Brown Rice Crispy Treats- Vegan Style With Cashew Butter and Dark Chocolate!

Last week I was invited to my friend Denise's baby shower.  Her friend Sapna graciously offered to host a NYC shower for her as she's living in Houston for the time being, but had a bunch of friends in this neck of the woods who wanted to celebrate with her.

Sapna put together a fabulous little dinner party for a handful of us.  The whole evening was put together beautifully and supercute.  Sapna even made me a special vegan version of the dinner!

In the planning phase of the evening I offered any help and we wound up deciding that I would bring a vegan dessert.  While I usually just buy something pretty, I decided to take a stab at it this time.  I'd been meaning to work up a recipe for rice crispy treats (because, I mean, who doesn't LOVE rice crispy treats?!?), so that morning I grabbed what I thought would be appropriate ingredients according to a recipe I found in a vegan cookbook I have and went at it (though I obviously fudged the ingredients...a lot...and I decided to make them as cupcakes, because individual servings are always a little more special for a party I think).

Here's what I did:

1. First I filled 1 1/2 cupcake tins (equivalent to 18 cupcakes) with cupcake liners.

2. Then in a small sauce pot I melted 1 1/2 cups of  vegan, grain sweetened vegan chocolate chips over low/medium heat mixing constantly until melted.  (You can take it off the heat just before it looks totally melted and it will continue to melt in the pot.)

3. I poured about a tablespoon of chocolate into each liner and spread a little bit so it evened out.

4. Then I placed these in the freezer to set.

5. While those cooled, in a large (very large if you have it) sauce pot I heated 2 cups of organic brown rice syrup and 2 pinches of sea salt over medium heat until it was liquidy.

6. Then I added 1 cup of stirred (or no-stir) cashew butter and mixed it until it was melted and smooth.

7. When that was done, I added one box of crispy brown rice cereal to the pot and mixed well with a wooden spoon until it was all evenly coated.

8. I took the cupcake tins out of the freezer and while the cereal mixture was still malleable I spooned it into the liners and used wet fingers and a wetted wooden spoon to pack it into the cupcake tins.

9. Then I heated another 1/2 cup of grain sweetened vegan chocolate chips to melted with 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk (I used soy).

10. I used that chocolate to drizzle over the tops (and it looked pretty pretty;)).

Everyone at the party really loved them!  One caveat: they're much better eaten the day they're made, so try to make them before you serve them (or sometime that day).  They get a little...hmmm...mushy the next day, though tasty still, not as impressive.  Oh and an added bonus, these are about as healthy as it gets for dessert (other than straight fruit that is), no refined sugar, "butter", or any of that bad stuff!