Chocolate-covered Strawberry Rice Krispy Treats

I like to bake for my students - and I don't want to make anyone sick. So at the beginning of each semester, I ask about food allergies. This spring, I had TWO students with celiac disease AND one severe nut allergy. In my quest for a gluten-free treat that would be Valentine's Day festive, I came up with the idea of chocolate-covered strawberry Rice Krispie treats. 

First problem: REAL Rice Krispies, the ones from Kellogg's are NOT gluten-free! They contain a barley syrup, which is why they taste different from the copycats. Thankfully, most of those copycats are indeed GF, including the giant bags you can get for pennies on the dollar. 

Second problem: Every recipe I looked at uses cake mix to flavor the marshmallow base for the treats. Makes sense and I've done it myself to make a birthday-cake flavored version. But that wouldn't work for my GF students. 

Then it hit me: freeze-dried strawberries! I'd added ground, freeze-dried blueberries to a cheesecake crust a few years before, so why not use strawberries in this? It was the perfect answer. The berries added a nice pop of color without any dyes, and the dried fruit gave a bright, authentic flavor that wasn't too sweet since I added no extra sugar. 

I added mini chocolate chips once they cooled a little bit. The "cool enough to add the chocolate but warm enough to spread" balance is tricky. A friend suggested freezing the chocolate chips, and that helped. 

I've made these a few times now, and they are a HUGE hit every time, especially once people get over their skepticism about using freeze-dried fruit. 

I haven't done it yet, but I think freeze-dried blueberries with some lemon zest could be a good use of this method... or maybe a mix of freeze-dried pineapple and some shredded coconut for a pina colada version. Enjoy! 

For a 9 x 13 pan: 

• 6 cups crisped rice cereal 
• 1 standard bag mini or regular marshmallows
• 1/4 cup butter
• Good splash vanilla (we don't measure) 
• 1.2 ounce bag freeze-dried strawberries (easily available at Walmart, Aldi or Trader Joe's) 
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips, frozen 
• 3-4 squares baking chocolate - white, dark or some of each 
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil 

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-low heat. Add the marshmallows and vanilla. Stir well to coat in the melted butter. 

While the marshmallows melt, grind the strawberries into powder in a food processor or chopper. I use the mini-chopper that came with my Kitchen-Aid immersion blender. (I don't think mine is even available anymore, but the link is close!) 

As you can see, not everything ground completely to powder - that's fine. It's all going to get melted anyway. 

Once the marshmallows, better and vanilla are smooth, add the strawberries to the melted mixture. Don't add it all at once. Leave some out so you can adjust if you want more strawberry flavor. It won't all incorporate smoothly right away. You can see from these photos how it looks at first and then after a few minutes of melting and steeping. 

Once your strawberries are fully incorporated, taste and add more if you want to! Then mix in your crisped rice cereal, a cup or two at a time. Once it's completely coated in marshmallows, let cool a few minutes. Add your chocolate chips carefully and, using hands sprayed with cooking spray, quickly pat evenly into a 9 x 13 pan. Line the pan with foil or parchment for easier removal and clean up later, if you want. 

Once they've cooled, melt your optional baking chocolate with coconut oil and drizzle over the top. I used both white and dark for the first batch of these, then dark only for later ones because I got lazy. Either way, they work!