Samoa Style Rice Krispies Treats

My sister-in-law Brittany gave up gluten for Lent, so when she arrived last Saturday, I wanted to make sure she wouldn't starve while she was visiting us. I eat gluten, a lot, but this has been a wonderful challenge and learning experience. Excluding baked goods, it's actually rather easy to eat gluten free. The hard part comes when you go out to eat, or you if you're used to buying a lot of processed foods like Cheezits (one of my all time favorite foods, lol).

When one of my friends delivered us some Rice Krispie Treats, both Brittany and I were like, "Score! We need to make these!" One, they're delicious, two, they're gluten free, three, they're something I would consume with vigor, and four, the cereal we did not eat would be happily eaten by my later, so I didn't feel like I was going out of my way to buy something gluten that would then rot away in the pantry.

On our trip to Safeway, Brittany had the genius decision to pick up chocolate Rice Krispies, which I of course did not turn down. Then, while in the marshmallow section, I came across coconut marshmallows. "Oh goodness, Brittany, if we buy these marshmallows, it will be like eating the Samoa Girl Scout cookies!" And those marshmallows immediately got tossed into the shopping cart.

When we got home, we immediately went to work. We used the basic recipe from the Rice Krispies website: melt butter, stir in marshmallows, then stir in the cereal, then spread in a pan and cool. DELICIOUS. We did note, though, that the coconut marshmallows come in a bag 2 oz smaller than a normal bag of marshmallows, so if you do decide to do this, you'll need to make sure to have about 2 oz of additional marshmallows. Ours turned out a little hard, but they are still scrumptious. Also, next time I will drizzle the treats with caramel, and mix in some coconut, so they mimic Samoas even more. All in all, a great yummy treat, that's still gluten free, but will be enjoyed by everyone.

Happy baking!