Chocolate Crackles - why Rice Bubbles?

Cafe Society
1

Okay, it’s a trivial question, but I have Googled in vain and not found an answer to it.

Why do all recipes for Chocolate Crackles start from a base of Rice Bubbles? Wouldn’t it be quicker to cut to the chase and use Coco Pops?

Example:
4 cups rice bubbles (Rice Crispies)
1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons cocoa
250g Copha

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a bowl, pour melted copha in and mix well.
Put in patty cups and refrigerated until chilled.

Wouldn’t doing the same recipe with Coco Pops make for a better, chocolatier experience?

I suck at cooking AND I’m still trying to lose 20kg or so, so I’m not in a position to personally test out this theory. Have any Dopers ever tried making Chocolate Crackles it with Coco Pops?

2

I wonder if Anglophonic non-Americans realize how nuts they seem when they bust onto American boards talking about things completely unfamiliar to Americans. There’s not a single aspect of the above post that’s recognizable in any way.

3

To be fair, while we’re mostly Americans here and the board’s based in America, there’s all kinds on here. I like it that way…

…even if I’ve never heard “Rice Bubbles” before outside of “the froth on top of a pot of boiling rice”. And I have no idea what Copha is. And I’ve never had a Chocolate Crackle.

Still. Dunno, Bites. Try making it with Coco Puffs and see what happens, that’s my motto!

(It’s usually a good motto, but not when I’m trying to make a new dress :frowning: )

4

Coco Pops. See, you corrected to the familiar in your mind.

5

I think Bites is trying to make some form of chocolate Rice Krispy Treats. Or not - I don’t see marshmallows. Maybe the icing sugar and copha combine to make marshmallow-y goodness.

StG

6

I dunno, all you puzzled people, Google is your friend, and specifically, Wiki, with all its acknowledged faults. :smiley:

For “copha”, think “melted Crisco” (yeah, I know Wiki says there’s really no corresponding material in the U.S. but hey. Think maybe a combination of Crisco and butter, or something like that, something rich). And it says that Coco Pops are basically chocolate Rice Krispies, which if they aren’t on the market here currently, still I remember having them in childhood (1960s).

So you’ve got a variation on the basic “rice krispie cookie bar” recipe here, the one without marshmallows (people can, and do, incorporate Rice Krispies into cookie bars)–melt the Crisco, dump it in with everything else. Pour into 13x9 pan. Chill. Slice into pieces.

So it’s not a Rice Krispie Treat, the one with melted marshmallows and vegetable oil–it’s a different thing, a cookie bar, but without any flour, only fat and sugar basically, with the Rice Krispies and shredded coconut bound up in a chocolatey, fatty matrix.

The reason you don’t use chocolate Rice Krispies in this is because they have very little actual chocolate flavor, and actually I thought they were kinda bland and nasty, kinda “blech”. Cocoa powder gives you a much more authoritative chocolate “punch”.

I suppose you could use chocolate Rice Krispies if you wanted to, if you were stranded on a desert isle with only Coco Pops to use, but I’m guessing that the finished product wouldn’t be quite right. For another thing, you probably need the contrast between the vanilla-flavored Rice Krispies and the chocolate-flavored Copha, which you’d lose if the Rice Krispies were themselves blandly sort-of chocolate-flavored, kind of.

ETA: Icing sugar is just a finely powdered sugar, which you would need in order to have the sugar dissolve immediately in the melted fat, which ordinary granulated sugar wouldn’t.

7

Wiki link for Copha, which also mentions Chocolate Crackles.

Allow me to say, Oh. My. God.

8

And if I had to guess what the mouth-feel and taste of the chocolate-flavored Copha matrix would be like, “Hershey bar” would be my first guess, hydrogenated coconut oil being one of Hershey’s ingredients for their chocolate candies.

So a Chocolate Crackle would be like one of those candy bars that has coconut and rice krispies in it.

9

Chocolate Crackles are the one Australian treat that my grandmother used to make that I remember, and I have found a source for copha here in the US so I can make it for myself. Copha is similar to Crisco, but more solid, so the Chocolate Crackles aren’t mushy. I think it also has a lighter flavor than Crisco. Chocolate Crackles are the same idea as Rice Crispy Treats, but they aren’t sticky or heavy at all, and the cocoa powder and coconut give it a much different flavor than a Hershey bar. My family loves them, so they don’t last long around my house.

I don’t know the answer to the OP’s question, since I haven’t had Coco Pops. It might be worth a try, but I’m not sure how it would taste with just coconut and sugar mixed in the copha.

10

Copha = 98% Saturated Fat. :eek:
What the hell is the other 2%, pure unadulturated evil?

11

Yes, that’s why it’s so good :wink:

12

How much to ship a case to the US? Saturated coconut oil sounds like a ticket to heaven, by way of a heart attack!

I just had lunch, but my mouth is watering just thinking about eating some… by the spoonful.

13

You can get it here.

14

Chocolate Rice Krispies are available–they are called Cocoa Krispies.

Coco Puffs are made of corn, though, not rice.

15

Thanks for all the input. :slight_smile:

Guess there’s no reason why I couldn’t go with Coco Pops in lieu of the Rice Bubbles (could the Kellogg’s site be LESS helpful in their product information, do you think?) and add more cocoa… but it’d totally ruin my diet to find out.

While I was aware it was fairly Australian creation, I hadn’t actually realised Chocolate Crackles were totally unheard of outside Australia. I’d sort of assumed it was on par with pavlova and lamingtons. Anyway, here’s an example (with the generic recipe) for anyone who hasn’t seen them before.

The ones in that photo look a little pale though - the ones I’ve had have always been quite a lot darker than that.

16

Perfectly crumulent words, by the way.

17

No wait, I think I’ve actually heard of pavlova before.

18

Is pavlova shaped like dogs or bells?

19

Okay, this is pretty funny.

I was just thinking about childhood treats (it’s School Fair time around the city, so lots of homemade treats for sale) and wondered, “Why the heck do Chocolate Crackles start from a Rice Bubble base?”

So I Googled that question, and came face-to-face with my 2007 self. :smack: :smiley:

EDIT: For anyone who’s interested, I’m now 30kg overweight instead of 20kg. So, even though I have not made (nor eaten, for that matter) any Chocolate Crackles in the intervening 9 years, the evidence is clear that I still suck at weight loss!

20

The OP seems to be referring to chocolate bars such as Nestle Crunch or Hershey’s Krackel. I suppose that chocolate puffs would work in these candy bars, but I think they kept the plain rice puffs for the color contrast.