brown butter cornflake crunch crispy treats

This was a test. This was only a test. If this had been an actual recipe worth saving, or more importantly, actually making in your kitchen, you’d be reading sentences singing its praises by now.

I couldn't resist; had to take a sample from the side!
I couldn’t resist; had to take a sample from the side!

Basically, this was an experiment exploring what happens to one recipe from Smitten Kitchen when you throw in an element from Momofuku’s Milk Bar.

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And the test judges (Ben and I) of this highly unscientific analysis of this recipe conclude that it needs less sugar and less salt. But otherwise, it’s not bad!

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If I were to make this again, I’d probably take away half the salt and sugar that’s in the recipe for cornflake crunch, and all of the salt in the “salted brown butter crispy treats” from Smitten Kitchen. I’ll keep the added butter though, because BUTTER. The recipe below doesn’t reflect these changes yet. Some people might like it this way. Sweet and salty recipes seem more in these days.

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I’ve experimented with using different cereals for the original rice krispies treats recipe before, but I must say, nothing has been better than the original.

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The original is truly a classic recipe, and adding other things to it, while interesting, doesn’t make it better. Just more interesting, at best, and a truly inferior product, at worst. The worst version I made of this was cheerio basil crispy treats. Somehow I thought basil might work. It did not. And I did not care for cheerios. No, there is not going to be a “cheerio basil crispy treats” post any time soon!

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To me, what I did today is somewhere in the middle. Interesting, but I’m not crazy about it. Adjusting the salt and sugar in it may not bump it up to the Amazing level. Still I might try it again. We’ll see.

Have a great weekend!

Brown Butter Cornflake Crunch Crispy Treats (based on Smitten Kitchen’s salted brown butter crispy treats)

ingredients

1 stick (4 ounce) unsalted butter

10 ounces marshmallows, either regular, jumbo, or mini

4 cups rice krispies, or similar crisp rice cereal

1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 cups cornflake crunch, recipe below

method

Make the recipe for cornflake crunch. Set aside.

Butter or baking spray a 13 X 9 X 2 inch pan. Set aside.

In a large sauce pan, make the brown butter. Add butter to pan and cook on medium heat, stirring once in a while, watching it to see when the milk solids start to brown, scraping the bottom as needed, with a rubber spatula. This could take several minutes, but don’t leave it unattended because it can go from nicely browned to burned very fast.

When you notice that the milk solids have separated and are brown, turn off heat and add the marshmallows. Let them soften sufficiently until the marshmallows are all soft and have lost their shape and are just one big slippery mass of melted marshmallows.

Add the cereals (the rice krispies with the cornflake crunch) and sprinkle the salt well, to the pan and remove the pan from stove top. Stir to combine, and almost soon after, press into your container with a rubber spatula or a a greased piece of wax or parchment paper. Let cool completely before cutting. Cut into squares or rectangles, the dimensions are up to you. I made them 2-inch squares.

cornflake crunch (half recipe from original recipe from Momofuku’s Milk Bar)

ingredients

3 ounces, or 2.5 cups Corn Flakes cereal

1/4 cup milk powder

1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 1/2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted

method

In a medium bowl, grab handfuls of the corn flakes and crush the flakes until the height of the cornflakes in the bowl is about half of what it used to be. Add the milk powder and the sugar and salt and toss to mix.

Melt the butter. Let cool slightly, then pour into the bowl with the cornflakes and toss to coat the flakes, which may form little clusters with the salt, milk powder, and sugar. That’s a good thing.

Spread on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely before using. This makes 2 cups, which is what I used.

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4 responses to “brown butter cornflake crunch crispy treats”

  1. Haha because BUTTER. Basil Cheerio crispies does sound ambitious, but I’ve tried merging Smitten Kitchen and Milk Bar recipes before too. I usually just end up choosing one or the other, because they seem to have different philosophies or something? Keep baking Dave!!

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    • LOL. Yeah, basil cheerio crispies sounded ambitious at the time, but it was not. The basil didn’t really taste good with the other ingredients, and the cheerio cereal is so different from the light rice cereal that it just didn’t reach the same level of good. I love both smitten kitchen and milk bar, but I agree it’s probably better not to merge the two. Thanks for the encouragement!

      Like

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