Pinned it and Made it: Mars bars Rice Krispies

This week's Pinned it and Made it is from a recipe I pinned a couple of months ago for Rice Krispie treats made with Mars bars instead of the standard butter and marshmallows.

Did you know that it's nearly impossible to find Mars bars in the US anymore? I guess I never realized that they had disappeared. I looked at every store I visited that sold candy, and the only place I could find them was in a 6-pack at Wal-Mart.

What I failed to remember is that the author of the recipe is Canadian, and the Mars bars in Canada are different from the Mars bars sold here in the US! I should have known this, because I know from personal, delicious experience that the Mars bars sold in the UK are different from those in the US--they're better!

Irish Mars bars available on Amazo

The Mars bars I bought at Wal-Mart look like this in the middle:

Nougat, chopped almonds, and a little bit of caramel. Canadian Mars bars basically look like this:

Nougat, no almonds, and more caramel. The key factor in all of this is the amount (or lack thereof) of caramel in the candy bar, because that is largely what holds the Rice Krispie treats together in the absence of marshmallow glue. Because my Mars bars had less caramel to begin with, I knew I'd have a problem. Luckily, I happened to have a bag of these:

on my counter for a future Pinned it and Made it post. I took out the 1 cup of caramels that the other recipe required, and then dumped the rest of the bag into my melted Mars bars mixture. It still looked a bit dry, so I threw in a half dozen Stackermallows and a smidge more butter.

Even after all of that, once I poured the hot mixture onto the Rice Krispies and mixed it, there was not enough 'glue' to hold all of the cereal together. I grabbed my still-warm pot and melted about a dozen more StackerMallows and another tablespoon of butter and poured that into the cereal. That did the trick! I topped the treats with the melted milk chocolate chips as the original recipe suggested and put them in the fridge to set the chocolate.

They really were delicious! I took them to a gathering and they were a hit. One person commented that they taste like a candy bar, and I agree--they definitely reminded me of a 100 Grand Bar (one of my favorites!) because of the caramel, milk chocolate and Rice Krispies.

If I made these again, I'd forget the Mars Bars and use Milky Way bars instead, and I think I'd use 7-8 to make sure I have enough to glue the cereal together. These might be a fun treat to make if you're trying to use up leftover Halloween candy--you could throw in Milky Ways, Snickers and maybe even a 3 Musketeers or two!