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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Cereal Dessert Bars



If you haven't realized, I have a bit of a baking obsession. As a result, I constantly finding myself impulsively purchasing baking ingredients every time I'm in the grocery store. Currently, I have a major stash of various types of chips (chocolate, toffee, peanut butter, white chocolate...you get the picture), plenty of other candies, dried fruits, etc. I really need to start using up some of this stuff before I keep buying more! The dessert I made for this week's community group sprung from this need.

I found this recipe for Cereal Dessert Bars (called Peanut Butter Cheerio bars on Stephanie Cooks) and decided it'd be a great way to use up my box of Kashi Heart-to-Heart cereal (that I'd used to make breakfast cookies). I was busy Tuesday night preparing for my trip to Seattle, so this recipe was perfect as it took all of 15 minutes to throw together. I modified Stephanie's recipe slightly, reducing the sugar as she suggested and adding chocolate chips and peanuts. Unfortunately I didn't get to try one of the bars before leaving town, but my licks from the bowl suggested these are quite tasty! I'll have to wait for Ryan and the rest of community group to confirm...

Cereal Dessert Bars
adapted from Stephanie Cooks

Ingredients:
-6 cups Kashi Heart-to-Heart cereal (could also use cheerios)
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 cup honey
-1 cup peanut butter (I used 1/2 cup chunky, 1/2 cup creamy)
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts

Directions:
1. Melt sugar and honey in a small pot over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add peanut butter and stir until melted.
3. Pour honey mixture over the cereal in a large bowl.

4. Mix well until cereal is completely coated.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and peanuts (chocolate chips will probably melt some from the heat of the honey mixture).

6. Pour coated cereal into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Refrigerate until ready to serve (bars are VERY soft!)