Rice Krispies Treats with Homemade Marshmallow

While my next planned baking adventure is making the best bacon-chocolate cupcakes possible using your suggestions, first I carried on my new found love for homemade marshmallow and made a total classic: Rice Krispies Treats. A little butter + marshmallow + cereal = a gooey, sweet, fun dessert bar. They’re simple and easy to make. Adding the homemade marshmallow makes it a little more complicated, but still totally doable since the rest of the recipe is so simple.

I also realized that they make a great treat for Passover when you get sick of chocolate matzo (if you are Sephardic and eat rice).

The homemade marshmallow made them more gooey and vanilla-y. I stayed with the classic recipe, but look forward to modifying it in the future. My favorite addition is M&Ms (frozen, so they don’t melt). What do you like in your Rice Krispies Treats?


Rice Krispies Treats with Homemade Marshmallow

  • 1 C cold water, divided in half
  • 1/2 C light corn syrup
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 C sugar
  • 2 t unflavored gelatin
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 3 T butter
  • 9-10 C Rice Krispies

Lightly grease a 13″x9″ baking dish.

In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 C cold water, corn syrup, sugar and pinch of salt. Whisk together over medium heat. Once sugar is dissolved, let sit unstirred until mixture reaches softball stage (around 235-240°F).

While sugar mixture is boiling, sprinkle gelatin over remaining 1/2 C cold water in a large, deep heatproof bowl (a stand mixer bowl is perfect for this). Let stand for about 1 minute, until it softens. Beat this at medium speed.

Once sugar mixture reaches softball stage, remove from heat and carefully pour into gelatin, avoiding the beaters and sides of the bowl. Immediately begin mixing on high speed, for 5-8 minutes, until mixture increases in volume and turns white and thick. Add vanilla and beat for a minute more.

While the marshmallow mixture is being mixed, melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add marshmallow to melted butter and mix together. Remove from heat and stir in Rice Krispies, one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly to ensure all pieces are coated. Press evenly into a greased 9 1/2″ x 13″ casserole dish and allow to cool for 1-2 hours.

25 Comments on Rice Krispies Treats with Homemade Marshmallow

  1. Angela
    April 7, 2010 at 7:56 am (14 years ago)

    I love adding some peanut butter and melted chocolate! Sometimes separately, sometimes both at the same time! I’ve been wanting to make my own marshmallows for some time now, so seeing this recipe is making me want to do it sooner rather than later!

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      April 7, 2010 at 1:52 pm (14 years ago)

      Peanut butter and chocolate – yum! I’ve never tried that but it sounds like a great idea.

  2. gargupie
    April 8, 2010 at 5:39 pm (14 years ago)

    It’s interesting that you add gelatin to it. Did you invent this? 🙂

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      April 8, 2010 at 6:45 pm (14 years ago)

      No, I wish! It’s a basic marshmallow recipe, which almost always have gelatin in them. It’s a lot better (IMO) than store-bought marshmallow – gooey, fluffy and smooth.

  3. Dina
    April 9, 2010 at 4:27 pm (14 years ago)

    great idea!

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      April 16, 2010 at 9:00 pm (14 years ago)

      Thanks Dina!

  4. Lisa
    May 1, 2011 at 7:56 pm (13 years ago)

    I have read that using homemade marshmallows has a tendency to make the rice crispies take on a stale-like, less crispy texture. Did you notice any difference in the texture when you made them?

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      May 1, 2011 at 8:07 pm (13 years ago)

      Hmm, I do remember them seeming a little stale, but I was using really old Rice Krispies so I chalked it up to that. I will have to try making them again soon and test out this theory.

  5. Jessica
    May 12, 2011 at 7:48 am (13 years ago)

    I’m very exited to try this recipe! I love that I won’t have to make the marshmallows first and let them sit overnight! I do have a questions though. I don’t see the amount of rice krispies needed in the ingredient list. Can you please tell me how many cups of rice krispies to use?

