The BEST Rice Krispie Treats Recipe

Made with simple ingredients and a secret ingredient, this soft rice krispie treats recipe is the best rice krispie treat recipe ever! Homemade rice krispie treats win over store bought everytime and I promise you this is the best recipe for rice krispie treats is one your family will love.

The Best Rice Krispie Treats Recipe

I remember being a kid and coming home from school to see a baking dish of rice krispie treats sitting on the counter and it was always something that I loved my mom making.When I had kids I knew from the get go that one of the first things I was going to do was teach my kids to make this classic cerael bar treat. They all have been taught and I know they are going to be teaching their kids when they have them because it is the go to special treat to make in our house.

I only recently realized I had never shared this classic rice crispy treat recipe on the blog and I can not believe that this easy rice krispies took me so long to share. This homemade rice crispy treats recipe is one that you need to add to the recipe box! Soft cereal bars with marshmallows and crispy rice cereal that when combined (along with a few other ingredients) make for the most amazing soft and chewy rice krispies you will ever eat.

It doesn’t matter if you call them rice crispy treats, rice krispie treats, crispy rice treats, or rice crispie treats it is all the same. Soft cereal treats made with marshmallows and rice cereal that bring back memories of being a kid. This is the perfect rice krispie treat recipe and one that I am sure you are going to make your family go to recipe after you make it once.

These treats are always a crowd pleaser and always loved when I share them with friends and family members.

Tips for Making The Best Rice Krispie Treats

Do not pack the cereal and marshmallow mixture in to the pan. To achieve soft, and chewy while being crispy marshmallow rice krispie treats you want to be gentle when pressing the mixture into your baking pan.

Use a silicone spatula. I find it best to use a silicone spatula or spoon and spray it generously with non stick spray. Then I gently spread with out pushing down hard, the cereal and marshmallow mixture into my baking dish. This gives the perfect rice krispie treats with out them being hard.

Use a large bowl. Make sure to use a bowl big enough for the 6 cups of cereal when melting the marshmallows to reduce the amount of dishes used.

Be gentle when pressing cereal mixture into glass baking dish. You do not want to press hard, you want to be gentle and you want to be soft when you are pressing the mixture into the baking dish.

Use fresh marshmallows. It is super important that you use fresh marshmallows when making rice crispy treats or you will end up with hard krispy treats and not soft and chewy treats that you love.

Use a greased spatula. The cereal and marshmallow mixture is sticky when you remove it from the pot to put it into the baking dish, so using a greased spatula will make things much easier.

How do you color Rice Krispie Treats?

If you want to color rice crispies when you have mixed the melted butter and the marshmallow together add a few drops of food coloring and mix to color the mixture. You can use any food coloring color that you want to and it is super easy to color them to match any holiday you are celebrating.

How do you prevent sticking to the pan when making rice krispie treats?

When you are making these line your baking dish with greased parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper on hand make sure you grease your baking dish well. I use nonstick baking spray to grease my baking dishes and parchment paper.

Rice Krispie Treat Variations

There are lots of ways that you can change up your traditional rice krispies treats, you can check out some of our other rice krispie treat recipes for some ideas as well. Any addins that you want to add you will want to add after you have added the cereal to the marshmallow mixture and stir gently before transferring to the baking dish. Any toppings that you want to add are best added after the cereal treats have been placed in the baking dish.

Add a drizzle of chocolate. Melt white chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate, and then drizzle it on top. You can also use caramel syrup or caramel topping. You can also use colored candy melts too. It is super easy to melt chocolate when you are using a double boiler.

Add in candy pieces. M&Ms, Reese’s pieces, and chopped candy bars are all great options. If adding them you will want to add about a cup of them to the mixture before adding the cereal bar mixture to the baking dish and carefully stir them in.

Add extra marshmallows. After you have mixed the melted marshmallow mixture with the cereal add in an additional cup of nonmelted marshmallows.

Add Chocolate chips. Add in 1 cup of mini chocolate chips or regular sized chocolate chips (milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, or white chocolate) is a great add in for rice krispies.

Add nuts. These can be a mixin or on the top, peanuts, walnuts and pecans are all great options.

Change up the cereal. They now make a lot of different flavors including cinnamon sugar rice krispies, cocoa krispies and holiday colored ones. You can also use the Gluten free rice krispie cereal, but also make sure the marshmallows you use are also gluten free.

Add sprinkles. Want to make them festive for a holiday, sprinkle holiday themed sprinkles on top after adding them to the baking dish.

Rice Krispie treat recipes

• Valentine’s Day Rice Krispie treats
• M&M Rice Krispie Treats
• Chocolate Covered Rice Krispies
• Snowball Rice Krispie
• Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie
• Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie treats
• Christmas Tree Rice Krispie Treats
• Christmas tree rice krispie
• Pumpkin spice rice krispie treats
• White Chocolate Pecan rice Krispie treats

Tips for Cutting Rice Krispie Treats

• Cutting down the middle first both length and width wise will help get nice and even sized pieces.
• Use a Sharp knife.
• Don’t cut them to soon, allow them to cool a bit.

How to make Cereal treats thicker?

I like using a 9×13 baking dish, but if you want thicker rice crispy treats then you will want to use an 8-inch baking dish.

How to store Rice Krispie Treats

You can store them in an airtight container right out at room temperature for about three days. If you need to extend their life, you can place them in the fridge for up to five days.

Can I freeze Rice Krispie treats?

Yes! These treats can also be frozen. Simply place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, once frozen, place in a zip loc bag. They can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Why are my Rice Krispie treats hard?

The biggest culprit of hard rice Krispie treats is using stale marshmallows, it is important to use fresh soft marshmallows.

How do you make Rice Krispie Treats soft again?

If your rice Krispie treats are hard then you can put them in an airtight container with a piece of bread and let them sit overnight and the bread will pull the moisture from them making them soft again.

Rice Krispie Treats Ingredients

• Rice Krispies cereal. You can use the name brand or store brand cereal and you can use different flavors too.
• Unsalted butter. If you want a saltier taste you can use salted butter, but it needs to be real butter not the spreadable butter or margarine.
• Mini Marshmallows (10 cups of mini marshmallows) Make sure they are fresh and soft. You will end up with hard cereal treats if you use stale marshmallows.
• Pinch of salt. You can use table salt or sea salt.
• Pure vanilla extract. You can use store bought vanilla but I find that homemade vanilla is so much better. It is also a must that it is REAL Vanilla and not imitation vanilla.

How to Make Rice Krispie Treats

Lightly coat a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray, add parchment paper and set aside.

Place a large non-stick pot or dutch oven on your stove on medium-low heat. 

Add the butter and melt completely. Let the butter bubble till it turns a nice light golden brown butter, be careful not to burn the butter.

Remove the pot from the heat and add in the mini marshmallows, stirring into the butter. 

Place the pot back on the heat and stir gently till the marshmallows are melted completely and mixed with the butter to make a melted marshmallow mixture. 

Add in the vanilla extract and give it a quick mix.

Add in the Rice Krispie cereal to the melted marshmallows and stir until they are well combined.

Transfer the mixture to the baking dish.

Gently press your Rice Krispie mixture into the pan with a greased spatula. Let cool completely.

Using a sharp knife, cut into 16 pieces.

No Bake Treats

• No bake cherry Cheesecake
• Chocolate Lasagna
• Cheesecake Dessert Cheeseball
• Chocolate cheesecake Bars
• Banana cream pie