Tetris Rice Krispie Treats

Tetris for me has always been one of those ‘firsts’. Once upon a time, Little Leisel was fortunate enough to be able to read and play video games in the back seat of dad’s car on super long car trips. Nowadays, I’m either always bloody driving, or I get immensely ill after playing a level or reading half of the comics section of the newspaper– if I’m lucky. Anyway, back to Story Time: I never actually had a Game Boy handheld growing up. My first ‘brand name’ handheld gaming system was a 3DS… which I got this year. When I was a Bright Young Thing, I received a handheld Tetris video game player. It took a crap-ton of carefully rationed batteries and was immensely fun for all those long hours in the car going to and from family reunions in northern Indiana. You know, I have no idea what ever happened to that thing…

You’ll remember I actually did plan these when I wrote last week’s post. But I did not plan for it to be like this. Dad called me a couple of days ago to tell me our cousin Janet just passed away. Janet was the official ‘head’ of the family reunion – reserving the meeting place, sending out official invitation letters to relatives all over the country (most of which are actually in Hoosier country, but there are a few stragglers), organizing Bingo and the White Elephant auction… as you can tell, it’s quite a job! As such, I think it’s fitting to dedicate this post to Janet. Rest in peace.

Disclaimer: I know all this seems like A LOT. I promise this recipe will take you from raw ingredients to cooling stage in about 10 minutes.

Anyway. I made Tetris Rice Krispie Treats, flavored with gelatin. That’s right, they’re flavored! Because at Skill Up Skillet we either go ALL THE WAY or write a Filler Post of Facepalm. Ready? Let’s go.

Gamers, grab your mats:

This is a little tricky, actually. Bear with me for the ‘splanin’ bit.

For EACH color (and you can make as many as you want, but it will require a lot of bowls):

• 2 cups Rice Krispies, or similar. But really, for something this good… opt for the Good Stuff
• 1/3 of a 10 oz. bag of mini marshmallows, plus extra (I promise I will make this make sense later.)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 teaspoons powdered jello- I used 2 teaspoons for every batch, but you may want to add to taste.
• approx 1/4 teaspoon liquid food coloring
• decorating icing – white if you have it. You won’t actually see this, it’s just for glue.

Oh, and nonstick cooking spray. Y’know, for making sure you can pull your Rice Krispies out of the pan to eat.

SPOILER ALERT: I actually screwed up the first batch pretty badly. I mean, it was delicious, but it didn’t look right at all. This was when I used a printed recipe instead of following my damn instincts. If all goes well, there should be a YouTube video up in the afternoon to show you what happens to Bad Batches in this house.

Note: Huzzah! It worked! Skill Up Skillet now has a YouTube channel.

Decide how many colors and flavors you’re making. For our purposes, that’s six colors/flavors:

• Red – Cherry
• Orange – Duh
• Yellow – Lemon
• Green – Lime
• Blue – Berry Blue
• Purple – Grape

Grease the heck out of two 13″x9″x2″ baking pans with nonstick cooking spray. Bottom, sides, everything.

Divide two 10 oz. bags of mini marshmallows evenly between your six large bowls. That’s about 1/3 of a bag per bowl. However, as you can see in the above picture, there’s actually three bags of marshmallows. Rip that bag open and divide the contents equally between your six bowls. See? 1/3 bag of marshmallows plus extra. Not too hard.

Though this picture was admittedly taken before the Fuck-Up. Not as many marshmallows.

Add two tablespoons of butter to each bowl. Bonus if the butter’s a little softened.

Everything’s better with butter.

Microwave on high for about one and a half to two minutes (90-120 seconds… you’d think I wouldn’t have to elaborate…), or until completely melted. Watch closely as the marshmallows have a tendency to want to inflate out of the bowl. If this happens, shut off the microwave for 5-10 seconds and resume. AS ALL MICROWAVES ARE DIFFERENT, YOU MAY NEED TO ADJUST YOUR COOKING TIME.

The glare!

It should look awful and smell amazing. Add your jello powder and food coloring and mix well. Time is of the essence and all that.

This is about to look gruesome, isn’t it.

Add your Rice Krispies to the bowl and mix. A lot. It’s going to take a minute for all the colored goo to sufficiently coat your cereal. Work quickly.

I won’t pretend it looks pretty. Yet.

Turn Rice Krispies out into one of your pans and squish into a rectangle covering 1/3 of the pan. The cereal should be rather hot. If you don’t want to risk your fingers, use a buttered spatula to squish into place. Try to be as accurate as possible. This is one of those times where that matters, sorry.

It will not be the end of the world. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Repeat for each other color.  As you’ll have three colors to a pan, add a layer of wax or parchment paper between the colors. Like this:

Gorgeous, right? And this is only the first pan.

Allow to cool. Once cooled (like, one hour of Minecraft… Unless you get into One More Block mode. Then two hours.), the fun begins.

The come out SO EASILY after you slip the dividers out.

Cut each color into thirds across the short side, then in half across the long side, then cut each ‘half’ into thirds. I admittedly eyeballed everything, didn’t follow the instructions I just typed, and think I did a darn good job. Whatever you have to do to make 18 even 1″x1″ cubes… do that. I trust you.

The visual makes more sense, doesn’t it.

Arrange into Tetris blocks. You will have four blocks, with two bits left over. This is great if you have a piece or two that doesn’t come out as nice looking as the rest.It is also great for eating.

Perfect. Now, to stick them together…

To stick them together, add a couple blobs of decorating icing to the inside connecting sides. Smoosh together gently, but firmly. You will not see this, but if neatness is an issue for you… either use white or color-match. As you can tell…

I’M FLIPPIN’ BRAVE. No, I actually just didn’t want to dirty up more icing tips.

Press and hold for a few seconds if necessary…

Hum-de-dum-de-dum…

Anddddd…..

Gorgeous. Wash, rinse, and repeat for each individual shape.

Seems huge, right? But really, it’s just a standard 2″x2″ serving! If you’re feeling really fancy, outline each segment of your Tetris blocks in a matching decorative icing. I wanted to be fancy, but between phone calls and work frustrations, this is what you get. It still looks pretty darn spiffy, IMHO. (You really should do the outlines if possible, it adds fantastic dimension.) Assembly will really be the longest part, but it’s fun. And you could legitimately play your own edible Tetris level, too!

No, I am not this bad at Tetris. GAME OVER!

You’re done!

I should mention, I don’t really have a ‘dedicated’ post until 7/2, which will be a 4th of July post. Until then, you could see anything. Do you have something you’re just dying to see? What recipe do you want me to try? Let me know in the comments below!

I will be attending a funeral in northern Indiana on Monday but I will do my best to do the 5/21 post on time.

Coming Up Next: You decide!

Cheers, Leisel

P.S. – I meant it. There will really be a video up later.