Or are these little gems too sweet? Opinions differ
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Green clovers! Pink hearts! Blue moons! Yes, this is a snack made from that already sweetened cereal, Lucky Charms, a sugar rush created by combining the breakfast of kids with melted marshmallows topped with white chocolate and decorated with the iconic marshmallow shapes.
As you probably can guess, the sweetness was the most talked about factor when MT graciously took them to the newsroom taste testers while I alternated between working from home and heading out on multiple assignments Tuesday.
“They bring back memories of childhood,” our new news editor Liz Baumeister said with a smile. “Sitting at the breakfast table, gulping down a bowl of Lucky Charms, then running to get the school bus.”
The topping of marshmallows with white chocolate even “kind of tastes like the milk that was left over in the bowl after the Lucky Charms were gone,” Liz continued. “It’s definitely a fun St. Patrick’s Day treat.”
Reporter Margaret Roarty called them “good,” but suggested they would be best enjoyed in moderation.
Even before she left our house, MT couldn’t resist calling them “magically delicious.”
But not everyone liked them.
“They’re just too sweet for me,” page designer Ashley Bringmann said.
“I’ve got to agree with Ashley,” Bill O’Boyle said. “They’re a little too sweet.”
Reporter Kevin Carroll said he never was a big fan of Rice Krispies Treats, which he associated with standardized test days in school, and a distinctive aftertaste. Perhaps using Lucky Charms did work a little magic. He said these had neither, so he was happy with them. “I’ll have another, if there’s more,” he said.
I had a few other dishes already done and waiting to become a test kitchen story, but I opted at the last minute to Google “St. Patrick’s Day recipes,” in part because MT started talking about possible appropriate servings for the holiday (she made an Irish stew; you can read about it in Thursday’s paper). Two that came up used the Lucky Charms cereal, one in cookies by grinding the cereal in a food processor, the other a variation on the classic Rice Krispies Treats. I opted for the latter.
It’s simple, and I suspect it would be a great project to do with kids, as long as you can keep them from eating all the shaped marshmallows while picking them out of the cereal. Since this was for St. Patrick’s Day, I went a step further and separated the greenish mallows from the others, using more of them on the decorative top.
As noted, this is sweet, likely more appealing to kids than adults, so take the “18 bars” directions as a general guideline; cut the final product into appropriate sizes to match your munchers.
I did make the mistake of not buttering the foil. Not a deal breaker, but it took considerably more effort to peel the stuff off after the mixture had set. And as the ingredients photo shows, I used white chocolate morsels, which did not require any chopping before melting.
I also had enough white chocolate that ended up pretty much covering the whole thing, rather than drizzling beads on it.
Dobru chut!
Lucky Charms Marshmallow Treats (foodnetwork.com)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
11.5-ounce box Lucky Charms cereal (about 6 cups)
10-ounce bag standard marshmallows
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on at least two sides. Butter the foil. Pick out and reserve ½ cup of the colorful marshmallows from the cereal.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the standard marshmallows and stir continuously until melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cereal until coated.
Press the mixture into the prepared baking dish and let cool completely at room temperature, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 second increments, stirring after each, until melted.
Use the foil overhang to lift out the treats from the pan. Drizzle the chocolate over the treats and sprinkle with the reserved colorful marshmallows. Let the chocolate coating harden at room temperature, about 2 hours. Cut into 18 bars.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112