Special K Bars

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This recipe takes me back to my childhood.  But it almost didn’t happen.

Special K Bars cut in pan

 
It’s from my grandma and she never measured anything, never wrote anything down, and many of her recipes died with her.
 
Close up of one Special K Bar
 
 
Thankfully, my mom had it because she also used to make these for me when I was growing up.
 
Stacked Special K Bars
These bars are rich, sweet, peanut buttery, caramely, and just plain amazing.
 
You’re going to thank my Grandma for these.

Overhead cut Special K Bars

 

Grandma D’s Special K Bars

1/2 c Butter (or margarine), i.e. 1 stick
1 c Karo Syrup
1 c Brown Sugar
Pinch Salt
Bring to a boil and boil for 3 Minutes

Then add 1/2 c Peanut Butter
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract & Stir

In a large bowl, pour this mixture over 6 c of Special K cereal (5 c if you want the bars more gooey) & stir

Pour cereal mixture into a sprayed 9 x 13 pan and press mixture down well.  Freeze or refrigerate if the house is warm and you need these to set up fast, otherwise the counter top is fine.

Optional:  Frosting
I like my Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Or you can use my Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Frosting
Or use store bought or omit frosting.

Pictures of the process

Ingredients needed to make Special K Bars
Pan with butter, brown sugar and Karo Syrup
Boil for 3 minutes.  Do not walk away.  You can have a hot mess everywhere, fast.  
Melted butter, brown sugar and syrup bubbling
Add PB
Jar of peanut butter
Scoop of peanut butter being added to butter mixture
Add Vanilla Extract.  Try not to drink this mixture.  It’s insanely good smelling.  And phenomenal tasting.
Vanilla added to mixture
Special K Cereal in bowl
Pour Mixture over Special K & Stir to Combine
Liquid mixture added to cereal and stirred up
Press into pan
Special K Bars pressed into pan
Close up of bars pressed in pan

Now Make Frosting!
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Or try Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Frosting

I made Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Chocolate chips in bowl
Melted chocolate chips being stirred
Adding butter (margarine) + powdered sugar after the chocolate is melted makes the best frosting I think.
Butter being added to melted chocolate
Powdered sugar added to chocolate mixture
Frosting spread over Special K Bars
Close up of Special K Bars
I popped the pan (above) into the freezer and waited.  As patiently as I could.

After taking it out of the freezer and scoring it, here was what I had been waiting my adult lifetime for

Cut Special K Bars in pan
Close up of one frosted Special K Bar
The gooey, caramel-ey factor is in full force.
Those are strings of sugar.  The happy work of Karo Syrup + Brown Sugar
Stacked Special K Bars
Overhead of Special K Bars
And the underside is pure heaven.  Peanut Butter + Brown Sugar + Karo Syrup + Vanilla
Underside of bars
And the top side is Chocolate.  The best of both worlds!
Three stacked Special K Bars
Close up of one stacked Special K Bar
Cut bars in pan
Close up stacked Special K Bars

Please let me know if you make these.  My Grandma would be thrilled.  She would literally say the Rosary if she only knew that I am sharing this recipe of hers.

From my last post, thanks for filling me in on if you like Posts that have Tips included.  Most everyone said yes please.  Like my French Press Coffee tips to Free Book Tips from this morning.

And thanks for filling me in on things you’d like me to write about in the future.  It’s nice to know what you find interesting and want to see more of.

Speaking of Tips: My Case of Coconut Water Give Away for 3 Winners!

Coconut waters
Click Here to Enter Now!

Similar Desserts to today’s recipe that you may enjoy…
1. Vegan Gluten Free Rice Krispie Treats with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Overhead of cut Vegan Gluten Free Rice Krispie Treats with Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Cut Vegan Gluten Free Rice Krispie Treats with Vegan Chocolate Frosting in pan
Three stacked GF Vegan "Rice Krispie" Treats with Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Frosting
Close up of stacked GF Vegan "Rice Krispie" Treats with Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Frosting

3. GF Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

One F Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars with Vegan Chocolate Frosting on plate
Hand holding one F Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars with Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Close up of one F Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars with Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Questions
1. Do you have recipes from your childhood that you remember fondly?
I definitely have lots of them.

From my mom’s Broccoli Salad (yes, I loved broccoli as a kid and still do.  Raw Broccoli Salad & Broccoli Slaw Dressing is a staple for me) to my Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (no one makes them like Grandma!) to all the holiday recipes and baking I used to help my mom and grandma with in the kitchen.  It all makes me smile so much when I think back!

2. Do you have grandmas, aunts, your mother, or people in your family who cook without recipes or who don’t write things down?
I admit I usually don’t follow recipes.  Heck, I hardly make the same thing twice, even within my own arsenal of recipes.  And sometimes don’t even follow my own recipe if I make something a second time.  I am the queen of winging it.

The pitfall of course is that everything is stored upstairs.  Gray matter.  Nothing is written down on paper.

But that’s the beauty of my blog.  Everything is written here.

One of my goals is to have my blog turned into a book(s), just for myself and Skylar.   (google “Blog into Book” and tons of sites do this)

I want Skylar to have all these pictures of herself in book form.  And it will be fun when I’m 80 to look back and see what I was cooking when I was in my 30s.  The only way to ensure that is to have my blog bound into a book.

But I encourage you to urge, beg, and plead those elderly aunts, grandmas, and relatives who cook without writing things down, go sit with them and take notes as they dictate recipes.  I wish to God I had.

3. Are there things that no one else but a certain relative makes that no matter how many times you try, it’s just not the same as theirs?
My Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies.  No one can get them like hers.  

As well as her homemade bread, cinnamon rolls, and all her Polish and Russian Soul Food.  No one whips up pierogies and Russian Tea Cakes like Grandma could.

See you tomorrow!

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Comments

  1. Hi AVery, what is Karl syrup? I’ve never heard of it, is it similar to brown rice or agave syrup? Is there a substitute you can use in place of this syrup? I would like to try making these bars.

    Thanks!

    1. Karo not Karl. It’s the brand of syrup. It’s light-colored corn syrup. You could use any brand of corn syrup. I wouldn’t use agave for these. Brown rice…possibly. But the recipe is about 75 years old (from my Grandma) and that’s what she always used so that’s how I wrote it. Enjoy the bars!

  2. My grandmother made Special K cookies when I was growing up. I LOVE these cookies & every time I make them, I think of her. She is 99 years old, so does not do much baking anymore. I am excited to try this recipe.

    1. They are one of my fave desserts ever. So easy and my childhood in a pan. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do :)

      1. My grandma made perogies too! And cabbage…anything :)

        I just updated the recipe, too, so it has a Print This feature on it now, too.