Ingredients
Chocolate chip cookie mix (I use Betty Crocker's in a bag) which also needs one egg and a stick of butter
About 80 caramel cubes
4-5 cups Rice Krispie cereal
10 ounce bag of marshmallows
1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed peanuts (optional, but preferred)
3 Teaspoons of milk
2 and 1/2 Hershey's bars or about 2/3 cup of chocolate chips
3 more tablespoons of butter
Time
2 to 3 hours, plus
Supplies
9" x 13" Pyrex baking dish
Double boiler
3 quart non-stick sauce pan
Parchment paper (don't try making without parchment paper!)
Microwave safe 1 cup measuring cup
Mixer
Food chopper or nut crusher to crush the peanuts. You can also put them in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin, etc.
Directions
1. Soften butter for cookie mix, preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix cookie dough as directed. Line Pyrex dish with parchment paper, make sure you leave plenty of extra (enough to stick up outside the Pyrex dish. This keeps the ingredients from gluing themselves into the pan). Spoon cookie dough into paper lined dish, spreading the spoonfuls out so they will flow together. Bake cookie dough for approximately 20-25 minutes. Don't over bake. The top should just start to brown and a toothpick should come out clean. Slightly under baking is better than over.
3. Start peeling caramel cubes into a bowl while the cookie bakes. Good place for someone to help you.
4. When cookie is done, remove from oven. Using parchment paper, lift the cookie out of the Pyrex and set aside so both can cool. The cookie should still be soft and bend, but don't worry too much. You have to take the cookie out of the Pyrex or it will over bake the cookie while it sits in the hot Pyrex. You will need the Pyrex again later.
5. Put caramel cubes in top of double boiler and melt over high heat. Add three teaspoons of milk. This prevents the caramel from crystallizing and getting hard when it cools. Melt the caramel over high heat until it is smooth.
6. Lift up the cookie by the parchment paper and put the cooled cookie back into the cooled Pyrex, again so the parchment paper sticks up out of the Pyrex. Pour the melted caramel over the cookie as evenly as possible, you can spread it around if needed. It will spread a little on its own. Don't spill any caramel between the paper and the Pyrex. Sprinkle crushed peanuts over the caramel. If you're not sure how much to add, going light on the peanuts is usually better than heavy. You may want to take a short break to let the caramel cool after adding the peanuts.
7. Start making rice krispie treats according to the instructions (melt butter in the 3 qt pan, add marshmallows and stir until melted, add rice krispies gradually and mix in) but I recommend using only 4-5 cups instead of the six on the package recipe. It gives you a sweeter, more "marshmallowy" treat. Also, the recipe says to remove from heat when you add the cereal, I prefer to leave it on low heat while I stir in the cereal to keep the marshmallow melted.
8. Pour rice krispie treat onto caramel. Spread it out evenly and press flat. I find the easiest way to do this is by wetting my hand with water, shaking it off and patting on the rice krispie treat until my hand starts to stick, then rewetting my hand. You can also try using waxpaper or parchment paper.
9. Let the rice krispie treat cool. Again, good place for a break. And maybe start doing some of all the dishes this makes.
10. Melt milk chocolate in microwave safe measuring cup. Pour onto rice krispie treat and spread around, basically frost it with melted chocolate.
11. Let cool, preferably overnight, but at least a couple hours until the chocolate on top is cold and solid.
12. Lift massive cookie out of Pyrex, it's heavy. Place on a cutting board. Cut the block across into strips about 1 to 1 and 1/4 inch wide. Cut each strip into squares. Makes 60-80 pieces depending on how you cut the strips and squares.
Thoughts and comments
The extra edge of parchment paper is there to make it easy to move the cookie AND keep the very sticky ingredients from touching the Pyrex. This is the basic, simple version. If you want to get fancy, people add things like candy sprinkles, M&M's, crushed peanut butter cups and such on top of the chocolate frosting. People have competitions. I saw one where the baker had used M&Ms to make a mosaic picture on top. You can also use different kinds of cookie or brownie for the base or you can make peanut butter rice krispie treats. Or use regular frosting instead of melted chocolate.
