Krusteaz Choco Caramel Squares

These sweet-tooth munchies have a fudge-brownie cooky base, topped with non-nut nougat and chopped nuts. Nougat etymology includes nuts; the sweet confection on the cooky is not nutty—only the final topper. For expediency in this article, "nougat" refers to that middle layer, a combination of melted chocolate chips and squeeze-packet caramel.

About a year ago, I bought a box of Krusteaz Molten Deep Dish Chocolate Cookie with Caramel Center. I periodically would read the instructions, wondering if I really wanted to use up all the ingredients for 12 cookies that had "molten" centers. The yield seems pretty paltry, especially considering extra hassle beyond other munchies I make.

I looked at suggested recipe alternatives on the box. I wasn't warm to requirements for additional ingredients.

• Seattle Bars: graham cracker crumbs, pudding (prepared!), toasted coconut, and nuts
• Creamy Salted Caramel Centros: whipping cream—all of 2 tablespoons!

So, I took inspiration from the Seattle Bars and tried something else, skipping all the additional ingredients except for nuts, and adding melted chocolate chips. Was the process less hassle? No. But the results won rave reviews, and gave me ideas for a future similar but different munchie.

This recipe differs somewhat from other recipes I've posted because I needed to improvise as I went along. I've added several parenthetical thoughts during the process. My pixstrip shows the following image areas:

1. Ingredients and utensils (Pics do not include additional implements I needed to use later.)
1. Utensils and ingredients. The dashed line indicates the mix kit is part of two preparation stages. (The left side shows the dough ingredients, the right side shows the topping ingredients.)
2. Oblong pan and spray oil
2. Doh!
1. Bowl of the cooky dough—mixed eggs, soft butter, and Krusteaz powder
2. Pan with the raw, pressed cooky dough, spread out to edges
3. Pan with the baked cooky slab (Note: During the baking, I needed to press some of the dough down to flatten for height consistency.)
3. Squares!
1. Cooky squares in larger, wax paper-lined pan (Note: First, I flipped the cooky slab onto a cooling rack, cut it into 24 squares, then placed the squares right side up onto the larger, wax-lined pan.)
2. Cooky squares, topped with with choco-caramel and nuts.
3. Finished squares in cupcake liners and tote tin

Implements

• 9" x 13" pan
• Pastry blender
• Mixing bowl for blending to-be-baked ingredients together
• Mixing bowl for melting chocolate chips, then blending in the envelope of Krusteaz caramel "sauce"
• Spoon(s) for later distributing the choco-caramel topping onto the baked cooky squares
• Additional helpful items during process
  • latex or vinyl glove(s) for spreading out the cooky dough, then later for pressing down inconsistent-height dough during baking
  • Cooling rack
  • Wax paper
  • Additional pan or cooky sheet
  • Plastic knife for separating the baked cooky slab from the pan
  • Knife fur cutting squares
  • Plate for nuts
  • Cupcake papers

Ingredients

• For the cooky slab
• 1 egg
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• The bag of the Krusteaz mix powder
• For the topping
• 4 oz chocolate chips
• The 4-oz package of the Krusteaz caramel topping
• 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (Suggestion: Place on a plate or other flat area.)

Instructions (for the cooky slab)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the oil and egg.
3. Stir the Krusteaz powder into the wet ingredients.
4. Spray the oil generously onto the pan. (Spray REALLY generously at the edges and corners!)
5. Distribute the cooky dough evenly onto the pan. (Gloves help for less-mess pressing.)
6. Bake for about 13 minutes, and check progress. (The dough rose unevenly, so I pressed the high part to flatten it even with the rest of the slab.)
7. Finish baking for about another 3 minutes, verifying doneness with toothpick or lightly pressing the cooky slab for springiness.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and let it rest for a couple of minutes or so.
9. Use a plastic knife to carefully separate the cooky slab edges and corners from the pan, then flip the pan upside down onto a cooling rack.
10. Cut the cooky slab into 24 squares, placing them right side up. (I initially subdivided the slab into 4 quarters, placed them right side up onto a larger, wax-lined pan, and finished cutting them into squares.)

Instructions (for the topping and completion)

1. Melt the chocolate chips.
2. Snip the envelope of caramel and squeeze it into the bowl.
3. Alternately stir and heat the chocolate and caramel together.
4. Use spoons or similar implements to distribute the nougatty mixture onto the cooky squares. (Using two spoons, I made use of the thick mixture's inertia for transports and gravity for the drops.)
5. For each square, turn it upside down and lightly flatten it onto the plate of nuts, then place it right side up elsewhere. (The nougat acts as a glue.)

