Noreen's Kitchen

2 tablespoons instant apple drink mix
1 tablespoon apple pie spice
½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Noreen's Kitchen
Caramel Apple Pie Rice Cereal Squares

Step By Step Instructions

Caramel Apple pie rice cereal bars

1 Cup good quality mayonnaise
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

8 cups crispy rice cereal
1 ½ sticks butter
1 10-ounce bag, marshmallows
2 11-ounce bags of caramel bits
2 cups freeze dried apples

Prepare a 9. X 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and parchment paper that hangs over both long sides of the pan.  This will help to remove the bars when it is time to cut them.

Place cereal, 1 bag of caramel bits and apples in a large bowl, mix well, set aside.

In a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter and marshmallows until smooth and creamy.

Remove from heat and add vanilla extract, apple pie spice and apple drink mix.  Stir well to combine.

Pour marshmallow mixture over the cereal mixture and stir well.  It helps to use a silicone spatula.

When the mixture is well combined, pour into the prepared pan.  Spread evenly and press to compact. 

Melt remaining bag of caramel bits in a microwave safe container, on high for 30 second bursts stirring between each until smooth.

Drizzle melted caramel over the cereal bars in the pan.  You can spread as a thin layer of caramel or leave drizzly.

Allow bars to cool completely.  Remove from pan by using the parchment paper.  Cut into squares and serve.   Bars should be stored in an airtight container and eaten within three days.

These are sweet, but really delicious.  Cut them into small squares to share.  You will want to store these in an airtight container and eat them inside of three to five days.  The caramel topping will be a bit sticky, but worth it!  

I hope you give these caramel apple pie rice cereal squares a try sometime soon and I hope you love them!

Happy Eating!

Today I have a real treat for you!  Perfect for these cool fall days.  This is an amped up version of a rice cereal bar!  Flavored like a caramel apple pie.  Seriously, this tastes like a caramel apple!  Truly gourmet and over the top, this sweet treat will not disappoint!  Packed with the flavors of an apple pie, this rice cereal treat is not like anything you have ever enjoyed!  I included caramel bits, freeze dried apple cubes as well as apple pie spice and a secret ingredient that may surprise you to boost the apple flavor.  I topped the whole thing off with melted caramel and when cool these cut into perfectly delicious squares ready to share!

These start off just like a regular rice cereal bar.  Crispy rice cereal, marshmallows, butter and vanilla.  While those are a favorite in our house from time to time, I wanted to do something a bit different for the fall season.  Taking a look at my pantry ingredients I decided to go in an apple pie direction.  I used some freeze dried apple cubes from my food storage, but these are readily available in the grocery store produce section so no worries finding them.  If you get cinnamon apple slices that will work just fine, but break them up a bit first.  

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Meet Noreen!

Hi!  I'm Noreen, wife, mother of two amazing, almost grown, daughters, content creator, cook, baker and sister in Christ. Welcome to my Kitchen!   I hope you stick around, enjoy the recipes and share them with those you love!

I also used some caramel bits in the treats.  These can be found near the chocolate chips in the baking aisle of your market.  These are great for adding to cookies or rice cereal treats and it beats the heck out of unwrapping a ton of caramel squares and trying to chop them up!  Next up is the flavorizers!  A healthy dose of apple pie spice is in order.  I used my homemade blend that you can find here: http://bit.ly/2dx63HT  I also added a bit of salt, because all things sweet need a little salt.  Then the kicker!  A packet of instant hot apple cider mix.  Or two tablespoons of apple drink mix if you have it on hand.  I know some of you with a food storage have the apple drink mix.  Don't open an entire #10 can though.  Get a packet of the apple cider mix.  It's sold near the hot cocoa mix in the coffee aisle of most supermarkets.

All these ingredients come together just like a regular rice cereal bar and packed into a baking pan.  I used a metal baking pan that I sprayed with cooking oil and then lined with  a piece of parchment that was made to hang over the long sides to become helper handles later when lifting the bars out of the pan.  This is a super helpful way to ensure that you treats come out in one piece.

To top off this masterpiece I melted another bag of the caramel bits with a bit of cream, in the microwave just until melted then stirred until smooth and drizzly.  This was spread evenly over the top of the pan of treats and left to cool completely.  After about an hour these were ready to cut into beautiful squares.