Peanut Butter and Honey Crispie Treats

I can’t believe it’s already Fall! Autumn and Winter are my two favorite seasons. It’s something about the crunchy leaves, the crisp and cool air, and of course the awesome flavors and smells. I’ve noticed that any candle that pertains to Fall or Winter always have the best scents. I know that Autumn officially started on the 23^rd of September, but I have this rule for myself, well…more like a feeling really, Fall does not start when the calendar says it starts. To me, Fall begins the first day of October. September is that limbo month to me, it doesn’t know what season it’s supposed to be in, so it stands in a corner watching all of the other months play in the sprinklers or fallen leaves. I have the same feeling with Winter; Winter starts on December 1^st, not the 21^st or whatever.

Because of my quirky season rule, I refuse to make anything with pumpkin before the first of October, so while other bloggers are posting pumpkin cream cheese muffins, pumpkin bars and pumpkin who knows what else, I am giving you this little crispie bar treat.

These are not your typical rice crispie treats though. Instead of butter and marshmallows, I made them with peanut butter and honey. I really like that flavor combination. I remember in elementary school my mom would make me peanut butter and honey sandwiches because I didn’t like jelly. I don’t know what I was thinking because if I could only have one thing for the rest of my life, it would be PB&GJs. But back to peanut butter and honey crispie treats. The moment I took a bite out of this bar, I immediately tasted the honey. And I don’t mean in a cloyingly sweet kind of way, it was a subtle sweet. Then, the peanuttyness of the peanut butter slowly crept up. Again, it wasn’t an overpowering flavor, there was just enough peanut butter to satisfy my taste buds.

The entire thing takes just minutes to make and put into the pan. I do however, highly recommend keeping the bars, once cut, in the fridge, because as they sit out a room temperature, they start to fall apart, not that they don’t taste good that way either, it’s just something to point out if you want to have a bar and not a crumble.

Peanut Butter and Honey Crispie Treats

adampted from Ellie Krieger

Ingredients
¼ cup honey
¼ cup creamy (or chunky) peanut butter)
3 cups honey puff rice cereal

Directions

1. Grease a 9 inch by 9 inch square baking pan.
2. Over medium-low heat, heat up a medium-sized pot. Pour the honey and peanut butter in once the pot has warmed up. Stir the two ingredients together until the peanut butter has completely melted. Nest, add in the honey puffed rice cereal and stir until all of the cereal is coated in the honey and peanut butter mixture.
3. While still warm, dump the mixture into the greased pan, spreading all of the coated rice cereal bits out and into the corners. Make sure to press down hard for the cereal the compact together. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the cereal treats to harden. After 30 minutes, feel free to cut the crispie treat into your desired shapes and sizes. After cutting them, wrap the treats in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least another two hours, if you want a solid crispie treat. I found that after being in the fridge over night, the crispie treats didn’t fall apart as much the next day after sitting at room temperature for a while.