My daughter loves Special K Bars. She has one every time we go to the coffee shop. Where we live, they are standard fare at coffee shops. One day I suggested we make them at home instead. I don’t know exactly how old she was when we first tried this project, but now she makes them all on her own. My “job” is to look up the recipe for her. Oh yes, there is the occasional Special K Bar splurge at the coffee shop, but now we also sometimes have a whole 13 x 9 inch pan of these chocolate peanut butter wonders sitting around the house, tempting us.
Making things like this is how I started cooking when I was young … so although I prefer something more healthy for myself and my kids, I think these are great “how to cook” projects for kids.
Even though we cut the amount of sugar and butter in half, these are still full of fat & sugar, so I recommend small portions, and eating other healthy things with them. Like an apple. My girl says I should have photographed them with an apple because THAT’S healthy. LOL. Good idea. Eat the apple first, though, and make sure you have a big glass of milk to go along with your Special K Bar because they are still pretty intensely sweet. But at least they have peanut butter and cereal and chocolate so they aren’t ALL bad!
My girl likes to make them with Rice Krispies, but you can make them with Special K or just about any cereal you like. Maybe you could try it with Wheaties or Cheerios or even a Kashi cereal?
Special K Bars
Ingredients:
- 1 c. light corn syrup
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 c. peanut butter
- 7 c. rice krispies or Special K or cornflakes or any NON-sugar cereal
- 1 c. chocolate chips
- 1 c. butterscotch chips
- 1/4 c. butter
Directions:
- Put the corn syrup and sugar in a large saucepan and heat to boiling, stirring often. Boil for a bit.
- Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter.
- Then stir in the cereal. Sometimes it works better to measure the cereal into a big bowl and pour the peanut butter mixture over top and mix it in the bowl.
- Spray a 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray. Once you’ve got the cereal mixture all well mixed, pour it into the pan and press down lightly with a nonstick spatula (or your fingers).
- Melt the chips with the butter in a bowl in the microwave on 50% power.
- Stir the chips and butter together well, then spread over the cereal bars.
- The bars stay together better if you allow them to cool first, but sometimes we just can’t wait. If you MUST eat them right away, be prepared to have them fall apart on you. (They taste just as good though!)
9 comments
Gorgeous!! Tell your daughter that I love her Special K Bars very much!! My 6yo will love these too. Thank you for sharing!!
Thank you Mia! I think she did great too. I hope your 6yo loves them as much as we do! ๐
Your Sweet Daughter did an Outstanding job with these! Please tell her thank you very much! My Boys and I will be making these very soon. <3 and Hugs to you Both!
I have this recipe and we LOVE it! Your pictures are gorgeous!!
Thank you! We love it too … probably a little too much! LOL
I can’t get butterscotch chips so I’m going to need to come up with an alternative! x
Hmm … try peanut butter chips? or just use chocolate chips in place of the butterscotch. It will still be yummy ๐
The recipe already has chocolate chips in Ann so I don’t really want to add more – and I can’t get peanut butter chips either! x
My facebook friends helped me out! … here’s a recipe for homemade butterscotch baking chips: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-butterscotch-baking-chips