Little Homeschool Blessings: Treat {Review}

We received Treat by Stephanie Banyas to review. It has as many ways as you can think of (and more) to make those all famous marshmallow treats. We chose to review it because all of the girls in this house love to cook and bake AND everyone (all six of us) loves to eat.

The book contains:

the history of the marshmallow crisp rice cereal treat dubbed "Krispies Marshmallow Squares."
tips for cereals, pans, pots, marshmallow mixture, and how to store treats
ideas for making your own (if you can think of any after this exhaustive list)
how to melt chocolate
make your own marshmallows (including vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and cream cheese with variations for orange, lime, gingerbread, blueberry, raspberry, and peach)
over 40 recipes for treats

We decided to try out three different treats (Peanut Butter Cup Treats page 49; Raspberry Cheesecake Treats page 67, and Lemon-Poppy Seed Treats page 69) and one kind of marshmallow (Vanilla page 14) for the review.

All of the recipes we tried for treats began with a butter combination, which was used when melting the marshmallows. When doing this, we found that it took longer than the recommended 2 minutes to melt the marshmallows. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get them melted. We used store bought for the treats; however, and it may be faster with homemade marshmallows.

So how'd it all turn out?

The Peanut Butter Cup Treats were very yummy. They are a basic treat with a peanut butter spread and melted chocolate drizzled over the top. Who could go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter? These were by far the messiest to eat and I think we could have cut back on the peanut butter spread and had been equally delighted. They took about 45 minutes start to finish.

The Raspberry Cheesecake Treats were my pick. I love raspberry cheesecake (in fact, Poppa won me over with that dessert early on in our friendship), Unfortunately, the store didn't have fresh raspberries so we settled for blackberries. This recipe took the longest of all of the ones we tried as they have to set in the fridge for about 4 hours during the process. They start with a base that includes graham crackers. Next is a layer of cream cheese mixture (the texture of mine never set properly) and fruit with a drizzle of jam water. While these were good tasting, I was put off by the texture of the cream cheese. Although the blackberries were delicious on it and made a great topping.

The final treat we tried were the Lemon-Poppy Seed Treats. These took just a half hour. The butter/marshmallow combination had the added ingredients of lemon and zest and the cereal mix had poppy seeds. A lemon juice icing was drizzled over the top. These were by far my favorites. I love lemon flavor and I wasn't disappointed with the recipe at all.

Now for the homemade marshmallows. These were so yummy. Not incredibly easy to make, but so worth it! I even enjoyed eating the fluff before the marshmallows hardened. We ate some of ours with a few graham crackers on the side and some candies. And we ate the rest all by themselves. I'm not a big fan of marshmallows by themselves in general, but these were great.

We went on a camping trip and I needed something to make ahead. I made the various treats and then I froze the Peanut Butter Cup Treats and the Lemon-Poppy Seed Treats. These did well frozen and thawed to eat. It was very convenient to grab them for a dessert after running all day.

If you love those puffed rice marshmallow treats, then this is your book. If you like to experiment with different flavors or want to make your own marshmallows this is the place to look.

You can learn more about Treat and check out an author bio, too.

I received a free copy of Treat by Stephanie Banyas from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way for writing the review. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Wishing you homeschool blessings,