It’s something old that’s new again! Betty Crocker’s vintage Ting-A-Lings no-bake chocolate treats can be formed into whatever shape you like! They come together in minutes – and they’ll also dis-appear in minutes once your family and friends try them!
Betty Crocker’s iconic Ting-A-Lings…
I know some of you out there are old enough to have automatically heard that old novelty tune, My Ding-A-Ling in your heads when you read the headline. The tune was made famous by Chuck Berry in his 1972 cover of the original 1952 hit by songwriter-performer Dave Bartholomew.
Today’s classic no-bake dessert/treat recipe also comes from the era of Bop and Rock, and exemp-lifies its ebullient feel.
NOT Rice Krispies Treats…
This is not just another Rice Krispies Treat recipe. Far from it. Though it shares some of the same basic ingredients and techniques.
Recipe contributor Ashia Aubourg says it, “combines melted chocolate with cereal to form crunchy, sweet mounds, which reminded me of dainty birds’ nests.”
Sounds familiar… But this sumptuous bite relies on chocolate rather than marshmallows for its key-note flavour and texture.
What you do
There are only a few ingredients and a few steps to this recipe. And, as may of the dishes I spotlight, it’s really a technique that can be used with many combinations of ingredients and additions to cre-ate your own signature dessert.
Melt 12 oz / 350 g of semi-sweet baking chocolate or (candy bar) milk or dark chocolate in the top of a double-boiler. Gradually add 4 cups / 1.8 L of whole-wheat flakes cereal, stirring carefully until all the flakes are evenly coated.
Drop the mixture in spoonfuls onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet spaced so they don’t run togeth-er. You choose the spoon size, which determines the size of the finished bite. This recipe makes ap-proximately 3.5 dozen tablespoon-sized treats.
Chill in the fridge for about 2 hours before serving. You want the chocolate to be snapping-hard and the bite, as a whole, melty-in-your-mouth crunchy. Like a chocolate bar.
Tips and hacks…
As I hinted above, you can actually use any cereal you wish as the crispy component of this dish. And you can add anything you like on top of that. Aubourg suggests chopped or slivered almonds as a classic addition. Walnuts would also pair nicely the chocolate and the nutty flavour of the flakes.
But the possibilities are almost endless… Mini candies of any sort would be naturals. Mini Gummies would be great to add a third dimension of flavour and texture. If you like fruit Cake, dried fruits and peels would make this a fabulous, newstalgic Christmas season treat!
As Aubourg mentioned, you could form these things into little nests and place mini Easter Egg cand-ies (like Cadbury’s) inside as a spring-themed treat.
My take
You could actually go further and create something like a classic Easter Bird’s nest (link supplied by Aubourg, above), or even a newstalgized copy-cat Turtle. All that would take was coating nuts, cereal of your choice and other additions in melted caramels… Then chilling well before dunking them in the melted chocolate.
I’ve never met anybody who can stop eaing these amazing, and amazingly simple bites – unless you actually take them away…
~ Maggie J.