar options.  I had a few ideas of my own as well, so I made a few adjustments along the way.  The base recipe I used came from Fix It and Enjoy It, by Phyllis Pellman Good.

Blackberry Cobbler

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup flour

1 cup milk (any fat content)

1 cup sugar (plus 2 Tablespoons later)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2-3 cups fresh blackberries*

1/2 cup sliced almonds (1/4 cup in batter, 1/4 cup on top) optional, but delicious!

*I used blackberries and peaches, but next time I think I'll just use blackberries.

 ~ Directions ~

1.  Preheat oven to 350*F

2.  Grease a baking dish (I used a deep dish pie pan, but you could also use a 9" x 13" baking dish)

3.  Melt butter in a large bowl.  Add the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, vanilla, salt and 1/4 cup almonds.  Stir well. Pour into prepared baking dish.

4.  Arrange fruit on top of batter.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sliced almonds and 2 Tablespoons of sugar on top.

Bake 40-55 minutes or until lightly browned.

The finished cobbler has a homey, country appearance.  It may not be the fanciest dessert ever made, but it sure is delicious! 

Top with vanilla ice cream, and you've got a winning combo... warm cobbler, cold ice cream... yum!! 

Excuse me while I go get a spoon....

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{Recipe} Cream Cheese Pie

This week my sister gave me a flat of fresh strawberries (that she had picked in her own garden/farm/orchard).  Those pretty berries were all I needed to start thinking about delicious fruit desserts.  Now normally I'm an all chocolate girl, but in the summer, there is just something so beautiful about desserts that incorporate the bounty of the season.  And here in California we are blessed with an almost unlimited supply of gorgeous fruit.

I realized it had been quite a while since I'd made my husbands favorite dessert, cheesecake (it's really cream cheese pie, but in our house we call it cheesecake... more on that in a minute).  I thought the strawberries would complement the cheesecake perfectly, so my plan was set.

I used to make this cheesecake for my husband when we were dating (as teenagers), and most years I try to make it for his birthday.  It's really a pretty simple dessert to make, the step that takes the most time is chilling it for 2-3 hours. 

Although in our house this has always been called cheesecake, the correct title is Cream Cheese Pie.  True cheesecake is a dense,  baked dessert usually containing 3 or more packages of cream cheese, along with eggs, sugar and a few other ingredients.  Cheesecake is usually baked in a straight sided springform pan.  In contrast, this recipe (Cream Cheese Pie) produces a very sweet, smooth dessert that is not baked, but is chilled (and must be kept chilled) to be firm enough to cut.   

The recipe is from my Grandmother (although I'm not claiming she created it).  My Grandmother was a Home Economics teacher in the 1950's-60's and this is one of the recipes from her recipe file.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 cups (about 20 squares) graham crackers, finely crushed

1/3 cup butter, melted

3 Tablespoons sugar

~Directions~

Heat oven to 350*F

Mix together crumbs, butter and sugar (I usually just do this right in the pie plate).

Once combined, press the mixture firmly against the bottom and side of a 9 x 1 1/4 inches pie plate.

Bake 10 minutes, or until light brown.  Remove from oven and cool.

Cream Cheese Pie

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature

1 (15oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh if possible)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

~Directions~

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Slowly add the condensed milk, beat until fully incorporated.  Add lemon juice and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.

Pour mixture into a cooled, Graham Cracker Crust.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours. 

Before serving, top with fresh fruit, fresh strawberry sauce (recipe below), or toppings of your choice.  Also delicious plain. 

Fresh Strawberry Sauce

1 basket/pint strawberries

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons corn starch

3 Tablespoons water

Chop/blend about half of the strawberries (5-7 strawberries) and the water in a food processor or blender.  Pour the blended strawberries (and their juice) into a mesh strainer, sitting over a bowl.  Use a large spoon or spatula to press the mixture through the strainer. 

In a small saucepan, mix the sugar and cornstarch. Slowly add the strained strawberry juice, whisking to combine.  Heat mixture to a boil and boil about 1 minute.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Chop remaining strawberries into pea sized pieces and add to the cooled strawberry/sugar mixture.  Chill until ready to use.

Top a slice of the Cream Cheese Pie with the Fresh Strawberry Sauce, and voila...

Or, you can skip the Strawberry Sauce and simply top with fresh fruit.

Or... if you think it's not really dessert unless there is chocolate involved, then by all means...

Drizzle with chocolate sauce, caramel and chocolate chips.

Now, the only problem is chosing a piece...

For my husband, the choice is easy...

All he wants with his cheesecake is a fork!  Exciting, no... but still delicious!

Now, which slice do you want?

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