An popular favorite made with a twist!

If you have kids.....ooh if you only had a dollar for each rice krispie treat you've made.... or eaten. LOL. I played around with the recipe a bit to make it a bit more interesting and a little healthier.











The interesting part is that I used Toasted coconut marshmallows instead of your standard ones.















The healthier part is that I used smart balance instead of butter and:





A combination of puffed wheat and puffed rice. Notice the puffed rice on the right is not dry (meaning they don't explode into a pulverized dust when pinched between your fingers) and overly air bubbled like certain name brands....*ahem.* These good old store brands I think are better.















And that little drizzle of chocolate on top? Did you know Hershey's made these? I didn't until I happened to spot them at my usual grocery baking aisle. *snatch!*



Ok, enough with the background pictures...on with the recipe!





Chocolate Topped Coconut Crispy Treat

6 cups puffed rice and puffed wheat (3 each)
1-10 oz bag of toasted coconut marshmallows
4 Tbsp. Smart Balance butter blend
1/4-1/2 cup sugar free chocolate chips (depending how much drizzle you need)

Line a 9X13 pan with non stick foil or spray foil lightly with non stick spray. Put aside to have ready.

In a small bowl, measure out your 'puffs' to have ready to put in the marshmallow.

Melt marshmallows and butter in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water. I think the marshmallow melt better this way as opposed to the microwave or directly in a pot. I find they melt so quickly that they get to stringy and sticky before I can get them mixed thoroughly. A 'double boiler' method is kinder and gentler for me.

When the last of the mallows are just small lumps, go ahead and put in your cereal. Mix well with a rubber scraper. Pour into prepared pan and press down with wet hands. Some people think you should butter your hands. But I find that the crispies still stick when the butter melts away. I find a quick wet under the faucet, wipe hands together and press down....nothing will stick.

Melt chocolate in small ziploc bag for about a minute. Clip a small hole in corner and drizzle on tops. I drizzled only on about half of them. I also made sure I sort of "dragged the tip" of the bag while I drizzled for I wanted to ensure the chocolate would adhere better. Sometimes if you drizzle from above the chocolate just 'lays' on top and will crack and fall off when you bite into it.




Cook's Notes:

• I like how the Smart Balance works with these crispies. Have you noticed that after about a day the usual krispy treats are dry and hard and hurt your gums behind your teeth when you bite into them? These keep chewy and the puffs don't get super dry or hurt your gums. The last time I made these....the treats were just as soft and chewy as the first day by day five.
• You would think with all the coconut on the marshmallows that these would be overly 'coconut-y'. Since they are toasted and ground finely....it's a subtle coconut flavor yet nutty. No big pieces of coconut that you keep chewing on. If you want to crank up the coconut add a some coconut extract to the melted mixture before you add the cereal.
• I like that I could make a few changes to help the calorie/health level of these treats. More importantly I really think the change of type of fat source really keeps these from drying out so soon.

Enjoy!