Bake a Batch of Crispy Kisses!

This recipe makes rice crispy treats, wrapped like giant chocolate kisses!  Sweet additions to add to a stack of valentines, this yummy craft will also give your preschool or kindergarten kid a reason to do a little writing and drawing this Valentine’s day! 

Materials:
Eight 12-inch squares of aluminum foil
funnel
cooking spray
ingredients for Crispy Kisses (recipe below)
Markers
Paper
Scissors

Directions:
Before you start the baking, help your child cut the paper into a bunch of 8 ½-by-1 inch strips. Have her write a Valentine’s Day message on each strip. For beginning writers, this can be as simple as a string of hearts. More advanced writers can add a few words, like “Be Mine” or just sign their name. Once all the strips are ready, it’s time to cook!

Crispy Kisses Recipe
¼ cup margarine or butter
4 cups miniature marshmallows or 40 large marshmallows
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups crispy rice cereal (like Rice Crispies)

Melt the butter or margarine in a large saucepan. Stir in the cocoa powder and vanilla. Add the marshmallows and stir the mixture constantly over low heat until it’s syrupy. Remove the saucepan from the stove. Add the cereal and stir until it’s well coated.

Let the mixture cool a bit. In the meantime, spray the inside of a funnel with cooking spray. Press the mixture into the funnel. Gently remove the cereal “kiss” and place it flat side down on a piece of foil.  Pull the corners of the foil up and around the kiss. Insert a paper strip so half the strip sticks out the top of the kiss. Twist the foil ends at the top. It should look like a giant chocolate kiss! Repeat until all the mixture is used up. This recipe makes 6-8 large kisses.