My White Whale

Admittedly, I've been away from this blog for some time. There's two reasons. Well, maybe three.

Reason 1: I've started a new semester where I'm taking two separate literature classes, with a massive amount of reading each week. Because of this, I'm only fitting baking in when guests come over or when I scan through Pinterest and see something that screams "You can actually do this!" or "This only has two ingredients!" 

Reason 2: I've actually started a second blog. Gasp! It's true. Now you can also read my mediocre musings at www.sleepstanding.com. This new blog is about my sleep walking/sleep talking adventures, and about how I'm (mis)handling them. Personally, I think it's pretty great and you'll love it. Since it's so new I've had to take the time to cultivate it a little, build it up so that people might actually like it. I don't have to do that with YIBT anymore, this thing just writes and reads itself! So do me a favor and check out www.sleepstanding.com, I'm also on twitter @sleepstander.

Reason 3: I've been trying to catch my white whale.

Happy Belated Valentines Day Rice Krispie Pops!

It's been quite some time since my Super Bowl post, I do apologize. I'd like to think that I was in some sort of food coma due to the loaded baked potato dip, or that I was just too distraught over the Giants win to carry on, but unfortunately the real reason is not that glamorous. Well it's a little glamorous - we did watch almost the full 5th season of The Wire in one week. I also caught whatever sinus or face infection that the whole world seems to have, so I've been a little out of it lately.

Before I came down with consumption I made these excellent rice krispie treat pops that were dipped in chocolate. Unlike my last foray into rice krispie pops, these were actually a success. I mean, a real success. I only got about 16 out of the batch, but they actually stayed on the stick, tasted delicious in the chocolate and were enjoyed by strangers! This photo to my left is proof, real proof. I didn't pay these people anything!

I found the initial idea for these pops on Pinterest, but the real recipe was a few layers in. Like rice krispie inception I finally found these on a blog called Korean American Mommy. If you know me, you know I fall squarely in this blog's demographic.

I mean hell, I am American.

Rice Krispie Pops

I have to admit that lately I've been struggling. Aside from the fact that 5 projects need to all be finished at once, I haven't been able to decide which recipe to post next. Being that it's summer, and 900 degrees in Philly, my options are clearly limited. The problem with summer in this house is that our landlord still thinks it's 1970, so my gas powered oven could literally (and has on occasion) heat the entire house. This makes baking difficult. Ask Bill McNamee, he walked into the kitchen the other day when I was mid-white chocolate raspberry cupcakes and he almost hyperventilated. That thing's like a furnace. It'll give you a sun tan.

So in order to avoid third degree burns on both my body and the baked goods, I decided I'd look for something you can make fast, and preferably not in the oven. The result was these fancy rice krispie pops. The best part about finding this recipe is that the post where I found it was also talking about the ridiculously warm weather. Sweaty people must think alike.

There's nothing like a good background to make your picture look better.
Those paper towel rolls were not involved in the making of this recipe.

I need to tell you up front that rice krispie treats to me are like muddy buddies to my mother. When we were growing up my Aunt Karen would make them for special occasions, and they always came out just the right shade of white. When my mom made them, they always came out...well, muddier. They tasted exactly the same, but we had fun ragging on mom and reminding her that Aunt Karen's always looked just like the box, and mom's always looked more like they were actually made with mud.

Rice krispie treats are delicate. You have to really pay attention, and not burn anything. Which is tough. The last few batches I've made have either been too dry, too krispie, too not-marshmellowy enough or on one occasion, a clear substitute for a door jam. But this time, I happened to get them just right. While the recipe I'm about to give you tells you to make them as pops, I went without the sticks. I dipped them in chocolate that's not appropriate for dipping because it doesn't dry (I would suggest the dipping chocolate they normally sell near strawberries at the grocery store, or the chocolate disks you can melt specifically for dipping and baking) and sprinkled them with rainbow sprinkles.

I would highly suggest these if you need something quick and if your kitchen gets as warm as mine.

Here's the link: http://kitchenkarate.blogspot.com/2010/07/unholy-heat-and-rice-krispie-pops.html

The author of Kitchen Karate (which is a pretty bad ass name for baking/cooking blog) isn't sure where he found the recipe, but if I were you I'd spend some time digging around his site. He also had a recipe for peanut butter cupcakes with krispie buttercream icing which I'm looking forward to making. If nothing else, this guy appreciates a good krispie recipe when he finds one.

Here's some pictures of my rice krispie non-pops:

Before the chocolate. You can see that I tried to use popsicle sticks as lollipop sticks.
I would't suggest that. It didn't work.

I melted the chocolate on this homemade double boiler.
The last 6 searches on my computer are:
 "how to make a double boiler"
"how to not burn yourself using a homemade double boiler"
and probably the best one:
"how can i take back this questionable decision i made to make a homemade double boiler?"

In reality, that double boiler method works extremely well. I've used it a few times now, and as long as you're careful with the steam, you'll be fine.

A close up of the end results.

If you have any other warm weather baking suggestions, send them my way! I've got a few recipes on deck, including the aforementioned white chocolate raspberry cupcakes I've made and the peanut butter cupcakes with krispie buttercream icing, but I welcome anything that's not going to make my kitchen into the fifth circle of hell.


Source: Kitchen Karate
"Unholy Heat and Rice Krispie Pops"
http://kitchenkarate.blogspot.com/2010/07/unholy-heat-and-rice-krispie-pops.html