Mudslide Balls

My original goal was to make these Avalanche bars. Peanut butter and white chocolate and Rice Krispies and marshmallows, mmm. See how they're nice and white with just small flecks of chocolate? Because it looks like a snowy avalanche? I went in a different direction:

Mudslide Balls

Let's call them Mudslide Balls instead, since that sounds better than Chocolate Avalanche Cupcake Balls. I had leftover white chocolate morsels, but not too many, so even though I wanted to use them up, I didn't want to buy even more, creating more leftovers, creating a need to make more avalanche bars, and ending up forever circling the Möbius strip of baking purgatory. I figured I could replace half the white chocolate in the recipe with milk chocolate without anyone knowing the difference. What I didn't count on was regular chocolate + white chocolate ^= white chocolate with a hint of brown. It equals regular chocolate. You can't tell I used any white chocolate at all. So, looks, fail, but taste, win!

My kitchen counter also fails in looks, here showcased through the microwave-safe but too big for a microwave bowl into which I dumped my 12 ounces (-ish) of chocolate chips:

Ebony and ivory, living in perfect harmony.

My kitchen counter unattractively displaying all of the waste I created from this first step alone (too-big bowl, too-small green bowl, and ruined scraps of wax paper):

The real tragedy is that no wax paper was needed. The chocolate didn't splatter at all.

Heat the chips on medium power for 1 minute, then take out and stir. I can't tell what means "Medium Power" on my microwave, so I did it on the regular setting. After the first minute, take out every 30 seconds and stir until it's completely melted. The progression will look like this, and you might do what I did and keep shouting out "This smells so good! This smells so good already, I want to eat it right now! Come smell this!"

Really mash those effers up

Swirl it all around

Delicious-smelling melted chocolate

Mix in 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, then add 3 cups of Rice Krispies (or Cocoa Krispies if you really want to go for it).

3 cups is a lot of krispies

Oops. I have run up against my burgeoning nemesis, the ill-sized bowl. I was not going to be able to mix this monster in such a small bowl. So I went back to the too-big-for-microwaves bowl and started mixing, with a small amount of anxiety over whether I had enough chocolate/peanut butter to hold it all together.

HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE ENOUGH?

It worked out in the end. Barely. I probably should've measured my chocolate. I think I under-chocolated it, which is not the error I would've expected to make when it comes to chocolate.

Appetizing!

Let it cool for 15-20 minutes, stirring every once in a while to help it along. Stir in the marshmallows and mini chocolate chips, then spoon out the mixture to fill one regular-sized and one mini-muffin tin. Or you can try to cram it all into one muffin tin, or make actual bars with a cake pan. The original directions say to press down on it with the back of a spoon, but I let the balls fall where they may. I was thinking I didn't want to crush the krispies, but that probably would have held together the finished balls better. They tended to break apart and smear chocolate all over my fingers. For that reason it's probably better to stick with mini tins if I want to keep the same process, since those are 1-2 biters.

The original recipe also says to press some of the mini chocolate chips into the top for garnish. I skipped that step since it was already so dark chocolate-y, but I might have done it if I had any white chocolate chips left over, for the contrast. Now that I think of it, I could have sprinkled powdered sugar on top, to make it look snowy.

Then you're done! No baking needed. Let it cool completely, either on the counter or in the fridge, and then try to eat some before your boyfriend devours all of them. As I was falling asleep, I heard him in the kitchen: "These are pretty good." [Pause] "Wow, these are really good! I'm eating another one!" [Longer pause] "So good!" When I woke up, there were about three of the small balls left. I had made twelve and eaten one myself. They are good, folks. I had two friends come over for cupcake-baking yesterday, and they were also impressed after I forced them to try at least a ball each. Then again, one of them was also impressed by the sandwich G made out of toasting turkey and cheese on a tortilla.

I need a new camera. Every close-up is blurry.

Mudslide Balls recipe (stolen/inspired by Avalanche Bars):

6 oz of white chocolate chips
6 oz of milk/dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups Rice Krispies (or Cocoa Krispies for extra chocolate)
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
A 12-muffin tin and a 12-mini-muffin tin, lightly greased

1. Mix the 6 oz of white chocolate chips with the 6 oz of regular chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl.
2. Heat the chocolate in a microwave for a minute, then remove and stir. Keep heating for 30-second increments, stirring in between.
3. Mix in the 1/4 cup of peanut butter with a regular spoon or spatula.
4. Add in the Rice Krispies and mix together so the krispies are coated in chocolate-peanut butter goodness.
5. Let cool for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in the marshmallows and 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips.
7. Scoop into your muffin tin of choice.
8 (optional). Press mini chocolate chips or mini peanut butter chips into the top to make it look pretty, or sprinkle powdered sugar over them to make everything seem less muddy and more snowy.
9. The End! Wait for it to cool, and then eat. Waiting for it to cool is also optional.