Chocolate Drizzled Crispy Rice Mini-Bites

Ho, Ho, Hmmmm...The Christmas cookies, Christmas candy, and Christmas cakes are all gone. No sweets for the hubby to eat. Bill asked if I would make him some crispy rice treats. Bill loves crispy rice treats. Yep, he periodically craves that yummy combination of crackling rice cereal, marshmallows, and butter. Yes, I said butter, not margarine. Also, he remembered that I told him two weeks ago that I would make some treats for him.

As I looked in the pantry for rice cereal and marshmallows; the realization that the pantry still contains chocolate bark and assorted sprinkles caused my brain to kick into a higher gear. Hmmm...visions of "Christmas Crack" and a variety of other bark drizzled snack mixes whirled through my mind's eye. Suddenly, the whirling visions consolidated into a single thought - top the crispy rice treats with chocolate bark and sprinkles! A second thought quickly followed - cut them into bite-size pieces. Happily, I began constructing a pan of crispy rice mini-bites.

  Crispy Rice Mini-Bites 

This recipe is husband tested and approved.

Yield: about 60 pieces

Equipment

1 - 13 x 9 inch rectangular baking pan

1 large, microwaveable bowl

1 large spoon

1 dry measure measuring cup

1 sharp knife

1 quart-size freezer bag (a sandwich bag will not work for this)

Ingredients

3 Tbsps. butter      5 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows             6 cups krisp rice cereal

2-3 squares of chocolate bark       dessert sprinkles of choice    shortening to grease pan and hands

Directions for Cereal Mixture

• Grease 13x9 inch pan lightly with shortening. Set aside.
• Place butter in a large, microwaveable bowl and microwave for 30 second. 
• Stir once or twice.
• Microwave for an additional 15 seconds, or until the butter is melted.
• Remove bowl from the microwave.
• Add marshmallows to the bowl and stir until the marshmallows are coated with butter.
• Place bowl with marshmallows in the microwave.
• Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir mixture once or twice.
• Repeat this step twice or until the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is well blended.
• Add the cereal to the hot marshmallow mixture.
• Stir until well blended.
• Place mixture in the greased 13 x 9 inch pan. 
• Lightly grease your hands 
• Carefully press the hot mixture into an even layer in the pan.
• Immediately sprinkle with your choice of dessert sprinkles
• Set pan aside to cool

Directions for Chocolate Bark Topping

Step 1

• Take quart size freezer bad and fold the top down. (see picture)
• Place desired squares of chocolate bark in the freezer bag
• Place bag into the microwave, make sure the top of the bag is open.
• Microwave for 30 seconds
• Remove from microwave. Squeeze the bag to see if squares of                                            bark are getting soft.

Step 2

• Place bag back into the microwave, make sure the top of the bag is open
• Microwave for 15 seconds
• Remove from microwave and squeeze the bag again.
• Repeat Step 2 until the bark is melted completely.

Step 3

• Hold bag with melted bark so that one bottom corner is pointing downward. 
• Gather bag top and twist to form a cone of melted bark.
•  Snip the bottom corner and drizzle bark diagonally across the crispy rice treat from bottom left to top right; repeat from top left to bottom right. This will form a diamond or cross hatched design. 
• Repeat until all the topping is gone. 
• Immediately sprinkle with your choice of dessert sprinkles

Step 4

• Cool until bark is firm. 
• Slice crispy rice into 1 inch pieces. My pieces are more or less 1 inch pieces because I use the Guesstimate Method.