My Kitchen, Your Recipe: Mary Iseler's Church Windows

By MARY ALICE HOLT

Jill Pickett

Mary Iseler of Elizabethtown has sent us a recipe from her childhood — Church Windows. She says she’s not sure where the recipe originated, but she’s guessing it would have been the Port Huron Times Herald.

Mary came from a farm family, and she says her family always got the newspaper by mail, one day late. The family took the local weekly newspaper too (also through the mail), but her mother thought it was important to have a newspaper with more than local news, so they also took the Port Huron Times Herald. Mary says she’s never seen this recipe anywhere except in her family. I’ve never seen a recipe like this either. It’s really interesting and would be great to make with kids.

I’m not sure if this should be called a candy or a cookie, but it’s tasty and perfect for Christmas.

Mary Alice Holt can be reached at (270) 505-1751, or at maholt@thenewsenterprise.com.

CHURCH WINDOWS

1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 stick butter

1 bag colored miniature marshmallows (10.5 ounces)

2 cups Rice Krispies

1 cup chopped nuts (Mary uses walnuts)

Combine the chocolate chips and butter; heat on low until just melted, stirring constantly.

Pour chocolate mixture over the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly; you want each marshmallow, Rice Krispie and nut to be individually covered to make them stick together. This is easier than it sounds, but just keep mixing. Form into rolls. Chill until set. Slice to serve.

Mary suggests always using real butter with this. She says the tricks to the recipe are: 1) only heat the chocolate chips/butter combo until just melted or it will melt the marshmallows and you don't want that; 2) when forming the rolls be sure to get all the air out; Mary uses two sheets of waxed paper about 18 inches long, puts ½ of the mixture on each sheet and works the long sides back and forth (sort of forming and squishing the rolls). She then double-folds the waxed paper (long edges), folds up the ends and sticks it in the refrigerator to harden. This is hard to explain; Mary grew up watching it done so it seems easy to her. It definitely wasn’t hard, but I wasn’t sure I was doing it right until I saw the end product. Just follow her directions and you can’t go wrong. It really doesn’t have to be any particular shape. When you slice the rolls, you see the colored marshmallows which makes it look like a stained glass window.

Mary has also tried pressing the mixture in some bread molds with mixed results. I tried that too but had trouble getting the mixture out of the molds. Another problem with using molds is that you wouldn’t have the church window effect; that only comes when you slice a piece off. Don’t worry if your rolls of the mixture turn out more oblong than round in shape; mine did too, and Mary says hers do too.

Mary says the taste would be good with white mini-marshmallows, but it wouldn't be so pretty. She has used all types of chips (milk and white chocolate, peanut butter, mint chocolate). In her opinion the semi-sweet is best and looks the best. She says it would probably be good if you used coconut instead of the nuts, but she hasn’t tried it.