The batch made 24 squares, ~142 calories (gasp!) each. The box recipe itself would have made 12 molten-filling cookies at 220 calories each. Adding nuts and chocolate chips increased calories, but dividing the batch into 24 portions reduced the per-unit calories.

Post-recipe thoughts
If making similar squares and using cake mix, for the "molten" caramel, I'd try a spoonable caramel ice cream topping like they use for sundaes. "Smucker's" prominently comes up in Google for ice cream toppings, even without using Smucker's for a search term. These Smucker images are making my mouth water!

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc

The classic Rice Krispies cereal treat has been around for decades. Over time, I’ve noticed these cereal yummies have undergone two noticeable changes:

• Microwave directions for melting butter and marshmallows, replacing the kettle method
• Proliferation of pre-made packages

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc is my frequent deviation from the classic cereal treat, which I most recently prepared for a picnic. Received several raves, so I said I’d send out the recipe. Wellll, in the midst of writing it up, it started shaping up to be another blog article recipe. This recipe uses (in order) butter, caramel vanilla marshmallows and chocolate rice cereal for the cereal blocks. The ganachy icing has peanut butter meltable candies and chocolate frosting. For more details and ideas about the icing, read A Convenient Ganachey Icing.

The classic Rice Krispie blocks recipe uses 10 ounces of marshmallows, which throws a monkey wrench into cereal bar recipes if using Kraft novelty flavor marshmallows. (Curses! Kraft used to put out the novelty flavors in 10-ounce packages, but they’ve gotten greedy and now put them out as 8-ouncers!)

For convenience of those who want to make the classic blocks, I’ve pasted the very simple cooks.com recipe (printer-friendly). Deviation info follows.

CRISPY TREATS (MICROWAVE)
Printed from COOKS.COM
________________________________________
1/4 c. butter
4 c. miniature marshmallows
6 c. Rice Krispies cereal

Substitute 40 large marshmallows.

Butter microwave bowl big enough to hold all ingredients; microwave marshmallows 2 minutes then stir. Microwave again 1 minute. Stir in and mix well the Rice Krispies. Butter hands and put this mixture in a cake pan, flatten, cool and cut into squares.

My deviations from the cooks.com recipe:

• Primary ingredients:
• 3 tablespoons butter instead of ¼ cup (4 tablespoons)
• 10 oz. bag of Kraft caramel/vanilla marshmallows
• 8 cups Cocoa Pebbles. Key concept is chocolate rice cereal.
• Pan: I lined the pan with wax paper that overlapped two opposite sides. I used spray oil on hands instead of butter.
• Icing: I microwave-melted 4 ounces of Wilton Peanut Butter meltable candies (available at craft stores), stirred in 4 ounces of spreadable frosting, and microwaved some more, but using lower power. I poured the warm icing over the cereal mixture and squeegeed (using old but clean tool) it into the crevices.
• Yield: The cooks.com recipe says to cut the batch into 24 pieces. I cut my batch into 48, although some came out a bit smaller than others. Your sizes might vary also, depending on how well you wield your knife. :-)

A Convenient Fudge

This fudge recipe requires only three ingredients and spray oil. You can add nuts, peanuts, coconut, or anything else that comes to mind. The main flavor is chocolate. You can change one or more of the ingredients to different flavor(s) for variations.
Ingredients, in the order of processing and adding

• 12 oz. chocolate chips or other meltable candy
• 16 oz. frosting
• 15 large marshmallows (or 1 1/2 cups minis)
• 1/2 cup or more nuts
• spray oil for the pan

My recent ingredients that I have used most recently are peanut butter disks, chocolate frosting, caramel-flavor marshmallows, and chopped peanuts.
Utensils

• 1 large mixing bowl
• 1 cooking spoon
• 1 or more knives for chopping nuts (I use Salad Shooter), cutting the finished fudge
• 1 8" x 8" pan, prepared with spray oil

Instructions

1. Melt chips or other meltable candy in the large mixing bowl in the microwave oven, using reduced power. Check about a minute or so for about two rounds of heating.
2. Add frosting to the bowl. Microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
3. Add marshmallows to the bowl. Microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
4. Add nuts to the bowl. Blend the ingredients with the spoon.
5. Pour ingredients into the spray-oil prepared pan.
6. Refrigerate for no more than two hours. (If longer, the fudge could be difficult to cut.)
7. Cut into 64 pieces (8 x 8) or fewer. (FYI, the paper cups are available at craft stores and baking supply outlets.)

Note: Instead of waiting 2 hours and cutting the fudge block with a knife, you can wait 1 1/2 hours for cooling, then use a cooky spatula edge, pressing down. If edges of middle fudge pieces look a little warped, lightly shape them.

For other recipes, mostly that I tag as convenient, download my blog catalog file and look for the yellow-highlighted rows.