I love Rice Krispie Treats. Love. Them. I was flipping through one of my newest cookbooks, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, and I saw this recipe. I immediately knew that this was the recipe I would christen my cookbook purchase with. If it is possible to make a Rice Krispie treat elegant, this is how you do it. And on a side note, this is a great cookbook. I was hard-pressed to find something that I didn’t want to make in it. If you like to bake, and maybe want to try some more advanced things, this is a great book to have. I digress.
Browned butter. Vanilla bean. Marshmallow. Heaven.
Not only is the flavor amazing, from the browned butter and vanilla bean, but the marshmallow/Rice Krispie ratio is perfect. One of my peeves is a weak marshmallow-to-cereal ratio. I like heavy marshmallow, and this recipe delivers.
If you have never browned butter before, do not let it scare you. It is really easy, but is a lot like caramel. You have to pay attention. You cannot leave it to fold a load of laundry or step away to get the mail. It goes from perfect to I-need-throw-away-two-sticks-of-butter-and-start-over-this-stinks in about 2 seconds flat.
1 cup butter
1/2 vanilla bean
2 (10-ounce) bags marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
9 cups Rice Krispies
Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Find a really big bowl and measure out 9 cups of cereal. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat.
Cut the vanilla bean in half, and scrape the seeds with the back of a knife.
Add the vanilla to the melting butter.
The butter will foam and make some noise. It will bubble and crack.
It will start to turn a golden brown color. Watch it carefully because it can burn very quickly.
When the butter is ready, the bubbling will stop and will be brown. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
Add the marshmallows.
Stir over low heat until marshmallows are completely melted.
See the flecks of brown butter and vanilla beans? You have no idea that a Rice Krispie treat could be this good.
Pour the mamarshmallow over the Rice Krispies. Coat completely with marshmallow.
Press into the prepared 9×13 pan. A trick that makes packing them into the pan easy – I always have disposable gloves on hand. I use them for everything. Spray your gloved hand with cooking spray and press the treats tightly in the pan. Let sit for 2 hours at room temperature before slicing.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 2 (10-ounce) bags marshmallows
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 9 cups Rice Krispies
Instructions
- Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Find a really big bowl and measure out 9 cups of cereal. Set aside.
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Cut the vanilla bean in half, and scrape the seeds with the back of a knife. Add the vanilla to the melting butter. The butter will foam and make some noise. It will bubble and crack. It will start to turn a golden brown color. Watch it carefully because it can burn very quickly. When the butter is ready, the bubbling will stop and will be brown. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the marshmallows. Stir over low heat until marshmallows are completely melted. Pour the mamarshmallow over the Rice Krispies. Coat completely with marshmallow.
- Press into the prepared 9×13 pan. Let sit for 2 hours at room temperature before slicing.
Week 4 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats hosted by Meal Planning Magic.
I am Bree. I love to cook. Even more than I love to take pictures.
I love all homemade “Krispie” treats. These sound like the grown up kind, and one you wouldn’t be ashamed to send as Christmas presents
Heather recently posted..You can’t go to Maui and not snorkel
Yummy!!! Those look so tasty! I think they are very elegant
Carlas Confections recently posted..Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Surprise
My boyfriend has been snacking on storebought Rice Krispies treats for weeks now, and I’ve been telling him that I could make better (and probably healthier?) ones for him that would be SOOO much better. I think now I’ve found the recipe that will sway him!
Katie @ Blonde Ambition recently posted..Friday Faves
I don’t know about healthier… but these are amazing.
I too hate when a rice krispie marshmallow to cereal ratio is off. It is definitely one of my pet peeves. But I would rather have a little too much cereal than not enough. When there’s not enough cereal to the enormous amount of marshmallow goo, it’s just a sad treat.
I’ve really gotten into making different kind of rice krispie treats lately, so I’m going to have to save this for when I’m home for Christmas (I’ve got some vanilla beans stashed away in the pantry
)
Becca – Cookie Jar Treats recently posted..Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie Treats
I am the opposite! I like more marshmallow than cereal. If you make this one, I would halve the amount of butter and use 1 bag of marshmallows if you prefer that ratio.
Mmmmm….I will be making these soon!!! I am certain I could eat the whole batch myself
I had to get rid of them. Otherwise, I would have eaten the whole batch.
Oh yum. Amazing!
Erin @ Making Memories recently posted..Candy Corn Cookies
These were beyond delicious. I had to give them all away, or I would have eaten them all.
