Single Servings of Goodness

Today we celebrated Valentine's Day in my preschool class. The students wrote their names on cards, addressed them to the other students, and decorated shoeboxes to hold the Valentines. At the end of the day they took turns distributing the cards, and then had the treat they'd made earlier in the day with yours truly...individual Rice Krispie treats.

When I volunteered to quarterback the cooking project, I envisioned each child making their own snack, not just assisting with the typical large pan. That way, everyone would get to do all the steps. I figured it would be an easy process to find a scaled-down recipe. However, I was mistaken. After scrolling through several pages of the 261,000 results to my Google search for Rice Krispie treats I gave up, and realized I'd have to come up with my own recipe.

The process actually was pretty easy. The original recipe, which yields 24 squares, calls for 6 cups of cereal, 10 ounces of marshmallows (or 4 cups miniature marshmallows), and 3 tablespoons butter. After some calculation, experimenting, and taste testing over the weekend I came up with:

1/3 cup cereal

25 miniature marshmallows

1/4 t. butter

My activity today was quite an assembly line. I took one child at a time to a table by the microwave. They counted out the marshmallows into a bowl, added a cube of pre-cut butter, and microwaved it for 15 seconds. They stirred it, added a bag of pre-measured cereal, and stirred it again. (I found it helped to dip the spoon in a glass of water beforehand so the marshmallows didn't stick.) I spooned the mixture into a cup of a cupcake pan; after dampening their fingers, the child pressed it in and flattened the top.

After the treats set for 15 minutes or so, I was able to unmold them into a cupcake liner. At the end of the day we broke out some napkins and had everyone sit around the table to eat their snack. There wasn't much left when snack time was over!