Heavenly Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats and My Mom!

Besides the fact that for the most part these are "rice" Krispy treats (I say "rice" with quotes because I used the new Jumbo Whole Grain Krispies), so for the most part I didn't make THAT up, but besides that, I'm happy when I actually totally make something up and especially when it turns out YUMMY!  Okay, that first sentence was grammatically horrible, but I don't feel like what it would take to think through fixing it to make it sound better.  So I'll shut up about that and just tell you these Heavenly Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats are SO good.

I wanted to come up with something to use up some aging (but not stale) Rice Krispies I had--the new Jumbo Whole Grain ones as well as some large marshmallows that were beginning to all stick to each other in the bag.  I also had some caramels in my baking pantry.  My wonderful, clean cupboards and pantry!  My parents were here from Idaho a few weeks ago.

Then they went and spent some time with my brother, Matt, in Indiana, over to my sister, Sara's, in Iowa and we "conned" them in to coming back to Kansas so my mom could stay with the boys while we went to Virginia.  My dad left my mom and we got her a ticket to fly home.  He drove home the next day.  Anyway, my wonderful mother (Love you so much, Mom!), cleaned out and organized all my kitchen cupboards.  They were a little stuffed full of stuff and in quite the disarray.  She's into being all organized and such lately and told me I need "bins, bins, bins."  We got a bunch of all different sizes and she purged things that needed to be thrown out, moved things I didn't need in the kitchen to our downstairs storage and made it so easy for me to find things in my kitchen!  Anyway, she made a bin full (a big, heavy bin) of all the candy I had stashed everywhere.  Some being little things here and there, but most of it was candy I'd purchased to make something with during all my baking--hence, the caramels.

So where was I?  Oh these delicious treats!  I wanted ooey gooey and boy did I get it!  Here's what I did

Heavenly Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats, by Katrina

*Note, some of my measurements are a little strange, but that was because I wanted to use up some things I had.  But one thing I've always believed in with Rice Krispy Treats is extra marshmallows and/or a little less Krispies as there is just nothing worse than hard, dry, too crispy Rice Krispy Treats.

17 ounces marshmallows (a 16 oz. bag would be fine)

6 tablespoons (3 oz.) butter, cup up

6-7 cups (8 ounces) Jumbo Whole Grain Krispy cereal (Rice Krispies would be fine, too)

48 caramels (14 ounces), unwrapped (duh ;)

1/2 cup cream

12 ounces (1 package) semi sweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream

pecans (optional)

Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray (or just spray the pan).  I love foil for easy release, I use non-stick foil.)  In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine marshmallows and butter until melted.  Stirring very often.  Stir in cereal and combine well.  Spread evenly in pan.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, add caramels and 1/2 cup cream and melt together over medium heat.  Stir frequently as it melts, about 5 minutes.  Pour the hot, gooey caramel over the rice crispies and spread it evenly.  It will seep all through the nooks and crannies.

Put the chocolate in a medium sized bowl.  In a small saucepan (or a microwave safe dish--which is what I did), bring the 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cream to a boil.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for about one minute.  Stir with a wire whisk until it is melted and smooth.  Pour that over the caramel rice treats and spread evenly.  Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.  Remove from pan using the edges of the foil.  Peel off the foil.  Set on a cutting board and cut to desired sizes. 

Do you see the goo-factor here on the underside of these?  They have a perfect chewy-crunch and an immense caramel flavor, not to mention a perfect amount of chocolate.  I sprinkled about 1/3 cup of pecans over about one third of the caramel (some of my kids think they don't like nuts).  I also think pecans on top of the chocolate layer would be good.  Turtle Rice Krispies!  Mmmm!

These are super rich and so good that they really shouldn't be in my hosue, for my sake.  They are sticky enough that Sam wasn't crazy about them.  Silly, lick your fingers.  Come to think of it, Taylor and Parker didn't like the stickiness either.  I shared some with some friends last night and they liked them.

In closing, it was so fun and wonderful to have my parents here and my mother even longer.  Thank you so much for watching the boys for us while we were in Virginia!  I never seem to forget to take pictures of food, but darn it all, I didn't take as many pictures of my parents and my mom with the boys as I would have liked!  I meant to have all four of them get in a picture with Grandma before they went to school the morning she left, but forgot until it was just Taylor and Sam.   Here's what we got.  Sam screaming and fighting to get away.  Sigh.

Love you to pieces, Mommy!  Thanks for everything.