Kitchen Lessons: Making Candy Sushi

 

Now that we’ve {finally!} finished Japan, and can move on in our geography program, I am happy to share our new favorite {and very unhealthy & sugary} recipe: Candy Sushi.

 

 

We really wanted the look of seaweed, but none of the three grocery stores we went to carried green fruit roll-ups, so we settled for the “rainbow” variety. {None of the kids – including my 75-year-old “kid” friend (who knows who he is…) – seemed to mind.}

I’ll be honest here, and say that these little babies intimidated me, but they were really easy. I promise. We made a triple batch in under an hour. If you made one, it should take you about a half hour, start to finish.

First gather your ingredients:

• 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal {I read that the brand makes a difference when making the rice treats portion, but didn’t read further to find out why. I went with it because they were for Geography Club, and I didn’t have time to mess up.}
• 3 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 bag of mini marshmallows {note – this is slightly more than the original recipe calls for, but you want your treats to be pliable, so use the whole bag}
• fruit roll-ups
• Twizzlers, rainbow licorice, gummy worms, other long, skinny candy {note – After beginning, THEN reading labels, I found out that Twizzlers have wheat flour in them. Geography club friends have gluten allergies, so we started from scratch – new knives, bowls, etc. for the second and third batches and just used the gummies. Voila! Gluten-free candy sushi!}

 

 

Put the butter in a microwave-safe bowl and add the marshmallows:

 

 

Microwave for two minutes, then stir. If necessary, microwave in 30-second additional increments, stirring between, until it is smooth:

 

 

Add in the Rice Krispies and stir until coated:

 

 

Spray cookie sheets liberally with cooking spray, and press the Rice Krispie Treats into a neat and evenly thick rectangle. {You want them to be fairly thin, about a half-inch at most.}

 

 

Let those harden for about ten minutes. In the meantime, peel your fruit roll-ups, and get your candy ready.

Finally, cut the treats into strips, approximately the width of your fruit roll-ups, and layer them on wax paper.

 

 

Place your candy at one end and roll the rice treats over the candy once, then cut it and squeeze into a roll:

 

 

Cover your roll with a fruit roll-up, making sure to stretch and squeeze so that the candy and rice treats compress nicely together and the fruit roll-up overlaps:

 

 

Slice it into sushi rolls:

 

 

The kids had {almost} as much fun making these as they did eating them.

 

 

It was a fun way to eat “sushi” from Japan to finish off our study… although, we are going to a restaurant to try the real thing this weekend. Pray for me… I’m not too sure what the reactions will be…