By Tara C.
While paying for some take-out at a local restaurant recently, I noticed a basket by the register of what appeared to be rice krispie treats topped with a dark caramel-colored topping. The topping turned out to be cajeta. If you are not familiar with cajeta, it is a Mexican confection made from sweetened carmelized milk.
When I hosted book club last week, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try this combination. This was my first attempt at making cajeta. I followed this recipe, which seemed easy enough. I replaced the vanilla bean with a cinnamon stick. The recipe I chose called for the milk and sugar mixture to be cooked in the crock pot for 10 hours on high. I turned on the crock pot when I went to bed and I awoke the next morning to a delightfully sugary smell. However, I soon discovered that my crock pot had bubbled over, splashing the sticky caramel sauce all over my counters and floors. Big mess. I suspect that my crock pot runs hot and this could have been avoided by leaving it on low instead of high. Anyway, there was still plenty of cajeta in the pot, and while it was probably a little darker in color than it was supposed to be, it tasted just fine. If I make cajeta again, I will probably either do it during the day so I can keep an eye on it, or maybe use a non-crock pot recipe like this one.
For the rice krispie treats I followed the traditional recipe, but added about a teaspoon of kosher salt when I was melting the butter. I think adding a little bit of salt to the bars was a nice contrast with the sweet cajeta. Once it was cool, I spread the cajeta over the top. The result was very good. Overall, I really enjoyed this combination. It's simple yet a little unexpected. You should give it a whirl the next time you're looking for something crunchy and sweet.
(photo from: me)
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