Dulce de Leche Rice Crispy Treats

For a while I have been thinking about coming up with a good vegetarian alternative to rice crispy treats. Taking the marshmallows out is hard. They serve a necessary physical characteristic and bring some subtle flavor to the game of something beyond just sugar. Then it hit me Dulce-de-Leche is vegetarian and would bring a nice flavor to the party. After the first time, it became clear it needed a little something else so I embraced the Mexican direction it was headed in and added some cinnamon. Resulting in something really good. You can use any method for making Dulce-de-leche, but I like mixing all the ingredients together up front and went with the microwave method. I added extra sugar to the dulce-de-leche to balance the butter/oil from the rice crispy treats and to give it a little better of a texture when done.

Ingredients

• Dulche-de-leche Sauce
  • 1 (14oz) can or sweetened condensed milk
  • 0.5 - 1 c sugar
  • 2 T butter or oil
• Cereal
  • 6 c (1/2 a box) crisped rice cereal
  • 0.25 c shredded coconut (optional)
  • 0.5 t vanilla (optional)
  • 1 t cinnamon
• 1 T additional butter or oil to grease the baking dish or parchment paper

Directions

1. Grease or paper a baking dish or form. You can prewarm the baking dish so that you have more time to work before it sets up.

2. Pre-mix your dry cereal ingredients the cereal, shredded coconut, cinnamon and vanilla). The vanilla may cause the cereal to clump up just break it up. I sometimes just mix these in the cereal box if I am finishing it off or making a double batch.

3. In a bowl or vessel large enough to mix all the ingredients at least 8 cups, make the Dulce de Leche.

   1. Mix the sugar, oil and condensed milk.

   2. Microwave the mixture in short low power bursts to drive out the water and slowly caramelize the sauce. This will take about 20 minutes total in 30s to 3 minute bursts. Watch it carefully it will tend to boil over. Reducing to 50% or 30% power is recommended. Once all the water is driven out the mixture will rise less rapidly and be easier to manage, and then darken quickly. The table below gives a pretty good heating curve. Though 2nd time I made it I just did 100% power for 33 second intervals.

4. After the sauce has gotten a nice caramel color, Mix in the pre-mixed dry cereal ingredients until evenly covered.

5. Using greased hands or a waxed paper, shape the mixture into your pre-greased baking dish.

6. Let sit to cool, cover, slice and serve.

Dulce De Leche microwave schedule