These look so yummy! I have kind of an airhead question though. Are you using the seeds from bean?
Yes, you get the seeds out from the pod.
I made these over the weekend while my husband and son were on a road trip checking out colleges. My teenage daughter was a little skeptical about the vanilla bean flecks in “her” rice krispie treats (she doesn’t even like vanilla bean ice cream, how weird is that?), but I told her to trust me. When the treats had cooled down enough to eat, she tried one a little reluctantly and after one bite I couldn’t keep her away from them! This is the only way to make rice krispie treats from now on! Thank you for sharing.
Vanilla bean flecks are my favorite thing on the planet!
This is a great version of rice krispie treats.
Annamaria @ Bakewell Junction recently posted..12 Weeks of Christmas Treats ~ Week 4 ~ Giant Ginger Cookies
Yes, it really is. Who knew that Rice Krispie Treats could be so good?
i knew i had to make these the very second i saw this recipe! it’s been a long time since i last made rice kripsie treats and was wondering if they were actually going to taste much different than the generic recipe.
i whipped up a batch on sunday and holy cow…these were so amazing! i brought half of them to my office and even men, who will eat anything, stopped to be like, oh my gosh these are sooo good!
Aren’t they??? Who knew that a rice krispie treat could be so good?
You weren’t kidding when you said these rice krispie treats have the perfect marshmallow to cereal ratio – they look amazingly gooey and chewy! I always make sure my Rice Krispies squares are packed full of marshmallow (who the heck wants a dry mouthful of cereal?). And the idea of browning the butter and adding vanilla bean is simple but brilliant. Your squares are so perfectly square too – I never cut mine that prettily. Great job!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked recently posted..Chocolate Rosemary Sea Salt Cookies for 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats
They cut really well when they have sat for a few hours. Also a really sharp knife helps.
I cannot wait to try these! I notice that the recipe calls for salt, but in reading through the directions I don’t find instructions for when to add it. Did you put it in with the vanilla and butter? Thanks for sharing!
Kristyn recently posted..Easy, Quick, Amazing Zucchini Soup
Yes.
Best rice krispie treats EVER. Ever, ever. To keep from finishing the pan myself, I sent them to work with my husband. Rave reviews there, too. Thank you!
Shawna {The Blue Muse} recently posted..Thursday 13: Confessions, volume VII, the political edition
I had to do the same thing. I had to get them out of the house.
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I want to commend this post. Rice Krispies has been trying to push a new recipe as “The Original”, when it’s far from the truth. What you have posted here is much closer to the recipe from many decades ago, which was originally published on the Rice Krispie box. My aunt made treats in the 80′s when I was a real wee little thing, and they were luscious and crazy good. A few years ago, I tried to make some treats, but the new recipe was disgusting. I knew something had to be amiss, because there was NO WAY I screwed the pooch three times, while following the recipe directions to the letter. So I knew the recipe was to blame. I had to scour old recipe boxes I was finding at thrift stores and from people I was asking, to find the ACTUAL original. It was pretty much simply:
1 stick of butter (assumed salted because there was no salt in the recipe) or margarine (always salted)
1 10 oz bag of marsmallows
x vanilla, don’t remember exact quantity, but we can assume something reasonable like a teaspoon
1 box of rice krispie cereal, which at the time was 5 to 6 cups. These days, it’s the “small” box.
THAT was the real recipe my aunt made, because when I made this version, they were perfect. And they looked much like what you have there. In my mind this is what I want, when I want a rice crispie treat. I think the new “Original” recipe is a messy atrocity that makes dry, impalpable cereal bricks. So THANK YOU for being like the only person on the internet, who is posting the same essential recipe. We need to stop being stupid. Rice Krispie treats are not a health food, and never will be.
Put in the f***ing butter.
Wow, you are passionate about Rice Krispie Treats!
These were so good! I made them for dessert last night. I used a whole vanilla bean (since you can get them pretty cheaply now–I got mine from IndriVanilla.com for fifty cents apiece) and added a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract to the marshmallows before melting them. The browned butter makes the flavor amazing, and I love that they’re plenty soft and marshmallowy! I realized just as I was finished mixing them that my 9×13 pan was dirty, so I improvised with a cookie sheet, and they fit in one of those perfectly. Repinned this with my definite recommendation. Thanks for the delicious treat!
Aren’t they? I love these. I should make some tomorrow.