Strawberry Cream Crunchies

I wanted to make something easy, new, and a little different. I recently bought some freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe's so I opted for trying a new experiment.

Stacey's Strawberry Cream Crunchies Ingredients:
0.5 oz freeze dried strawberries
11.5 oz Chocolates El Rey White Chocolate Discos
2 c crisped rice cereal (I get the kind without high-fructose corn syrup from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods)

Mortar and pestle
Baking sheet lined with plastic wrap

First I started tempering the white chocolate - working temperature is usually 86F, but since I'd be adding the strawberries and the cereal, I started using it at 90F.

While tempering the chocolate, I used the mortar and pestle to crush the freeze dried strawberries into a powder.

Boyfriend, the scientist, demonstrates the proper way to use a mortar and pestle.

All ground up!

I added the strawberry powder and the cereal to the melted white chocolate.

Then I stirred everything up with my silicone spatula.

Once everything was mixed, I used two teaspoons to put blobs of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

Mmm... strawberry-y.

They ended up nice and crunchy, but not too much strawberry flavor - some, but not as much as I would have liked. It was pretty light. I might add a bit more strawberry next time - maybe 0.7 oz and see what happens. In any case, I brought them to a friend's place and the five of us demolished it by the end of the day. I think there were only like 3 or 4 pieces left by the time I went home.

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Stacey Makes It

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