Red Eye Rice Treats
Posted by Celine on January 24, 2008
I will be taking a long, long trip next week, so I know I’ll need all the caffeine I can get. besides, the first word the husband ever uttered as a baby was “coffee” *, so these treats won’t know what hit them, they’ll be devoured so quickly.
[they're called Red Eye, but they don't contain that much caffeine, really. it's the 12'000 cups of joe that will help me get through the traveling day. the coffee in these is there to give the treats a mocha-like flavor, not to help you run a marathon and stay awake for the next 3 weeks, I'm afraid.]
as much as I’d like to pretend I’m still rather young, my wrists tend to prove me wrong. they regularly make baking a big pain in the you-know-what when it comes to kneading bread dough, or stirring stiff batter like when making rice treats.
that’s where the good old stand mixer comes in: I always assumed that using it for that purpose would mean puffed rice = rice flour, but I was wrong.
so there you go, fellow sensitives-of-the-wrist, use your stand mixer and be proud.
* not really, no…
for 12 or more treats, depending on how greedy you are.
6 cups puffed brown rice [any puffed rice will do, really]
1 cup peanut butter [I scored a few jars of White Chocolate Peanut Butter & Co for cheap, so I used up the rest of mine: creamy might be your best bet, no matter what]
1 cup brown sugar corn syrup [or brown rice syrup, organic light corn syrup...if you want maple syrup, I'd recommend going the half/half way by mixing it up with granulated sugar or rather fine other sugar]
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
2-3 t instant coffee crystals, crushed into a fine powder with the back of a spoon [up this a bit if you want a stronger coffee flavor, don't go overboard in order to avoid overwhelming the other flavors]
1/3 cup carob powder [if you're a hater, I'm sure cocoa powder would be a fine substitution here]
place peanut butter, syrup, extract, carob, and coffee powder into your stand mixer bowl. mix well until perfectly combined.
add rice and mix well until all the rice is coated with the sticky mixture. you might feel the batter looks like it’s trying to escape, but the stuff is so sticky it won’t fall out of the bowl.
place into a parchment-lined 9 inch square pan. press down with all your might, using more parchment paper to flatten your treats. you can even use a strong box [I used a wooden box of tea] to be sure your treats are equally flattened all over.
let cool in the fridge for about an hour, cut in however many pieces you want. enjoy!
the cup is from the KOL game.
January 24, 2008 at 7:19 pm
oh goodness, those look perfect in every way. you’ve got the peanut butter, brown rice, carob, and lots of CAFFEINE! if these don’t get you through your trip, nothing will. :)
January 24, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Bless you! I usually balk at making these because it hurts so much to stir. They sound yummy.
January 24, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Love the coffee pixie mug! I have mine at work where it holds up my FSM made of rubber bands!
Excellent rice crisp treats and thank you so much for testing the stand mixer usage! I always want to use it but now I know I can. Yay!
January 24, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Awesome! I can totally see myself getting addicted to these.
Hope you have a good trip!
January 24, 2008 at 9:25 pm
wow, I love rice treats and theses look delicious AND healthy (well, at least not totally unhealthy :-))
January 24, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Celine, these will be PERFECT for your long trip!! speaking of long trips, when are you coming out to Ohio?!?!?! ;0)
January 24, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Ironically I have recently had a desire for Rice Krispy Treats, which is odd because I haven’t had one in well over 15 years. I wanted to make them using Mother’s brand Peanut Butter Bumpers and was planning on using the vegan marshmallow cream my health food store sells. I’ll definitely give your recipe a try and quench my craving!
January 24, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Oooh, I want some of these! yum yum.
January 24, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Thank you for this recipe! I have never been successful in any kind of puffed grain recipe I must try these.
January 25, 2008 at 12:21 am
A trip? Bon voyage, Celine! (Drive/fly/sail? safely!)
These look like a wonderful treat, can’t wait to give them a try!
