Holiday Blog Hop :: Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie Treats

Hi friends! The holiday season is officially here and all the Savvy Sassy Moms Product Scouts are coming together to share the best of holiday treats, decor, crafts, drinks and more! Not only are we sharing our favorite holiday content, we'd love it if you joined us and linked-up your favorite holiday posts from your blog each week. This week, from November 22-28th, we’re featuring all of your best holiday sweet treats! If you have a post that fits the bill for this category, directions on how to link up with us are below! This is a great way to discover some new blogs, get new ideas and make your posts accessible and pinnable for others!  I hope you'll join us!

This week's hostesses:

• Savvy Sassy Moms
• Liz of Ellie and Addie
• Sara of Running from the Law
• Joanna of Making Mine
• Julia of My Life in Transition
• Laura of Happily Ever Parker

The kids and I decided to make Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie Treats for our holiday sweet treat. Peppermint bark is one of my absolute favorite holiday indulgences and I thought this might be a fun way to mix things up a bit and combine it with one of the kid's favorite items - Rice Krispie Treats! It might sound too good to be true, but trust me, it's a match made in heaven!

I love getting the kids involved in the cooking process.  Mac is convinced that he can read the directions off the box and tells me step by step how to make everything. He not only loves bossing me around, but he loves coming up with ingenious directions like, "everybody has to eat 6 marshmallows before we cook" and "it says that Mac gets to lick the chocolate spoon anytime he wants." He's a tricky one. 

I let Mac open the butter, pour in the marshmallows, stir the mixture, measure the cereal and stir it all up. He's quite a good little helper when I let him play a part in it. I've even found that when he helps me make dinner, he tends to eat quite a bit more of the food he helped make because he's so proud of it. This is how I've gotten him to eat meatloaf, broccoli casserole, lasagna and curry. 

Obviously, he doesn't need much assistance in getting motivated to eat rice krispie treats (which he calls, "Rice Christmas Treats"). For all his help and patience I let him "lick" the spoon! 

UPDATE!! For those that mentioned always having rock hard Rice Krispie Treats or wondered how I got big unmelted chunks of marshmallow in mine, check out the recipe below for a top secret baking tip! After I melt the marshmallows and butter and mix in the cereal, I mix in MORE marshmallows and then put it all in the pan to cool before they can melt completely. 

Since I was in the spirit of being an awesome mom and letting him help in any way he could...and since I did need the peppermints broken up into smaller pieces...I just may have let Mac go at the candy with a hammer. Looking back now I suppose this might not have been the best idea I've ever had - not because he didn't do a good job, but because he did too good of a job.  Instead of broken into little pieces, my peppermints ended up smashed to smithereens! A normal human being could break the candies up into pieces without pulverizing them into candy dust, but a three-year old with a real hammer just doesn't have that delicate touch needed. Oh well, they still tasted just as good!  

That look of surprise above is when I told him we were going to put chocolate and the crushed candy on top of the rice krispie treats. It blew his mind. 

We doubled our recipe and made a TON of treats to take to nursery school and to give to all the kids in the neighborhood. It was so much fun making this with the kids and seeing how proud they were of their creation. And it was REALLY good, if I do say so myself!  (I ate at least three large pieces.)

Ingredients:

- 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

- 5 tablespoons butter

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 10 cups mini marshmallows

- 1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

- 1 bag peppermint candies (or candy canes), broken/crushed

Directions:

1.  Spray pan lightly with cooking spray (or butter), set aside.
2.  In a large pot over low heat, melt the butter. Once butter in melted add in 8 cups mini marshmallows, stirring constantly.

3.  Once the marshmallows are melted, remove from heat and stir in your cereal and salt until coated in melted marshmallow. 

4.  Stir in the remaining 2 cups of mini marshmallows until mixed, but not melted.

5.  Pour mixture into prepared pan and press in evenly.

6.  Melt chocolate chips in a double broiler or in microwave until smooth.

7.  Drizzle chocolate on top of rice krispie treats and spread evenly with rubber spatula.

8.  Sprinkle broken peppermint candies on top of melted chocolate.

9.  Allow to cool completely before cutting. 

10.  Enjoy!!

How to Participate:

• Link up your favorite holiday sweet treat by putting the URL and name of your blog post into the InLinkz widget below.
• Visit 3-5 other blogs in the Holiday Blog Hop and leave a comment on other posts.
• Share this Holiday Blog Hop with your friends and readers on social media using the #SavvySassyHoliday hashtag.
• Don't forget to head over to Savvy Sassy Moms next week to link up for Week 3 which is all about Dazzling DIY (decor, gifts, etc.)!

An InLinkz Link-up