BROWNED BUTTER RICE KRISPIE TREATS😍

I don’t care how old you are, if there’s rice krispie treats around, you will eat 5.. ok maybe 7. I’m gonna come out and say these are the best things to happen to the rice krispie treat world since someone decided that mallows and cereal should go together. A little salty sweet action, nuttiness from the browned butter, plus perfect little pockets of mallow goo make this the biggest hit of your Christmas season sweets. They’re also so fun to make with family, whether that’s in person or over facetime for you this year. You’re gonna wanna make these ASAP!

Makes 20-24 squares.

Ingredients:

For the Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats:

• 1 cup salted butter

• 2 10oz bags mini marshmallows

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 10 cups rice krispie cereal (about 10oz)

• ¼ tsp salt

Optional Add Ins:

• If you want to be a bit festive, you can top these with green and red M&Ms!

Directions:

For the Best Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats:

• Set aside 1½ cups of mini marshmallows.

• Add butter to a large soup pot or dutch oven (preferably one with a light colored bottom - it will help to see the color of the butter to tell when it’s browned) on medium heat.

• Use the wrappers from the butter to grease a 9x13 glass baking dish and line with parchment paper. Use two sheets if you need to to create some overhang which will make it easier to pull out the rice krispie treats.

• It will take anywhere from 5-8 minutes for the butter to get browned, and usually the point from a brown color to a burnt color is less than a minute, so you don’t want to take your eyes off of it. Once the butter is melted, you’ll see the butter separate from the milk solids. From there, it will start to get super foamy where you can barely see the liquid at the bottom. Stir frequently at this point, because it will go from golden brown to brown in just a few seconds. 

• Reduce the heat to low and add all the marshmallows except the 1 ½ cups you set aside, plus the vanilla extract and salt. Stir frequently with a rubber spatula, stirring from the bottom up to bring the browned butter up and onto the marshmallows. If you see the butter getting darker, shut off the heat and continue the process.

• Stir until the marshmallows are just about all melted, then add in the reserved 1 ½ cups of marshmallows. Stir until just starting to melt. Don’t overmix as this is what creates those little pockets of marshmallow fluff.

• Add in the cereal and mix quickly until fully combined, ensuring you are coating all the cereal in the marshmallow mixture. You want to move quickly here as it will get increasingly more difficult to mix as the mixture cools - I swear it’s an arm workout!

• Quickly transfer to the parchment lined baking dish and flatten with a rubber spatula. If using, press the M&Ms into the top of the rice krispie treats. 

• Let cool at room temperature for about an hour. Using the parchment paper overhang, pull the treats out of the baking dish and onto a cutting board to cut into squares. Enjoy!