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Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

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Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats – Somewhere between a homemade star crunch and scotcheroos, these tasty treats are absolutely delicious. Gluten free, vegan, and made from more natural sweeteners!

Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats - These taste kind of like star crunch bars, but are made with natural sweeteners! Vegan and gluten free!
We’ve been making different versions of these bars since we went gluten and dairy free four years ago. At the same time we changed our diet, Sophie’s developmental pediatrician recommended we cut WAY down on processed sugars. While we ate a pretty healthy diet before, we definitely used processed sugars in our treats (I’m looking at you delicious Christmas Chex Mix).

While we still absolutely make exceptions for things like holidays, traditions, and birthdays, we have found that we can re-make a lot of our favorite treats using different sweeteners than we used to.

Four years ago when we changed our diet, it was kind of a brand new world. Gluten free eating wasn’t the trend that it is today, and there weren’t a ton of available or affordable options, which meant we had to get pretty creative. When I got a wicked craving for my mom’s scotcheroos (she always called them O’Henry bars), we took to the internet to see what we could do in place of the corn syrup and sugar that they called for.

These lovelies were born from that first experiment and have evolved over the years to where they are today–crispy, gooey, chocolatey, perfectly (but not tooth-achingly) sweet, and absolutely delicious.

These Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats are SO GOOD! Made using pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup! (Gluten free, vegan)
The answer to our question came from The Bojon Gourmet. She’s become one of my favorite food blogs to follow–her photography is jaw-dropping, her recipes impeccable. I swear by her book, and have loved everything I’ve tried from her.

She made these Hippie Crispies several years ago and used a combination of maple syrup and brown rice syrup in place of corn syrup and sugar. It’s like magic! We pair ours with a little chocolate and salt and they’re absolutely fantastic. I love that they’re the perfect combination of gooey and crispy. The tiny bit of salt on top is the perfect complement to the sweetness of the chocolate. Basically, they’re all my dreams come true.

Best of all, they’re no-bake, which means my oven won’t heat up my kitchen in the middle of a sweaty hot summer, and they’re done in no time.

These Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats are like my childhood favorite made over! Gluten free and vegan!These Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats are SO GOOD! Made using pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup! (Gluten free, vegan)
 

NOTES ON THE RECIPE:

What’s brown rice syrup? It was a new-to-me ingredient when I first discovered it, so if you haven’t tried it before, it’s made purely from boiling down brown rice and water until you get this sweet, concentrated liquid that’s thicker than honey and works really well as a binder. It’s lower on the glycemic index than other sweeteners (which means it isn’t as big of a shock to your bloodstream).  I love using it for things like my perfect soft and chewy granola bars. I buy it at Sprouts, Thrive, or Amazon.

How do I Store These? They’ll keep for 2-3 days on the countertop and 3-4 in the refrigerator. The big issues is that they do dry out over time, so you want to store them with as little air as possible. Put them in a small airtight container, or use a zip-top bag and press out as much air as you can.

Change Them Up! I love these with a tiny dash of almond extract, but they’re also dynamite with coconut extract (which gives them an Almond Joy taste). You can skip those and just stick with the vanilla if you prefer. Or, you can swap out the almond butter for your favorite–peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, mixed nut butter, etc. I’ve good results with all the different nut/seed butters I’ve tried.

Gluten Free Notes. Crisp rice cereal isn’t all gluten free (many use malt syrup which is made from barley and contains gluten). Be sure you’re buying a certified gluten free cereal if you’re gluten free. I like Barbara’s or Erewhon. I can get both from Sprouts, or for a good price on Thrive or Amazon.

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Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats - These taste kind of like star crunch bars, but are made with natural sweeteners! Vegan and gluten free!

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Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats


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5 from 1 review

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups crisp rice cereal (gluten free, if needed) – Do NOT sub puffed rice.
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
  • additional coarse sea salt (like Maldon), to top.

Instructions

  1. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper.
  2. Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside.
  3. In a medium saucepan, heat maple syrup and brown rice syrup over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring regularly. Boil 1 minute, then remove from heat.
  4. Stir in almond butter, chocolate chips, and coconut oil. Stir until smooth.
  5. Stir in salt, vanilla, and almond extract. Stir until smooth.
  6. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir to coat well.
  7. Pour into prepared baking dish and pat down with a spatula as much as you can.
  8. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

Notes

How do I Store These? They’ll keep for 2-3 days on the countertop and 3-4 in the refrigerator. The big issues is that they do dry out over time, so you want to store them with as little air as possible. Put them in a small airtight container, or use a zip-top bag and press out as much air as you can.

Change Them Up! I love these with a tiny dash of almond extract, but they’re also dynamite with coconut extract (which gives them an Almond Joy or Mounds bar taste). You can skip those and just stick with the vanilla if you prefer. Or, you can swap out the almond butter for your favorite–peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, mixed nut butter, etc. I’ve good results with all the different nut/seed butters I’ve tried.

Gluten Free Notes. Crisp rice cereal isn’t all gluten free (many use malt syrup which is made from barley and contains gluten). Be sure you’re buying a certified gluten free cereal. I like Barbara’s or Erewhon. I can get both from Sprouts, or for a good price on Thrive or Amazon.

Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats - These taste kind of like star crunch bars, but are made with natural sweeteners! Vegan and gluten free!
 

These Gooey Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats are SO GOOD! Made using pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup! (Gluten free, vegan) 
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6 Comments

    1. Roselin – Thanks for your request! I don’t have nutritional software for my site (it’s not in the budget yet–hopefully soon!). You are welcome to plug the ingredients into any free online calculator! My favorite is MyFitnessPal because you can import recipes straight from the web! All my best!

  1. It took me all week but I made these today and we loved them! My husband said, “It’s good but it tastes like it might be good for me.” 😀 haha! Also tried the chocolate cherry smoothies the other night and my kids slurped them up so fast. I feel like I am winning in the kitchen whenever I come here for ideas and recipes! Thanks!






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