Rice Krispie Treats
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A childhood favorite you never outgrow—this Rice Krispie Treat recipe gets a few simple upgrades for even more gooey, buttery goodness.
I’m always hesitant to say a recipe is the “best ever,” especially for a dessert like Rice Krispie Treats that everyone knows and loves. But once you’ve tinkered with a recipe for weeks—asking your kids, their friends, and anyone who passes through your house to sample different versions—you can say it’s the best with some confidence. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the original back-of-the-box Rice Krispie treat recipe, but it can be made so much better with almost no effort.
Here’s how: I use more butter and brown it for a deeper, nuttier flavor, add extra marshmallows and fold some in at the end for gooey pockets throughout, and finish with vanilla and a little salt to balance the sweetness. The result is everything I want in a Rice Krispie treat: buttery, gooey, chewy, and crisp without being hard.
“These really are the BEST rice krispie treats! Moist, delicious, and full of gooey marshmallow goodness!”
What You’ll Need To Make Rice Krispie Treats
- Butter: Using more than the classic recipe makes the treats richer and softer, and browning it adds a deep, nutty flavor.
- Mini marshmallows: I use two bags and reserve some to fold in at the end, creating gooey pockets throughout the treats.
- Rice Krispies: The classic choice, though another crispy rice cereal will work, too. Make sure the cereal is fresh for the best crunch.
- Vanilla & salt: Vanilla rounds out the flavor, while salt balances all that sweetness and brings out the flavor of the browned butter.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Rice Krispie Treats
Brown the butter: Melt the butter over medium heat and continue cooking until it turns golden brown and smells nutty. A light-colored pot makes it much easier to see the color change. Watch carefully toward the end—once the milk solids begin to brown, they can burn quickly.
Add the marshmallows: Stir in most of the marshmallows and cook just until completely melted, then remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
Add the cereal and reserved marshmallows: Fold in the Rice Krispies until evenly coated, then add the reserved marshmallows. They’ll soften slightly from the heat but won’t melt completely, leaving gooey pockets throughout the treats.
Press into the pan: Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press it into an even layer without compacting it too firmly (the butter wrappers come in handy here). A light hand keeps the treats tender and chewy rather than dense and hard. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Cut into squares: Lift the treats out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve. You can store the treats in an airtight container at room temperature for several days days or freeze them for longer storage.
Video Tutorial
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Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- Two (10-oz) bags mini marshmallows, divided
- ¾ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8½ cups Rice Krispies or crispy rice cereal (see note)
Instructions
- Line a 9 x 13-in (23 x 33-cm) pan with heavy duty aluminum foil and lightly grease with softened butter. Set aside 2 cups (110 g) of the marshmallows.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, preferably with a light bottom so you can monitor the color, melt the butter over medium heat (save the butter wrappers; you’ll use them later for pressing the mixture into the pan). Swirl the pan occasionally to be sure the butter is cooking evenly.
- As the butter melts, it will begin to bubble and foam, and the color will progress from bright yellow to golden to, finally, a toasty-brown. Once you smell that nutty brown butter aroma, take the pan off the heat. (You’ll see little bits of golden brown sediment forming; that’s okay. However, if the sediment looks almost black, go ahead and pass the butter through a fine sieve to strain it out, then return the brown butter to the pan.)
- Off the heat, add the remaining marshmallows, vanilla, and salt.
- Place the pot back over medium heat and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the marshmallows are completely melted. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cereal. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir until evenly combined.
- Add the reserved marshmallows and stir until they are softened and partially melted. Don’t overmix; you want pockets of goo. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and, using the butter wrapper or damp fingers, press the mixture gently into an even layer in the prepared baking pan. Let cool at room temperature for at least an hour.
- Use the foil overhang to lift the treats onto a cutting board, then use a serrated bread knife to cut into squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you’re following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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This is our go to rice krispie treat recipe! We LOVE this recipe!
For camping we make a S’mores version.
S’mores additions/changes:
7 C rice krispies + 3 C golden grahams OR cinnamon toast cruch
Reserve 1 C of mini marshmallows (topping)
1 4.25oz Hershey bar broken into individual squares (topping)
1 C mini chocolate chips or regular chocolate chips (topping)
Make recipe. While still warm sprinkle reserved marshmallows and chocolate chips across the top. You make have to push the marshmallows in a bit. Then push mini Hershey bars into each serving. These are great for camping when you can’t make S’mores due to fire restrictions (even if we can make S’mores I prefer these).
