Holiday Recipe: Candy Cane Cereal Bars

This year for the holidays, I wanted to start creating some of my own festive recipes for when my friends stop by. Something quick and easy, but entertaining enough to impress. In past years, my parents did all the cooking and baking, but now it’s time to increase my adulting a few levels!

In this blog post, I’m going to show you how I make Candy Cane Cereal Bars. They’re chocolatey, minty, and very crunchy – a perfect holiday snack that’ll be sure to satisfy any sweet tooth! There are a lot of chocolate cereal bar recipes online, but most of them involve marshmallows, corn syrup, and (a lot of) butter. My recipe is a slightly healthier version, so that you can always enjoy a few more bites.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

• 3 cups of Shreddies Cereal (or a similar variety)
• 1 cup of Holiday Rice Crispies Cereal
• 5-6 candy canes, crushed
• 1 candy cane, whole
• 4 tbsp of peanut butter *
• 5 tbsp of honey *
• 5 tbsp of margarine or butter
• 1 cup of dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips

* Peanut Butter and Honey are substitute for Marshmallows in this recipe

Before you start! Get your chocolate and crushed candy canes ready.

Since chocolate melts quick, prepping these first ensures that your baking will be effortless!

Step 1: Heat margarine, honey, and peanut butter on a medium-heat pot until melted. Once melted, leave mixture on burner, but turn the burner off. Add 1 candy cane to the mixture, and let it sit while you work on the dark chocolate.

Step 2: Create a bain-marie, which is a bowl that sits on top of a pot of boiling water. Start by melting the dark chocolate in your bain-marie. Once it’s fully melting, carefully add your mixture from step 1. Mix until fully incorporated. Turn the heat of the pot to low while you prep your cereal.

Step 3: In a large bowl, mix the Shreddies and Rice Crispies. Place the large bowl into another bain-marie. While your bowl currently has dry ingredients, the bain-marie will ensure that the chocolate doesn’t dry too quickly when mixed.

Step 4: Pour your chocolatey mixture into the large cereal bowl and mix until incorporated. Carefully pour the cereal mixture into shallow pans, and press until fairly compressed. It’s important that you press the mixture into the pans so that the bars are dense.

Step 5: Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie, exactly as you melted the dark chocolate in step 4. Once melted, carefully pour over the top of your compressed cereal tray. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the melted white chocolate.

Step 6: Place your pan in the fridge for 1 hour, or the freezer for 40 minutes. Cut into bars. The bitter dark chocolate goes perfectly with the sweet and minty candy canes. Enjoy!

 

Optional: Add some leftover crushed candy canes and instant hot chocolate powder to a mug, add boiling water. Now you’ve got candy cane hot chocolate to enjoy with your treats!

Try this holiday recipe and post it on Instagram! Be sure to take @mikerizzi.

-MR

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