Seasonal Satisfaction - Special K Frosted Chews

I think everyone has a recipe that really makes them think of a specific place and time. These chocolate-coated peanut-buttery bars are one of those for me. 

In the far reaches of my mind, they take me to when I was growing up and we would eat them every fall. Once I moved away from home, they became a Christmas food - not because they are intrinsically Christmas-y, but because they are tied to family. And, for me, family and Christmas go hand in hand. 

The official recipe is from the folks at Kellogg's, but my family refer to them as "Joy's Frosted Chews" because our friend Joy is the one who made them every year. 

The ingredients are pretty basic (though you do need to use the Special K - I've never tried them with anything else, because I like the way the Special K holds up against the moisture of the peanut butter mixture). And the main technique you need to know is how to stir things.

Seriously. That's all of the ingredients (surrounded by everything else I've been using for the past week).

Oh. And the recipe is here:

As usual, it's best to start by getting your ingredients together:

Three ingredients, three kinds of cup measure...

...and one really big measuring cup for the cereal.

I really thought, at this point, that I was moving along well. I'd measured everything out in advance, I'd turned on the stove and poured the sugar and corn syrup into the pan...

And the mixture had finally started to combine, instead of being two very separate components.

Yet, something seemed to be missing. What was it? Oh... Right... An explanation of what was going on. Let's jump back to that for a moment:

Okay. I feel better now.

The sugars are doing their thing on the stove, so it's time to grease my pan. (Later on, you'll see that I made two batches of these - but I did do them one at a time.)

Oh - as is written on the recipe, I still use a "jelly roll" pan (technically, mine is a half-sheet pan/cookie sheet) instead of a 9x13 cake pan. I like the way the bars are a little flatter - but also serve more people - this way.

I think we've talked about this before: I pretty much always use "butter papers" when greasing pans. 

There's a kind of amazing moment when the sugars go from just barely bubbling around the edges to a full rolling boil.

Once it gets there, the heat gets turned off, and you stir in the peanut butter. (In the past I've accidentally added the peanut butter at the beginning, instead of waiting for it to boil. That's *not* a good thing. Luckily, I didn't do that this time...) (Consider this to be foreshadowing.)

The stirring is a little odd on this. The peanut butter doesn't melt instantly, so you start by kind of stirring the syrup around and through the peanut butter, and gradually the peanut butter melts and they combine.

I tend to use a large saucepan (this is a 4.5-quart pan, I think), because it gives me room to go directly to mixing in the cereal without having to transfer to a bowl in between.

What you're looking for, here, is a good coating over all of the cereal. It can take a little while - but you want to do it quickly, so that the syrup mixture doesn't cool.

This is why you want either a really big pan, or a huge bowl.

Once it's mixed together, you dump it out into your prepared pan...

Which should give you a nice, relatively evenly coated mound o' Special K:

Of course, you don't want a great big mound of this in your pan, so you need to flatten the so-hot-it-will-burn-your-skin mixture into the pan. I tend to use the back of a sturdy spatula to do this. I've tried other tricks (like putting your hand in a plastic bag), but since the heat remains a major issue, the spatula seems to work best. 

At this point, the pans need to cool long enough that the top layer won't just melt off. This time of year, I use our screen porch - I just have to remember not to leave anything out there so long that it freezes.

Here we have the proof of the two batches.

While the base cools, it's time to make the topping - which is even easier than the base. (Note that this is the topping for two batches - if you're only making one, you won't have this many chips in the bowl.)

There's a prime example of "chocolate bloom" going on, here. Can you see the different colors of the older (slightly grayer) and newer ("brighter") butterscotch chips? "Bloom" typically only impacts the look of chocolate, not the taste, so don't worry too much about it unless you need pretty chocolate chips or something.

I think we've probably discussed the fact that we don't have a microwave in the kitchen. (And, anyway, I used to know someone who said "Microwaves don't melt chocolate, they burn it.") So I use a makeshift double boiler (a bowl above above a pot of hot water) to do the job.

In case you want to do a science experiment, the butterscotch chips tend to melt faster than the chocolate ones. But I'll leave it to you to explain why.

It feels like it takes forever for the melting to really begin. But, once it does, it goes pretty fast as long as you keep stirring.

I feel like I should have an action shot of me pouring the chocolate on and mooshing it around, but you'll just have to believe that I did it.

And, there we have it: a pan of Frosted Chews.

Sort of.

This is going to take some explanation - two videos' worth, in fact:

So, yeah, when things go right, the bars look like this, with a layer of crispy, chewy peanut butter, and a layer of butterscotched chocolate.

I don't actually have a still photo of how they look when things go wrong. (I honestly tossed the entire batch into our compost bin before going to bed that night.)

If you're thinking "I'm sure they were salvageable, let me assure you that they weren't:

And there we have it: food memories on a plate (or at least in a pan):

Remember when I mentioned during the Spritz post, that I kind of have a set routine for what I make first and what I make last? These bars can dry out pretty quickly, so I typically make them pretty close to when they're going to be eaten. I cut them as late as possible, too, and keep them tightly covered at all times.

As I mentioned in one of the above videos, I may or may not be around the next couple of weeks due to the holidays. (And I'm guessing you'll be pretty busy, too.) I'll try to put something together, though - possibly something quick for a last-minute hostess gift kind of thing. (Hmm...)

In the meantime - enjoy this crazy season. Light some candles in the darkness. Wish on a star or two. And take some time to enjoy it all.

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Just because it's the holidays doesn't mean that I don't want to hear from you! Is there something you're considering making as a tailgate food before the playoffs? Are you getting ready to hunker down for the brutal cold? What's your go-to food for either of those?