April 29, 2008

Who likes cornflakes anyway?: Sweet Maries



I made some square yesterday, that I have always known to be called Sweet Maries, but a couple of searches on recipe websites and Google tells me there's essentially no such thing. Who knew?

Anyway, the inspiration (instigation may be more correct) for these tasty squares was a surplus of plain cornflakes which I bought when we were all suffering from the stomach flu, and which I discovered pretty much no one likes. We've moving on Thursday and the last thing I want to have to pack is a box of cornflakes, so I asked around for recipes and was given this link. They sounded like these things that my cousin has always called Sweet Maries when she brings them to family get togethers, so that's what I'm calling them.

They're really easy, no-bake and made with things I would normally have around the house:


...except that this time I had to go out specifically to buy everything except the white sugar (not pictured) and the cornflakes.


Here's how it went down:


Throw together the peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup in a pot, on the stove.



Heat gently and mix until it looks like really sugary, terrible-for-you peanut butter, then take it off the heat.



Pour the peanut butter mixture into a large bowl, throw in the cornflakes and mix until they're coated evenly.



Ooh, close up.


You'll want to try some at this point. Go ahead, try some... I did and it turned out it wasn't peanut buttery enough, so I added another 1/4 cup or so.


Press it into a pan. I covered the inside of this Pyrex dish with a sheet of plastic wrap so it would be easy to get out. Turned out to be a good idea.



Okay, the recipe gives an exact amount of chocolate to melt for the topping, but what I did was open the package of chocolate and dump in what looked like enough to make a young child really sick and messy.


Pour the chocolate over the top and spread it out evenly. I put mine in the fridge to help the chocolate set, but since the chocolate is chocolate chips, I'm guessing it would set if you didn't put it in the fridge.


This is what mine looked like when they were done.


And putting them in the fridge turned out not to be a great idea. When I tried to cut the block up it pretty much shattered and sent cornflakes flying evvvverywhere. Pretty delish, still. They got the Anders and Trevor seal of a approval, anyway.

Recipe
3 cups corn flakes, crushed
1 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
However many chocolate chips look appropriate

Heat peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup over low heat to melt. Mix with cereal.
Pat into a 8x8 (mine wasn't 8x8) lightly greased pan. (I lined mine with plastic wrap and sprayed it with Pam).
Melt chocolate chips over low heat or in the microwave and spread over top. Cool until firm.

Guten Appetit!

2 comments:

Alexandra said...

Yeah, this is definitely not what I thought you were making when you said you were making Sweet Maries.

Fortunately, these are better! They look delicious.

Alexandra said...

I totally thought I'd already commented here to say this, but I was looking through an old church recipe book at work and found a recipe for ... SWEET MARIES! The only real difference was this recipe called for Rice Krispies, not corn flakes. (Sorry if I already mentioned this in an e-mail, Facebook or LJ post! I was just SUPER excited and wanted to tell you immediately but you were in Germany!)