This isn’t normally the kind of dessert I would try.
Back when I was unemployed (a time I refer to as “my great depression”) and trying to conserve money I became a cereal hoarder. I’m not joking. I really did. (Sis was amazed by the number of boxes of cereal that accompanied me to Portland.)
I bought cereal because it was on sale. Like, super-sale. And I reasoned it would last a long time. I had no idea when I would get another job and I didn’t want to end up starving. (Looking back, I’m not sure why I ever thought this was a threat. My boyfriend at the time was employed as well as feeding me.)
What I didn’t take into account is… I literally never eat breakfast and, if I do, it’s certainly not cereal. And so these boxes and boxes of cereal I bought back during my great depression are collecting dust and using up space in our house.
Well, no more. I need to get them out of the house. And so I needed to scour the internet for recipes that used, of all things, cereal. Perhaps not surprisingly, I couldn’t find a huge variety of recipes on the internet that called for Cocoa Puffs. This was about the best one I could find:
ingredients.
- 1 c. light corn syrup
- 2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 11.8 oz. box Cocoa Puffs cereal
- 1 c. mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped
- 1 c. chocolate chips
- 1 c. peanut butter chips
- 4 T. butter
directions.
- Butter 9x13x2 inch glass baking dish. Heat corn syrup and chocolate chips in 2 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted. Stir in cereal until evenly coated.
- Press mixture in pan with buttered back of spoon; cool. Sprinkle with chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and butter in a small sauce pan on the stove. Pour over cereal bars and smooth with a knife or back of a spoon. Cut into bars. Yields 2 dozen bars.
The original recipe suggested using milk chocolate chips or peanut butter chips. I don’t keep milk chocolate chips on hand, and I thought a double chocolate-y treat would be best. I later decided to add the chopped mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and peanut butter/chocolate frosting because chocolate glazed cocoa puffs really don’t look all that special when pressed into a glass baking dish.
I’m not sure I would make this recipe again. Perhaps the recipe is better when you use peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips. I’ll probably never test the recipe to find out, however. If you’re really jonesing for some major chocolate it would work. If you love Cocoa Puffs, you’d probably like it. If you need to use up a box of Cocoa Puffs cereal, I would definitely recommend it.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 