Special treats

Please excuse all the photos. I dusted my camera off and was amazed at the lovely pictures it took compared to my phone. Must stop using the phone for blog pictures.

We were eating lots of granola bars. Too many really. I'm trying to cut back on things like that. I actually have a recipe for banana oat bars (with chocolate chips - SUPER YUMMY) and a recipe from Rebecca for granola bars and I'd much rather we ate homemade goodies than store bought because, well, at least then I have a bit of control over what's in them.

But it's too hot to turn the oven on now. I thought about alternatives, but I don't think my neighbours would appreciate it much if I decided to use a cardboard box oven in the courtyard. They'd probably call the fire department. So, all recipes with oven involvement are on hold for now.


But we had no granola bars for lunch snacks. Heck, other than fruit, which is awesome, we had no lunch snacks. I need a bit of carbohydrate between meals or I get a migraine. Alex is a male, so he just needs carbohydrates. Preferably lots of them.


I looked through my cookbooks and random recipes and found this in my BOOK (the book is the ruler of our house. I keep meaning to write about it and haven't, but I will, soon. If I remember).


I've made them once before, but they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I did note my changes on the recipe, so I decided to try them again.

I looked up 10oz of marshmallows and that's 283.5 grams. HUH? I don't have a kitchen scale (hello Christmas list) but even if I did, that's a whacky amount. After I made them the last time, I decided I'd check out the recipe for Rice Krispie Squares and adjusted the marshmallows and butter to be more like that recipe. Well, actually, a bag of marshmallows has about 4 3/4 cups marshmallows, so I used all of the marshmallows and only reduced the butter by 2 tsp, not one Tbsp.

ready...set...

melting marshmallows

more melted

mmmm gooey marshmallows

I felt like the cranberries were there by accident last time, so I almost doubled the dried fruit (I also added apricots this time to give it some more fun colour). I'd add more dried fruit than this if I make them again...the extra marshmallows and butter would let me!

marshmallows ready to go

stirring

I didn't use Martha's big cookie sheet idea this time. They were way too thin (much thinner than in her picture) and fell apart immediately when you picked them up. I used two 8x8 dishes (I thought one might be enough after the mess last time, but no) but next time I'd probably use a 9x13. Then they'd be a bit thicker, but a bit smaller and I think that's good.


It took way longer than an hour to set. It actually didn't really ever set (I don't remember Rice Krispie Squares having this problem) and I ended up putting them in the fridge. I'm not sure if it's because it's SO STINKING HOT or if it's because I used store brand marshmallows. It did this the last time too. And it was hot then. And I used store brand marshmallows.

I think I'll make these again...just maybe not when it's hot out!

*The one thing that drives me nuts about Martha Stewart's recipes is that none of them come with any kind of nutritional information...I found a calculator here, but if you know of a better one, I'd love to hear about it!