Two-Tone Crispy Blocks
Marshmallow and cereal pressed into slabs at home, wrapped and carried. Dessert with no stove.
- calories
- 260
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 118
- protein
- 2 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Snack
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Butter | 1/2 cup | used at home only, none carried |
|---|---|---|
| Miniature marshmallows | 8 cups | |
| Crisp rice cereal | 10 cups | |
| Candy eyes | 1 package | optional, they crack off in a pack |
| Neon green food coloring | several drops | |
| Neon blue food coloring | several drops |
Method
- At home, melt 1/4 cup butter in a large pot over low heat. Add 4 cups marshmallows and stir until smooth, then keep stirring two more minutes.
- Off the heat, stir in the green coloring, then 5 cups of cereal. Coat every grain.
- Press the green layer flat and firm into a buttered 9x13 pan. Use waxed paper or a buttered spatula or it will glue itself to your hand.
- Repeat the whole thing with the remaining butter, marshmallows, coloring, and cereal, this time blue. Press it down hard on top of the green.
- Push in the candy eyes while the top is still tacky. Cool completely, then cut into 12 bars.
- Wrap each bar in waxed paper and squeeze the air out of the bag. Eat at camp, cold, no water and no pot.
This started as a kids’ party dessert made in a 9x13 pan, which is not a trail recipe. The adaptation is that all the cooking happens in your kitchen and the trail only sees a wrapped bar. Marshmallow and cereal are already shelf-stable, the butter is bound up in the sugar, and nothing here needs a cooler.
Press harder than feels reasonable. A loosely packed bar shatters into cereal dust by the second day, and dust at the bottom of a food bag is not dessert. The two colors are cosmetic. The candy eyes fall off eventually and that is fine.
Packing
Wrap bars individually in waxed paper, then one hard-sided container or the top of a food bag. Loose in a pack they compress into one brick, which still eats fine but does not look like anything.
Variations
- Skip the food coloring entirely. It does nothing structural.
- Swap half the cereal for crushed pretzels and add salt for something less sweet.
- Stir 1/4 cup powdered milk into the marshmallow before the cereal for a little more staying power.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/monsters-university-viewing-party-and-a-tasty-monster-treat