Chocolate Dipped Cocoa Crisp Treats

Confession time.

I love chocolate milk.

If I’m going to have chocolate milk, it’s going to be super duper chocolatey. Otherwise, it’s just not worth it.

I seemed to be the outcast in my family when it came to chocolate milk because I always liked Nesquik powder over Hershey’s syrup. It’s just more….chocolatey? I love Hershey’s Syrup on ice cream, but if I’m going to make chocolate milk, it’s going to be with 4-8 spoonfulls of good old powdered Nesquik.

Yup. 4-8 spoonfulls. Just depends on how big the glass is and how I’m feeling.

Like I said, my chocolate milk better be like liquid chocolate or I’m not drinking it. If the chocolate is so light that the glass of milk still looks like a regular glass of milk, I’m not having it.

It’s probably no surprise that my favorite cereals growing up were the ones that turned my milk into chocolate milk at the bottom of the bowl.

Cocoa Puffs. Cocoa Krispies.

Sprinkled with a little sugar, that bottom of the bowl chocolate swirled milk was the best part of breakfast. Or afternoon snack. Or dessert.

And when I was thinking about all of this last weekend, I remembered one dessert I tried from a little candy store in Colonial Williamsburg one summer.

A chocolate covered rice krispie treat – on a stick.

To a 10 year old little girl, that is like, the best thing ever. Especially to a chocoholic like me.

After finding some crispy cocoa brown rice cereal at the store this weekend, I knew I needed to mix the two together.

But not just cereal, marshmallows, and chocolate. These needed to be more sophisticated. Cereal bars can be fancy, right?

I mixed in some instant espresso and vanilla, just to pump up the chocolate flavor. Espresso is definitely fancy.

The only question is: why in the world did I wait so long?

And when are you going to make them?

Chocolate Dipped Cocoa Crisp Treats

Makes: 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cocoa rice cereal
• 5 oz. marshmallows (about 1.5 –2 cups)
• 1.5 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 tsp instant espresso
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips, divided

Directions:

1. In large pot, heat marshmallows and butter until they’re beginning to melt together.
2. Stirring constantly, mix the espresso, vanilla, and salt into the marshmallows.
3. Once the marshmallow mixture is smooth, pour in the cereal and stir together until all the cereal is coated.
4. Pour the cereal into a greased 8×8 baking dish and press down (using either your hands or a sheet of parchment paper). Flatten into the dish evenly and let sit to cool.
5. After the bars have cooled and set (at least 30 minutes), place the dish in the fridge and let them cool for 10 minutes.
6. While the bars are cooling, take 1 cup of the chocolate chips and melt, in 30 second increments, in the microwave.
7. Once the chips are melted and smooth when stirred together, pour in the rest of the chips. Let this sit for 2 minutes, then stir together until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. *This is an easier, non-temperature-taking way to temper chocolate.
8. Take bars out of the fridge, cut into 12 pieces, and dip, one at a time, into the melted chocolate. Cover as much of the bars as you want.
9. Place the bars on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let them sit until the chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.