Kellogg's Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

When Kellogg's reacted to spectacular sales of its Rice Krispies Treats with two new varieties of the popular and addictive snack, TSR got on the case. It seems we've all tasted the original Rice

Krispies Treats. The homemade version is the next homework assignment in Cooking 101, after learning how to boil water. And the Kellogg's store-bought packaged version has been available

to the lazier of us for several years now. This variety, however, puts that whole Reese's "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate" thing to work. The crunchy bar has just a touch of nutty essence that builds nicely on the other familiar flavors. But don't be fooled by that dark "chocolatey" coating on top. It's not actually chocolate, but rather a melt-resistant custom blend of cocoa and uh, stuff, that tastes a lot like chocolate; and that happens to work better for the product from a manufacturing, shipping, and shelf-life aspect. But here in kitchen cloning land, we don't have to worry about those things. So get ready to walk on the wild side, people, as we step up to the microwave and melt some real chocolate chips for topping our cinch of a crunchy clone.

Recipe Ingredient

1 tablespoon margarine

3 tablespoons peanut butter

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 cups miniature marshmallows

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips

non-stick cooking spray

1. Combine margarine, peanut butter, and salt in a large saucepan over low heat.

2. When peanut butter and margarine have melted, add marshmallows and vanilla and stir until marshmallows have melted. Remove from heat.

3. Add Rice Krispies and stir until cereal is well coated with the melted marshmallow mixture.

4. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray. Pour the Rice Krispies mixture into the dish and, using wax paper or lightly greased hands, press down until it's flat in the dish. Cool.

5. Prepare the topping by pouring the chocolate chips into a glass dish. Microwave for 2 minutes on 50 percent power. Stir gently. Microwave for an additional minute on 50 percent power. Stir gently once more until smooth. If the mixture hasn't completely melted, zap it again for another 30 seconds.

6. Use a spatula to spread a thin layer of chocolate over the top of the Rice Krispies mixture. Cool at room temperature (at least 72 degrees), or chill until firm. Slice into 16 bars.

Makes 16 bars.

Kellogg's Cocoa Rice Krispies Treats

It's the Rice Krispies Treat for all you chocolate lovers. By simply replacing regular Rice Krispies with Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies, then adding a bit of cocoa to the recipe, we can clone the exact flavor of the product you otherwise have to buy in boxes in the grocery store. This recipe makes

16 of the crunchy brown bars, or the equivalent of two boxes of the real thing.

Recipe Ingredient

3 tablespoons margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups miniature marshmallows

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 teaspoons cocoa

6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal

non-stick cooking spray

1. Combine margarine and salt in a large saucepan over low heat.

2. When margarine has melted, add marshmallows and vanilla and stir until marshmallows have melted. Add cocoa and stir well. Remove from heat.

3. Add Cocoa Krispies and stir until the cereal is well coated with the melted marshmallow mixture.

4. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the dish and, using wax paper or lightly greased hands, press down until it's flat in the dish. Cool. Slice into 16 bars.

Makes 16 bars.

Hostess Twinkie Creme Filling

Recently I've had an opportunity to go back and improve the recipe for the Hostess Twinkie clone. Specifically, I wanted to make the creme filling more stable, using non-dairy ingredients, so that it could not spoil and would be easier to make. Here now, is the much improved recipe, using fewer ingredients than the original clone, and with marshmallow creme as the new secret component.

This recipe is for all of you who have supported the site by buying the books, since the cake part of the recipe and mold-making technique is not included here. But even if you don't have the books, I'm sure you can find many uses for this versatile, commercial-style, creme filling. Hope you like it!

2 teaspoons very hot waterrounded

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups marshmallow creme (1 7-ounce jar)

1/2 cup shortening

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine the salt with the hot water in a small bowl and stir until salt is dissolved. Let this mixture cool.

2. Combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy.

3. Add the salt solution to the filling mixture and combine.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Drake's Devil Dogs

Here's a clone recipe for a favorite east coast treat that could even fool Rosie O'Donnell. The snackfood - loving talk show hostess professes her love for these tasty Drake's goodies all the time on her daytime show. And who could blame her? It's hard not to relish the smooth, fluffy filling sandwiched between two tender devil's food cake fingers.

I'll take a DevilDog over a Twinkie any day of the week. For this clone recipe, we'll make the cakes from scratch. This will help us to create a flavor and texture closest to the original, although the color will be much lighter than the real thing (the miracles of food coloring). But if you're feeling especially lazy, you can certainly use adevil's food cake mix in place of the scratch recipe here.

Just make the filling with the recipe below and assemble your cakes the same way.

Cake

1 egg

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Filling

2 cups marshmallow creme (1 7-ounce jar)

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons very hot water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, blend together the egg, shortening, and sugar with an electric mixer. Continue beating while adding the milk and vanilla.

3. In another bowl sift together remaining cake ingredients - flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.

4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.

5. Spoon about a tablespoon of the batter in strips about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes or until the cakes are done. Cool.

