Get to Know the Muffin Man

I've mentioned a time or two that the boy has shown an interest in cooking with his 'ol mum, and I've posted about some culinary misadventures he and I have shared. I think I've also shared with you, Gentle Reader, that he once said he wanted to be a "cookman" when he grows up. ("So long as you also grow up to draw really good Batman comics for Mommy and Daddy like Jim Lee, dear, you can do whatever you want.")

I've been trying to channel this interest to keep him awake and entertained after school because, well, the boy comes home wiped out and famished. So instead of handing him a banana or apple to munch on while we walk home, I've been making him snacks with more protein and trying to involve him in their making.

Granted, blueberry muffins aren't exactly high-protein snacks, but you get a dozen of 'em from the mix, and the boy likes 'em. Plus he got to help me stir the batter and fold in the blueberries, which he did after he put paper liners in each of the muffin cups. Here is my little cookman in action:

Every Girl's Crazy 'bout a Sharp Dressed Muffin Man
In honor of his interest in what Mommy does in the kitchen, I decided to make him an apron to go along with the toque he's commandeered from me. And I decided to make one for the husband as well because I found a nifty giant dragaon iron-on dirt cheap at Michael's when I was buying the aprons. (I still have a third apron waiting for me to get my Martha Stewart on again. Perhaps inspiration will strike again. Maybe.)

Check out the boy modeling his new threads. As I've said before, he's got all the right expressions to be a professional model.

The Faudie Does Rice Krispie Treats
The boy is not the only male resident of Chez Boeckman-Walker who aspires to kitchen competency. His flirtation with pizza-making aside, the husband is fairly experiences dans la cuisine in some areas. Baked desserts is not one of those areas. For that reason, back in August I let him buy Chocolate and Vanilla by Gale Gand, a nifty albeit a bit gimmicky cookbook flips: One half contains chocolate-based recipes, and the other half--you guessed it, Gentle Reader--contains vanilla-based recipes. For half-price at The Surly Table, we could afford to fall for the gimmick.

One of the recipes that caught his eye--and his stomach-- as he browsed through the book is a spin on the "classic" Rice Krispies treat: It uses Cocoa Krispies instead of Whitey McWhitey sugar delivery devices (aka, Rice Krispies), and there's not a marshmallow or jar of marshmallow creme in sight. Okay, sure, it's got light corn syrup, which is probably one of the worst things you can put in a recipe, but what's a faudie to do?

(By the way, as of 2007, Korea still enjoyed Coco the Monkey on its Cocoa Krispies, which has a long and sordid history.)

Peanut Butter Cocoa Crisp Treats4 C cocoa-flavored crisped rice cereal*
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C light corn syrup
1/2 C creamy or crunchy peanut butter
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. Put the cereal in a bowl, then prep a 9" x 13" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Alternately, prep two or three mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup. Bring it to a boil over high heat for 1 min. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter.
   
3. Immediately pour the syrup over the cereal, stirring quickly to coat the cereal completely.
   
4. While the cereal is still warm, press it into the pan(s), then let it cool at least 15 min.
   
5. Drizzle the cooled treats with the melted chocolate. If using the mini muffin pans, remove the rounded treats before drizzling with chocolate.

*That's the way the lawyers have the author get around trademark stuff and having to pay royalties or a first-born child to Kellogg's.
Yield: 3 dozen

Nutritional Info
Gand does not include nutritional info in her book. That would spoil all the fun!

The Faudie's Futzings
Unfortunately, we don't have any Cocoa Krispies in our house, and I wasn't going to buy any just to try out this recipe. (Not even the HEB or Quaker bagged send-off kind. Yes, Gentle Reader, I'm that damn dead set against awful cereals being in my pantry.) But for some reason--and I'm not sure what it was--we wound up with HEB-brand Rice Krispies taking up space in our pantry. This recipe, if anything, would be a great way to get rid of them, right?

But how to address the heart of the recipe: the chocolate. Well, if you look at the product's name, you've got a solution, don't ya, Gentle Reader! Just add cocoa powder. But how much to add? A teaspoon? Two teaspoons? A tablespoon? A fourth of a cup?

After deciding to start by adding just a teaspoon of cocoa (a little goes a long way, I seemed to recall), when to add the cocoa powder was my next dilemma. Since the cereal awaits its bath of sugar sweetness in a bowl, I couldn't exactly sprinkle the cocoa on top and expect it to stick. So I figured adding the cocoa into the syrup would work best. But did I do it before bringing the combined brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil, or did I wait and add it when I added the PB?

I won't keep you in suspense, Gentle Reader. I added it (a heaping teaspoon total) along with the PB. The syrup wasn't terribly syrupy to begin with because I used Splenda brown sugar blend, so I had to put it back on the heat after stirring in the cocoa and peanut butter so that I might have a chance in hell at getting it to actually coat the Rice Krispies. The stuff wound up smelling a lot like No Bake Cookies (that's not the recipe the husband and I used when we made these sinful confections, but it's just a reference in case you're unfamiliar), and the husband and I eventually got the cereal coated and pressed into the pan for chilling.

We also faced another chocolate dilemma: I had no semi-sweet chocolate suitable for melting. But I did have some fat-free chocolate syrup in the refrigerator. Voila! Problem solved!


That improvised syrup, by the way, tastes a lot like the goo inside a Snickers. Delish!