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Ooh.... Do you have a brownie recipe moonlight ! So far made crispie cakes and biscuits so on a roll !!!!

The only explanation I can find is that dark 'holds a chocolate flavour' better when cooking, but think it's quite subjective. I often use a mix of 30% milk to 70% dark (but use an 85% dark when I do) when doing things like brownies, but then would reduce additional sugar somewhat.

Glad the baking's going well!

OOOH thank you moonlight ! You must be a mind reader as I was just thinking biscuits now I am on a roll ! Will give that a whirl !!!!! Sooo chuffed about crispie cakes success ( tad gooey so less syrup next time) It is so nice to have made something with the kids that they have actually eaten and enjoyed and asked for more of (a first!!!)
Just wondering why all the crispie cake recipes I have come across use dark chocolate instead of milk ??? I just presumed kids = milk choc hence throwing a slab of dairy milk in on first failed attempt ! Anyone know ???? It is baffling me !

Yay (and phew!)

Also, I can recommend the biscuits posted by FolkGirl on this thread? I'd recommend going with 100g raisins instead of 250g of chocolate chips though.

Friday night, treat night update : I followed the recipe on the link posted by moonlight ( Oscar 's lunch) and we have had success !!!!!! Whoop whoop ! Thanks again ! Boys had great fun and so did I ( so not me really so I am feeling smug cook !!!) I am feeling adventurous now so might experiment with my silicone egg moulds over the weekend !

Previous post : Deluded Delia not disillusioned ...

Ha ! Post natal Waistline still needs to be tackled but with Easter looming ahead that target might realistically go on pause ! That video clip was particularly helpful .......! I have just nipped to co- op and come back armed with corn flakes, rice crispies, shredded wheat, syrup etc etc determined to succeed video link on earlier post on repeat play

What Spotty said! Mind you, your waistline may be back to 'unthank' us in a few months time...

Awww what a lovely post

I have woken up with a renewed sense of culinary confidence thanks to all these fantastic tips !!!! I am now spoilt for choice as had not imagined there to be so many variations !!! Will experiment and try a few ! Sooo, after reading all the above posts, I am now actually cringing at my original 'technique' to this ...... It was basically this : I was eating cereal and the packet suggested melting chocolate and making crispie cakes. In my defence, It presumed prior knowledge about melting chocolate ( no Bain Marie mentioned by Kellogg's !!! Needed for goons like me!) so having a Disillusioned Delia moment I impulsively gave it a go, threw a massive slab of dairy milk in a sauce pan, panicked when it started to not melt in desired way, added milk in a panic as it was drying, ended up welding burnt choc to pan and felt puzzled as to how a toddler style recipe could go so wrong..... I had it on high heat, prob used too much choc, did not even think other ingredients were necessary, no 'bain Marie ' in my vocabulary or in sight !!!
Thank you so much
If i have success now, Something so simple as crispie cake making will bring so much pleasure into our kiddies lives and my parenting self esteem re baking with kids can recover !!!! The time you spent posting is very much appreciated x x

You can also melt the chocolate in the oven with a some water and sugar (90g plain chocolate/1-2 tablespoons sugar/2-3 tablespoons of water) at 180 deg. C/gas mark 4 and just check every couple of minutes. Once done, add 30g butter and stir until the chocolate looks glossy again. Using the additional sugar when melting takes any harsh edge off the chocolate.

I'll be doing this one for Easter again this year if you feel up to branching out?

And you need less choc than you think - I make this mistake all the time and it makes it hard to bite into if there's too much choc.

Has anyone made marshmallow crispy cakes? I've never managed to do this without getting melted marshmallow stuck to everything except the rice crispies!

I think melting the chocolate straight in the pan may have been the problem.

I have to admit I did smile at 'Bain Marie ?????'. Sounds like you just melted choc in a pan, which is much too hot and causes the choc to weld itself in a big bastard lump 'seize'. It doesn't need much heat at all (melts at body temp which is why you get choccy fingers if you hold it too long), so heat over a pan of boiling water as others have said, remove from the heat when there are still lumps and stir stir stir!

I like to use slightly bashed up shredded wheat for that extra twiggy look. I kid myself it's healthier too!

Okay, I'm a terrible cook and a worse baker. I did these on Friday and they turned out lovely - I used the water over the hob method with the butter and the golden syrup in too, as well as the chocolate.

I did mine with mashed up knock-off shreddies (actually, I used my shiny new blender...) as when I've tried before I just can't cover cornflakes/rice krispies with the amount of liquid chocolate the recipe suggests.

We call those double boilers, and OP you can't cook chocolate directly over the heat source, it will, well it seems you know what it will do!

As others said, put a pot of water on the hob, put bowl in that, making sure it doesn't touch the bottom of the water pot, and melt the chocolate in that bowl.

Bain* obviously

Baine Marie is where you put hot water in the sauce pan then put the chocolate in a bowl over the top making sure it's not touching the water. Putting it in the pan straight on the heat is why it went wrong

if you are going to melt in a pan, put the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and then put it over a pan of simmering water (pick a pan that the bowl is slightly too big for so it doesn't touch the bottom) - much gentler heat than doing it in a pan. Make sure the chocolate is in small pieces, so it melts quickly. Give it the occasional stir (more as it melts) then take it off when melted.

I think you need to tell us more about what went wrong - as melting chocolate and stirring in cornflakes on the face of it looks quite straightforward?

On cooking generally I would say the key skill is to buy scales and measure everything carefully, use the right sized baking pan, don't leave out the raising agent, and know how to check when something is cooked (for cakes, check that it is bouncy to the touch and shrinking from the sides - and buy one of those Lakeland cake testers!). Everything else is just a refinement....

Bain Marie ?????

I used a big slab of dairy milk as feared cooking chocolate would taste disgusting but not sure if makes a difference or not ..... The melting went wrong and I welded it to the pan ! Totally bypassed the syrup part of ingredients ! Thought it was just choc ! We no longer have a microwave ( blew up) so oven hob !!! Thanks to everyone who has already posted help .... I will attempt another lot thus Friday ( Friday night treat night ) with the four boys and feed back !!!!!

I made some yesterday.

Melt 100g broken up dark chocolate in microwave (1 min stir 30 secs)

Add 3tbsp golden syrup

Add butter (I just did a big tbsp) and stir in until smooth

Add rice crispies and stir in (keep adding rice crispies until you have used up all the chocolate to cover them.

Spoon into paper cases and refrigerate.

The only thing (surely) that can go wrong with Rice Krispie cakes is the chocolate melting. Did you get any water whatsoever in it (was your bowl still wet?) Did the water below the Bain Marie touch the bowl both of these will have screwed up the chocolate.

My totally foolproof recipe:

2oz butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Melt butter in a pan, add syrup and stir well. Add cocoa and stir again. Let it cool for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, then add cornflakes or Rice Krispies.

Tastes much nicer than melted chocolate IMO and is sticky and gooey