Homemade Rice Krispies

   WHAT?!  HOMEMADE RICE KRISPIES?  IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

   Yes.  Yes it is.   Here's the link.  Here's what I did:

   That's actually a failed attempt.

   Aaaand so is that...
   Ok so I didn't get it right.  And I tried three times.  Next time I'll follow the recipe.  I think it'll work.  It worked for that chick.  Who actually came up with the recipe.


   So here's what went down.  I look up a recipe for cocoa pebbles and I find that it is actually possible to make rice krispies (Which I mean that's what cocoa pebbles are right?  Just with cocoa and sugar flavoring?).  So I try it.  I cook the rice and dry the rice and fry the rice.  And it Puffs!  It actually puffs as I'm frying it!  I'm so excited!  And then I burn it...  Here's that first picture again:

Ever hopeful, I add sugar and cocoa powder hoping it will be less crispy when I add milk.  Nope.  Doesn't work.

   I start again.  Except this time I've learned from my mistakes.  One of my mistakes was to, in my hunger for cocoa pebbles, cook 2 cups of rice.  So, when I put the rice on the cookie sheet to dry it out in the oven it was too thick and I had to break it up after many hours so that the middle could dry out.  That's another thing the chick who made the recipe did not specify.  She didn't say how much rice to cook OR how long to dry it out for.  So here I am thinking "Oh, I'll check it every 30 minutes 'til it's done." and it ends up taking alllll day.  Literally.
   The chick had also said that the point of cooking the rice first then drying it out was to remove an outer layer.  Drying it seems to put the rice back in the same state as uncooked and at this point it was evening and I had decided that chick didn't know anything.  I could just take some rice and fry it and not go through the whole rigamarole again.  So I take 1 cup of rice and fry it.  Turns out, if you don't cook and dry the rice it doesn't puff, it pops.  Well some of it pops.  Most of it just burns.  Here is that picture again:

   Ok.  So she was right about one thing.
 
   As I'm getting the third batch ready, I start to think: "What if I put cocoa powder and sugar in with the rice as it's cooking?  It would infuse more cocoay and sugary flavor into the cocoa pebbles."
   No.  Just no...
   See cooking the rice in that stuff created another outer layer around the rice.  And remember that was the whole point of cooking it first and then drying it out.
  The next morning when it was done drying out, it burned and popped.  Again.  Needless to say there isn't a picture of that one.  I was kind of frustrated.

   Note: There is someone in the comments who could not get it to puff because they did not dry out the rice long enough so don't do that either.  And even though I have never accomplished it, I think I see the way to do it.  Follow the recipe.  And for where she doesn't specify:  Cook 1 cup of rice.  It will take all day to dry.  And when you fry it, put it in a big pan where it can spread out and just fry it a little.  Let some of it puff but don't wait for all of it.

   So check out the recipe.  There's other little details I didn't mention.  Here I'll give it to you again just cuz I'm so nice.  Rice Krispies.