Choc Caramel Snap Crackle KaPower Bars

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Remember rice krispie treats at kid’s parties? When I say kid’s parties I mean other kids, not our parties. My mum being the uber health urban hippy that she was there was none of that sugar and e-number filled shit on our birthday platters. Although I have to admit to a bit of childhood angst about this harsh deprivation, we were the only kids who had the most epic, kick-arse ice cream snowman birthday cakes that I know Mum put hours into making entirely from scratch so we totally won there.

I actually don’t know exactly what goes into a rice krispie treat but I suspect it’s more of a crap filled trap and probably not something I'd really want my kids eating much of either. But I do remember how good they were so I’ve come up with this cleaned up, grown up version that has all of the snap crackle fun and none of the sugar crap fizzle.It uses a mixture of puffed quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth in place of rice bubbles. I had a load of these on hand from making my Pseudo-Grain Superfood Granola. If you have a look at the recipe you can also read a bit about why these grains-that-aren’t are so damn good for you, and because none of them are actual grains it’s totally gluten free. The sweetener is rice malt syrup, which is a fantastic option particularly if you’re trying to get off that nasty white poison, aka table sugar. It provides the sticky sweetness required without all the fructose to shit all over your blood sugar balance and mess with your hormones.

Get this stuff

This is made in two layers, one chocolate and one caramel so you need two bowls of the following:

¼ C puffed buckwheat

¼ C puffed amanranth

¼ C puffed quinoa

¼ C shredded coconut

2 T buckwheat groats – these are not totally essential if you find them hard to source but they do add a great extra crunch factor

Chocolate layer

2 T heaped cacao nibs

3 T cacao powder

3 T coconut oil

3 T rice malt syrup

Pinch of salt

Caramel layer

2 T rice malt syrup

2 T coconut oil1 T maca – again not totally essential if you can’t get it but adds great caramel depth of flavour and superfoodie benefits

2 T tahini – I prefer hulled for this recipe as it has a milder flavour than unhulled but feel free to go with your preference

¼ t pink salt

Chocolate drizzle topping

1 T cacao powder

1 T coconut oil

1 T rice malt syrup

Do this with it

Grease and line a 20cm tin with baking paper so you can lift the slice out once its set. Don’t think you can just wing it without the paper. This stuff will stick like shit to a blanket and I don’t want to hear sob stories of your delicious sticky slice sticking to the tin, that would just be a sad, sad waste.

Mix up the two bowls of dry ingredients and set one aside.

You’re going to start with the chocolate layer so throw the cacao nibs in and give them a good toss around. Now put the rest of the chocolate sauce ingredients in a bowl or pot and heat it gently in the microwave or on the stove until it all melts. Give it a really good mix to make a smooth, glossy bowl of chocolate bliss and then pour it over the dry ingredients and stir yourself stupid. You want to make sure all the puffed bit and bobs are all well coated so don’t be half arsed about it.

Next pour it into the prepared tin and press it down really firmly, don’t be afraid to get a little bit aggressive here, it needs to be packed tight to set and hold together well.

Easy huh? So now for the caramel layer you’re going to do pretty much the same thing again.

Melt the sauce ingredients, stir well and then douse the bubbly bits with that sweet creamy caramel. Pour it onto the chocolate layer in the tin, spread it out evenly and pack it in.

And to finish, because it wouldn’t be complete without just a touch more chocolate, melt the chocolate topping ingredients together and drizzle it lovingly over the top. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just get a bit of freehand action going – I find a glass of wine or three helps limber up my hand (and eye) for this bit. If you’re feeling super indulgent you can double the topping ingredients and go for a total chocolate layer on top. Fuck it, why not?

Shove it in the fridge and try not to poke at it every five minutes while it sets. It should take a couple of hours to firm up nicely but if you’re in some sort of sweet crisis you could whack it in the freezer to speed up the process, just don’t leave it too long or you’ll never be able to carve the bastard up.

Once it’s set, remove it from the tin and slice into chunks of a size that will please your mouth. Yep, that’s it; it’s that easy, child’s play really. Now go and have yourself a little grown up party with a chunk of this sticky finger-licky good stuff.