For fans of Rice Krispies treats, meet snowflake crisp, a popular Taiwanese confection. Think of this as a lighter version of nougat, but much easier to make at home with just a few ingredients. At Taiwanese bakeries, it’s common to find snowflake crisp filled with a sweet-salty combination of nuts, dried fruit, and a buttery cracker like Ritz crackers. The key to this dessert is the texture. In Taiwan, this texture is known as QQ, which refers to bouncy and chewy food, like mochi, boba, or even rice noodles.
For our take, we use crunchy Biscoff cookies, which lend subtle sweet notes of caramel and malt. The rest of the filings are a tried and true combination of roasted pistachios, dried cranberries, and white chocolate. The key ingredient here is milk powder, which provides chewiness and extra bounciness to the marshmallow base, plus it provides the “snowflake” topping.
While simple, some technique is involved since the mixture will be sticky…and bouncy! Melt together marshmallows and butter until the marshmallows are dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Turn off heat, stir in the milk powder and the fillings. Use a silicon spatula to mix all the ingredients, then transfer the mixture to a prepared baking dish lined with parchment and use the walls of the dish to shape the crisp into a rectangular shape. If the mixture is too sticky, use disposable gloves to stretch and shape the crisp into a rectangle shape. Dust all sides of the crisp with more milk powder for extra chewiness, slice, and divide.
If you want to make ahead, you can store these in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days.
Did you try making this? Let us know how it went in the comments!