Potato Chip Rice Crispy Treat Triple Chocolate Bark

Now if you recall my rant I went on about making true Rice Crispy bars in my Brown Rice Crispy Bars post, you know I hate it. I find it a PITA to mix up the melted butter/marshmallow mixture with the cereal. To me it turns to cement that is sticky and well, a pain. So when I made him his first batch I tried to take a short cut and use marshmallow fluff.

My bit of advice, don’t do this – not if you have a Mr. Fantabulous in your life. It works..sorta. It melts beautifully and mixes so easily BUT… <deep sigh> it never truly gets to the same bar type consistency as actual marshmallows. While they are almost identical in recipe there is one major difference between fluff and actual marshmallows. It’s the absence of gelatin. Fluff or marshmallow creme doesn’t have gelatin.  Gelatin is what allows marshmallows to keep their shape and this is what actually helps keep the bars, well, in bar shapes. As for taste difference, nada.

Thus when he went to cut his bars they came out in clusters.  To me I thought it was awesome as they were little nuggets of rice crispy treats.  So cute and dainty ; 2 things Mr. Fantabulous is not.  He’s not cute – my baby is hot as HELL and he’s about as dainty as a hippo.  Sorry baby but your ginormous muscles make you nowhere near dainty.

Tee hee.. that just made me giggle a bit.  Needless to say he was NOT pleased.  He grumbled eating these mumbling something like “there she goes again making something simple into something complicated…” <insert deep sighs> So after him complaining about these (with a mouthful of those crispy treat nuggets) I went and made him a real batch of rice krispie treats.  You know the kind where you put your biceps into it mixing the stuff all together.  Word of advice, don’t make them on your biceps and triceps workout day.  *wink*  My arms were already sore and this, dear God it was rough.  But I love him and love making him happy.

However… I was left with a tray of these marshmallow treat nuggets.  I had to do something with them, right?

Well as you can see I done and went did something awesome with them!  To me by themselves they are too sweet thus my addition of sea salted potato chips. Seriously it was an amazing balance of flavors.  Adding chocolate to well, anything, takes the flavor to new heights. So I got to chopping chocolate, measuring stuff and then melting the chocolate.

Seriously I love the smell of melted chocolate.  It’s just so rich and comforting.  As weird as this sounds it reminds me of Christmas.  Now I know some of you equate Christmas smells to cinnamon, pine (YUCK!  That smell makes me gag) and gingerbread.  While that’s true chocolate also does.  See my Mom always made us hot cocoa as a kid.  The store bought stuff wasn’t something we could always afford.  I’m talking about the stuff with the mini marshmallows.  That was fancy stuff that well, wasn’t in our budget so mama would make us homemade cocoa and always put in melted chocolate chips in it to so it was extra rich and chocolatey.  And for us, she only made this in the winter, around Christmas time.  So for me the smell of melted chocolate takes me back to those cold wintery days when I would be outside for hours on end bundled up looking like the Staypuff Marshmallow man only to come in 5 minutes after going out saying “Ma I have to pee!” while doing the pee pee dance!  LOL   Several wiggles of that dance, taking care of business and then getting rebundled up I was ready to go outside and play.  

Before I knew it she was calling me to come in and get warmed up.  I’d whine saying I was only out there a little bit when in reality I was out for hours.  So I’d come in, tip of my nose so cherry red.  My cheeks burning and my nose running from here to kingdom come. I’d still whine saying I wanted to stay out longer until…

…until I took a whiff. Through running nose and everything I could smell her hot cocoa. But I digress.  This post is about this recipe and not hot chocolate or runny noses.  LOL  My apologies but it’s nice to remember things like that.  It’s comforting and warm and for me, keeps the images of my Mom still so vivid in my mind.

So back to this creation. Pretty different, huh?  Rice Krisipies treats, Sea Salt Potato Chips and melted chocolate all in one dish.  I’m outta my mind I’m sure some of you are thinking about me.  But I’m telling you, often the oddest combinations are amazing.  I mean look at salted caramel.  I mean it revolutionized the candy and dessert industry.  Now I’m not saying this the next great big thing (though that would be friggen awesome) this is definitely something you must try at least once.  However I will warn you, it’s addictive.  Even the folks at my gym went nuts over this!  It seriously rocks all of your taste buds! Well okay not the spicy one BUT you can most certainly add in some cayenne to the mixture if you want!  Make it spicy baby *wink*

For me the toughest part out of all of this dish was to keep from dipping the salted potato chips into the melted chocolate. That’s just down right sinful to me!  Heck even Mr. Fantabulous loves that.  *side note* – dip salted crinkle potato chips into ganache, let it set and then in melted chocolate.  Let it cool and eat.  Seriously you are not going to want to like it but you’re gonna fall in love with it.  You won’t be able to help yourself. This is one of those things you’re gonna feel so guilty about eating but you’re not going to care.  THIS is a game changer in the bark world.  Anyone can make bark with nuts or cookie chunks in it but you, you have a secret weapon.

Potato Chip Rice Crispy Treat Triple Chocolate Bark

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

• 2 cups milk chocolate
• 1/2 cup white chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate
• 4 cups sea salt rippled potato chips, broken into pieces – it HAS to be rippled!
• 6 cups rice crispy cereal
• 3 tablespoon butter, unsalted
• 7 ounce marshmallow fluff (do not use regular marshmallows)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Line a 9×13” pan with parchment paper with a 1” overhang.
2. In a large bowl add the crispy cereal.
3. In a pan over medium low heat add the butter and fluff.
4. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
5. Remove from heat and add in the salt and vanilla.
6. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber tipped spatula.
7. Immediately pour the mixture into cereal and mix until combined. You want every piece coated but be gentle to not break up the cereal.
8. Dump the mixture into your pan and using sprayed wax paper press down on the cereal to form it into the pan and compress tightly.
9. Allow to cool completely (about 30 minutes).
10. Line a metal 9×13” pan or a jelly roll pan (this depends on how thick you want your bark – I like a jelly roll pan) with parchment paper ensuring that the sides extend up 1”.
11. In a large glass bowl over a simmer pan water (ensuring the bowl does not touch the water), add 1/2 of your chocolates. As the chocolate melts add more chocolate in increments until all the chocolate has been added and you have a smooth melted consistency.
12. Take half of your rice crispy treats (they will come up in clusters) and sprinkle them on the 9×13” pan.
13. Next take half of your potato chip pieces and sprinkle on top of that.
14. Carefully grab your glass bowl of chocolate (you may need a pot holder) slowly all but 1 cup of the chocolate over top.
15. Set the bowl down and gently pick up the bark pan tapping it against the counter a few times. This will help the chocolate settle down between the pieces.
16. Next add the remaining rice crispy treats (break them up into clusters as you sprinkle them) and the potato chips to the chocolate.
17. Use wax paper or the back of a spatula to gently push them down into the chocolate. You do not want to submerge it but you do want to ensure chocolate is touching each piece.
18. Take the remaining cup of chocolate and drizzle over top.
19. Allow to cool completely (to speed up the setting time, pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes though this can make the chocolate have a white hue). I let mine cool at room temp for a few hours. Trust me it’s worth it.
20. When completely cool, pick up by the parchment paper and set on a large cutting board.
21. Cut the bark into pieces and store in an air tight container.

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