My go to recipe! So soft, chewy and great flavor.
If you are planning on making Rice Crispey treats. Make These. You’ll thank me.
I have one 12oz bag of the regular sized marshmallows can I use this instead of the small ones?
Hi Patty, I’ve never tried this with big marshmallows, but I suspect you could use them if you cut them in quarters before starting the recipe. (Keep in mind that they may take slightly longer to melt.) You mentioned that the bag is 12 ounces — keep in mind that you’ll still need an additional 8 ounces for the recipe.
Hi, this is a question (i didn’t make it yet). How many ounces of Rice Krispies is 8.5 cups? I think that’s the reason why some people stated it didn’t come out for them. Because when I tried my measuring via my large glass measuring cup it came to approx. 10.5 oz. whereas when i used my single-cup plastic measure, it came to less than 10 ounces.
Hi Judy, 8.5 cups weigh 240 g or 8.5 ounces. I would use your single measuring cup, as your large glass measuring cup is for liquid measures and will not give you the correct amount.
Update: (see the link to my pic further down) I made it but it was a nightmare, and worsened my arthritic hands. It was WAY too difficult to mix, like trying to mix dense glue. And eating it, is sorta like eating taffy-candy krisps.
I had used 10.2 ounces krispies because the recipe didn’t state weight. So i decided to add more krispies, hoping that would make it easier to mix, but it didn’t. I managed to transfer most of it to the pan, but not all of it. (That’s because the remainder was so stuck to the pot, that only washing with hot water, and flushing the entire wet gook down the toilet cleaned the rest of the pot).
Then i had to use my very-weak muscle power to the max – to press it all down into the pan. But because it was so dense, it was impossible to make it all be a uniform height. So some parts were much shorter than others.
Then i had to use a hammer on my flower cookie-cutter to cut out each one. Without the hammer, it was too dense to press. So that meant hammering all around the cutter for nearly 30 cut-outs. This caused the cutter to become bent out of shape. Each cut-out, was like hammering into the side of an angled mountain, because the surface was uneven, like hills-and-dales.
Hi Judy, I’m so sorry to hear about the experience you had; it sounds like it was very frustrating! I’m confident the problem came from using too much cereal. For future reference, if you’d like weight measures, the great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe and immediately below the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a small toggle. If you switch it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. That said, thanks for sharing the pic with me. Despite the challenges you had, the Rice Krispie flowers look pretty!
But it doesn’t make sense – because with either measure that i used (whether the big glass measurer OR the plastic single-cup-measure) the 8.5-cups came to minimum 10-oz.
Thus, even had i used the plastic-cup measurer, it would have been too much rice-krispies, as per my OP above.
So the only answer to this may be to measure 8.5-ounces krispies, no matter which krispies people use. How so many posters here were successful, is what i can’t fathom. Though i did see at least one or two commenters who shared my experience.
Try a different recipe if this one is too difficult to follow.
These are hands down the best!!
Have you ever made a chocolate version? If so could you post? 🙂
Hi Lindsey, I haven’t made a chocolate version but I’ll add it to my list. Glad you enjoyed! 🙂
Awesome Rice Krispie treat recipe! Wouldn’t change a thing. Like others, I too get requests to make these for events. Many of the requests come from people that typically do not like Rice Krispie treats.
The issue some people have with Rice Krispie treats is they tend to be hard…not these! And the brown butter, salt, and vanilla really elevate the flavor.
The reason these come out so soft and delicious is because of the variations from the original recipe…extra marshmallows, browning the butter, etc. It felt like this had to be said given some of the reviews that seem to entirely miss the point. I understand they may not be everyone’s favorite Rice Krispie treat recipe, but that does not mean the recipe is written incorrectly. 😊
Hi Jen, I would love to make these for a bridal shower sweet table dipped in white chocolate on a stick. Would it work to cut the squares in half so they are thinner? And therefore increase the number of pieces.
Sure, Connie, that’s fine. Hope everyone enjoys!
Absolutely perfect!!
These are divine! Thank you for such an amazing recipe. I will not make them any other way moving forward! ❤️