One bad batch doesn’t mean a ban for life: Taste
For years I had it in my head that I couldn’t make scotcharoos.
I love scotcharoos and their cousin, Special K bars, but I just didn’t think I possessed the skills to make these bars.
Why? One time in childhood I messed them up. Our poor dog, Sox, had to eat a whole pan of burned Special K bars.
He was one of those classic farm dogs that would eat a whole chocolate cake and be absolutely fine. It was old age and a car that got him in the end, not his diet.
Because of this incident, for more than 20 years, I had it in my head that I couldn’t make these bars. And then my fiancé requested them.
Special K bars and scotcharoos are basically the same thing, but Special K bars use corn flakes and scotcharoos crispy rice cereal. The sugary peanut butter mix is the same, and both are topped with a mix of melted chocolate and butterscotch chips.
I have no idea what I did wrong all those years ago, but I do know messing with candy-making — which scotcharoo making flirts with — can be a little more difficult than making traditional marshmallow crispy rice treats. Making sure the sugar gets dissolved but doesn’t overcook is a narrow rope to walk.
Melting marshmallows with butter is a heck of a lot easier.
My fiancé doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth. So if he’s asking for something, I’m pretty likely to oblige; especially something as simple as scotcharoos.
I found a modern recipe on Pinterest — I’m not a big fan of older candy recipes that describe candy stages rather than giving a temperature. I get it, candy thermometers were harder to come by back in the day and for seasoned candy makers, firm-ball stage and hard-crack stage were easy enough to determine.
For me, I just want to know temperatures and times.
So thank you to Autumn and her blog, It’s Always Autumn, for an easy-to-follow scotcharoo recipe. She recommends bringing the mixture to a rolling boil and then cutting the heat.
No temperatures, no candy stages, just sugar and peanut butter.
Following these directions, I finally made successful scotcharoos. A lifelong mental block has been lifted, and these delicious treats can be added by my regular rotation of sweets.
It’s funny how, in adulthood, I’ll make things and mess up and try them again, but this one mistake from childhood got in my mind for so long.
Scotcharoos
Ingredients
1 cup sugar.
1 cup light corn syrup.
1 cup creamy peanut butter.
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.
1 cup butterscotch chips.
6 cups crisp rice cereal.
Instructions
Gently spray a nine-inch-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray. Measure out six cups of rice cereal into a large bowl.
Place the sugar and corn syrup in a medium pot over medium or medium-low heat. Stir together and cook for a couple of minutes until the sugar crystals dissolve. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil with bubbles rolling across the center, remove it from the heat.
Immediately stir in the creamy peanut butter to make a glossy sauce.
Pour the peanut butter sauce over the cereal in a large bowl and stir to evenly combine.
Pour the cereal mixture into the prepared pan. Using a damp hand, gently press the mixture into the pan and smooth the top. Do not push the cereal down hard or the bars will be hard.
Melt together chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. Pour the melted chocolate over the cereal mixture and use a knife or offset spatula to smooth it out.
Allow the scotcharoos to set up at room temperature until chocolate is firm, two to four hours. Cut into pieces and serve. Store covered.
Recipe by It’s Always Autumn. (https://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/the-best-scotcharoos-recipe.html)
This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: One bad batch doesn’t mean a ban for life
