Vegetarian Rice Crispies

So this week I decided to do a vegetarian take on a popular dessert/snack...the rice crispy treats. Now a lot of people don't realize that one of the staple ingredients needed (marshmallows) are not vegetarian. Why? Because they have something called gelatin that is ground up animal bone. Not very vegetarian/vegan friendly. My friend Alma sent me this recipe and has been bugging me for weeks to make it, so this week I decided to since I knew they would be both easy and quick. Now I did make some alterations from the original recipe, purely because I thought it would taste better and be easier to cook. Here you go!

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup Creamy Almond Butter
1/3 Brown Rice Syrup (or Maple Syrup, though honestly stick with the brown rice syrup, it's thicker and will make the treats stick together easier)
1 tsp. Real Vanilla Extract
3 Cups Rice Crispy cereal
7 oz. Good Quality Dark Chocolate  (it calls for dark but I used milk because I prefer it)
1 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1) Using a double broiler method, set a glass bowl over a small pot of simmering water, making sure that the bowl is not touching the water.
2) Put the almond butter, brown rice syrup and vanilla extract in the bowl and stir until everything is evenly incorporated. Remove from the heat to cool a minute.

3) Put the crisped rice in a large bowl and pour the almond butter mixture on top, mix thoroughly.

4) Coat the bottom and sides of a 8×8 glass pan with a light coat of desired neutral tasting oil like coconut, canola, grapeseed (First off I used a metal pan, secondly I used vegetable oil and thirdly I apply the oil using a paper towel since it's easier that way)

5) Pour the rice mix in and push it down with the back of a spoon. Put it in the fridge while you make the chocolate layer.

Use a metal spoon as opposed to a wooden one since the mixture is less likely to stick to it)

6) Clean the bowl from the almond butter mix, and set up the double broiler again. Add the pieces of chocolate and the butter to melt slowly, stirring occasionally.

Now I added some soy milk to the mixture to keep the chocolate smooth

7) Pour the chocolate on top of the rice crisps and quickly spread it across the top with an offset spatula or back of a spoon in an even layer

8) Cover with foil and place back in the fridge for at least 1.5 hours

9) Once done, enjoy!

Tips and tricks:

*Like I stated during each step, I made some changes to the original recipe. Most important of them all is the adding of milk to the chocolate. DO IT. From multiple past experiences, trust me when I say it is needed. It will keep the chocolate smooth instead of bunching up and getting grainy

*Don't use your hands to mix the rice crispy cereal with the syrup blend. It may seem easier than using a spoon but it's not. And it's way messy.

*Don't let your treat sit for longer than 2 days according to the recipe...ignore that. If you seal them right when putting them away, you'll be fine.

*I did double my mix because the original will only make one 8x8 pan. (The ingredients list is the original sizes)

*ENJOY!!!