6. In another bowl combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla. Dissolve the 1/8 teaspoon of salt in the 2 teaspoons of very hot water in a small bowl. Add this salt solution to the filling mixture and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until the filling is smooth and fluffy.

7. When the cakes have cooled, spread about a tablespoon of filling on the face of one cake and top it off with another cake. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.Makes 20 to 24 snack cakes.

Dolly Madison Zingers (Devil's Food)

Former U.S. President James Madison's wife did not create this baking company, despite the fact that her name is on every carrot cake, crumb cake, and Zinger that comes off the production line. It was instead company founder Roy Nafziger's brainstorm to use the former firstlady's name, since she was notorious for throwing huge shindigs featuring a fine selection of desserts and bakedgoods.

Nafziger said his company would create cakes "fine enough to serve at the White House." While I don't expect you'll be treated to a tray of Zingers on your next stayin the Lincoln Bedroom, I will agree that these little snack cakes are a tasty way to appease a sweet tooth. You can craft a version at home by making little cakepans out of aluminum foil that is wrapped around an empty prescription pill bottle.

The cake batter is easy, since you just use any instant devil's food cake mix. I like Duncan Hines, but you can use whatever you want.As for the frosting, it may not come out as dark brown as the original since the recipe here doesn't include brownfood coloring (caramel coloring). But the taste will be right on. And I think President Clinton would agree that as long as the sweet little treats taste good, appearance is secondary.

Recipe
CakeDuncan Hines

devil's food cake mix1

1/3 cups water

1/2 cup oil

3 large eggs

Filling

2 teaspoons hot water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups marshmallow creme (one 7-ounce jar)

1/2 cup shortening

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup

2 tablespoons shortening

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

dash salt

Tear off a bunch of foil pieces about this size. These will be your mini cake pans after folding two times and wrapping around a pill bottle.
Empty prescription medicine bottles are actually good for something.
Use a toothpick or skewer to dig three caverns in the cakes where the filling will live. Later you will cleverly hide these holes with frosting.

1. Prepare the cake batter following the directions on the box.

If you use Duncan Hines brand, you will need

1 1/3 cups of water,

1/2 cup of oil, and

three eggs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. To prepare the cake pans that will make cakes the size of Zingers, tear off 20 pieces of aluminum foil that are each about 8 inches wide. Fold the foil in half and then in half once more so that you have a rectangular piece of foil. Wrap this piece of foil around a small prescription medicine bottle. Tuck in the ends and take the bottle out, leaving the foil open at the top. This will form a little pan. Flatten the bottom so that the mini pan stands up straight. Place this into a baking pan and repeat with the remaining pieces of foil. When you have arranged all of the foil pans in a baking pan, spray the inside of all the pans with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each little pan about halfway with cake batter. Bake cakes for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely.

3. To make the filling, combine the hot water with the salt in a small bowl and stir until the salt is dissolved. Let this mixture cool.

4. Combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add the salt mixture to the bowl and mix.

5. To make the chocolate frosting, combine all the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer until smooth.

6. To assemble your snack cakes first poke three holes with a toothpick or skewer in the top of a cake and swirl around inside the holes making little caverns for your filling.

7. Use a pastry bag with a small tip to squeeze some filling into each hole. Careful not to overfill, or your cake will burst open. Sure, it's exciting, but this mess won't make for a good clone.

8. Once the cake is filled, use a butter knife to spread frosting on top of the cake over the holes. Drag a fork lengthwise over the frosting making grooves just like the real thing.

Makes 20 snack cakes.

Dive S'mores

You don't need a campfire, wire hangers or long sticks to make this popular marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker dessert. Steven Spielberg's Dive! chain of theme restaurants is the inspiration for this week's clone recipe, pulled from the third TSR book,Top Secret Restaurant Recipes (which includes otherclones from the chain as well). You need only four ingredients, an oven with a broiler, and a serious sweet tooth to put together this delicious dessert previously enjoyed only camping trips and at beach parties.

2 whole graham crackers (4 sections, not separated) two

1 1/2-ounce Hershey milk chocolate bars

16 large marshmallows

2 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup, in squirt bottle

1. Preheat the broiler. Arrange the graham crackers side by side on an oven-safe plate (such as ceramic). You can also use a baking sheet.

2. Stack the milk chocolate bars side by side on top of the graham crackers.

3. Arrange the marshmallows on the chcocolate in 4 rows -- 4 across, 4 down.

4. Broil the dessert on the middle rack for 1 to 3 minutes or until the marshmallows turn light brown on top.

5. Remove the dessert from the oven. If you used a baking sheet, carefully slide the dessert onto a serving plate. With the squirt bottle, immediately drizzle the chocolate syrup over the marshmallows in a sweeping back-and-forth motion. Drizzle the chocolate diagonally across the dessert one way, and then the other, creating a cross-hatch pattern. Allow the chocolate to over-shoot the dessert so that it creates a decorative pattern on the serving plate as well.

Serves 2-4.