January 25, 2008 at 1:02 am
Excellent!! Where are you going? Did I miss that part? Europe perhaps?
January 25, 2008 at 3:22 am
These look deliciously addictive. I’ve had a similar square w/o the coffee or carob–I think those would be excellent additions (or, in my case, coffee substitute). Always nice to find a sweet way to eat grains–and these are even gluten-free!
January 25, 2008 at 3:54 am
yummy, i think need some of that.
January 25, 2008 at 8:11 am
thank you everyone! I’ll be driven/trained/flown/piggy-backed on my way to Europe. ok, not piggy-backed, but that would be fun.
these treats are delicious [I just had one] but I’ll up the puffed rice a bit next time so that they are crispier. they’re more like your typical sticky, this side of gooey type of marshmallow rice treats and while I like it, I prefer crisp. blahblahblah, I’m unstoppable.
January 25, 2008 at 11:58 am
and thank goodness you are unstoppable, these look like pure krispie-coffee-deliciousness-alchemy. I wanna make some!
January 26, 2008 at 3:25 am
Looks delicious, I also wanted to complement you on your stunning KOL coffee pixie mug
January 26, 2008 at 6:47 am
[...] Coffee lovers, take note: Celine from Have Cake, Will Travel shares her delicious-sounding recipe for Red Eye Rice Treats, a no-bake sweet made with coffee, peanut butter, and brown rice puffed cereal. It’s vegan and will keep you perky as can be! Link. [...]
January 26, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Unhealthy but useful!
The first recipe I’ve seen on the web that I am really going to try.
Suggestion: sometimes here in Toronto we can get Mexican instant coffee, which tastes markedly different from American. even the major brands (I think Mexican Nescafe is one). it ought to work particularly well tastewise in this.
January 26, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Just add water and this is everything a long distance cyclist craves. thank you!
January 26, 2008 at 7:05 pm
[...] Red Eye Rice Treats are vegan, caffeinated road food. This has to be good for cyclists on a long haul day. The recipe is also easy to modify. Here’s my version: [...]
January 26, 2008 at 7:25 pm
[...] Link [...]
January 26, 2008 at 10:10 pm
This was posted on boingboing.net!!
January 26, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Oh girl, you ARE unstoppable! These look amazing. Perfect for a trip… I assume you’re going to visit the fam in la Suisse? Wherever you’re going, have a great time and take lots of pictures!
January 27, 2008 at 4:35 am
I made these and they were excellent. In seattle we don’t have instant coffee, so I substituted 2Tbls ground espresso, 1/2 C rice syrup + 1/2 C maple syrup.
January 28, 2008 at 12:36 pm
yes, TB, a little trip back to the mothership! thank you for the wishes, I’ll be sure to take pictures. :D
January 31, 2008 at 3:36 pm
These were hard to stop eating!! I too used ground espresso, which evidently worked just fine. I may be making more of these today!!
February 13, 2008 at 3:12 pm
[...] way, I’d like to direct your attention to a recipe for a delicious looking energy bar. Red Eye Rice Treats by Celine get their name and, I presume, character from the 1 teaspoon of crushed instant coffee [...]
February 29, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] Chocolate Cookies Red Eye Treats Kristi’s Gingersnaps White Chocolate Lime Cookies Savory Toasted Walnut Rosemary Salt Cookies [...]
March 3, 2008 at 8:01 am
[...] certainly enjoy having these in my bag over other mass market goodies they have in the airports. Get the recipe at havecakewilltravel’s blog and enjoy better treats on the go. Tags: bars, cereal, cocoa [...]
June 28, 2008 at 1:24 am
I haven’t made these yet but they sound great. I was just surprised to see you don’t cook anything. Are you sure you didn’t leave the cooking of something out. Please let me know before I make mine.
Thanks,
Rollin
June 28, 2008 at 6:07 am
ha, Rollin: yeah I’m sure.