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      May 12, 2011 at 4:10 pm (13 years ago)

      @Jessica – wow, I can’t believe I forgot to include that crucial ingredient! I just updated the recipe with the butter and cereal amounts. Thanks for pointing out my mistake 🙂

  6. Darlene
    August 19, 2011 at 3:41 am (13 years ago)

    I am making these and wonder if they can be frozen for future use? My hubby’s a teacher and I would love to make these for him to take to work each day – but on the side of the cereal box it says they should be eaten within a day. Thoughts?
    Darlene recently posted I Took His Hand and Followed

    Reply
    • Stephanie
      August 19, 2011 at 10:10 am (13 years ago)

      @Darlene – I’ve never tried freezing them myself. I think if you store them in an air-tight container they should keep for 1-2 weeks. If you don’t want to waste an entire batch, I would try freezing one or two bars and see what happens. Let me know how it goes – I’m really curious now!

  7. Mischka
    November 16, 2011 at 12:07 pm (12 years ago)

    Wow, sounds delicious! I randomly googled ‘goey marshmallow treats’ and found this! Hehe, congrats, it was at the top! – POPULAR SITE 😀
    I’d love to try this but unfortunately I don’t fancy making a mess in the kitchen! I’ll try it someday though, don’t you worry!

    Reply
  8. Eric
    September 30, 2012 at 12:58 pm (12 years ago)

    When you add the marshmallow to the butter, do you melt the marshmallow so that all the air is gone or do you just combine the butter and marshmallow. When I made them the other day, I let the marshmallows set and then melted them. I like skipping the step of letting them set, but was curious what would happen if you tried to make the treats with marshmallow goo that still had all the air in it.

    Reply
  9. Sara
    December 8, 2013 at 12:24 pm (10 years ago)

    I made these and they did make the rice crispies taste stale. Which is unfortunate because the flavor of the homemade marshmallows was AWESOME… Any suggestions?!

    Reply
  10. Tiare
    February 11, 2016 at 1:12 am (8 years ago)

    Darn! I wish I had read these comments before making these. They looked so good I just went for it, but mine came out stale too! And I used a brand new box of rice krispies. Any solutions?! Thank you

    Reply
  11. Karen A Wells
    April 26, 2016 at 4:47 pm (8 years ago)

    Very, Very easy to do. No off taste like packaged marshmallows leave behind. I surprised even me that these would turn out well given my inexperience with making “candy” things. Getting the temp right was easy. Follows the instructions without deviations.

    Reply
  12. A
    December 1, 2016 at 9:30 am (7 years ago)

    Teaspoon or trablespoons? You just put T. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Stephanie Saunders
      December 1, 2016 at 9:09 pm (7 years ago)

      Lowercase t = teaspoon
      Uppercase T = Tablespoon
      Enjoy! 🙂

  13. Randy
    December 31, 2016 at 8:08 am (7 years ago)

    Anyone know how to combat the ‘stale Krispies’ with HM marshmallows? I tried a chocolate marshmallow recipe, added melted butter the last minute of mixing the marshmallows, and added a box of Rice Krispies. The next morning, the krispies tasted soggy, as I’ve read in other posts online. Any suggestions to keep the Krispies crispy? Thanks for any suggestions….

    Reply
    • Dawn Dodge
      May 30, 2017 at 11:42 am (7 years ago)

      Did you ever find a solution? I’m looking for the answer as well!

  14. Cheri
    October 3, 2019 at 9:31 am (4 years ago)

    I am wondering if the butter is what is making the rice krispies stale. If using homemade marshmallow batter before setting, do you need butter?

    Reply
    • Holly Watson
      January 15, 2021 at 8:04 am (3 years ago)

      it’s the higher moisture content in homemade marshmallows. They make the cereal soft.

  15. Kit
    April 5, 2020 at 2:10 pm (4 years ago)

    I just made these, and they came out stale/soggy for me as well. I looked at other marshmallow recipes, and most others call for 2 1/2-3 Tbs. gelatin (I used 2 1/2 Tbs.), which is a good bit more gelatin, vs. the 2 tsp. that this recipe calls for. I thought maybe that would be the reason. Still, once I mixed the rice krispies in, I could tell that the ratio of marshmallow creme to cereal was off; there was too much marshmallow creme in relation to cereal, but I didn’t have any more cereal to remedy it. So, I suspect that the solution is to cut the marshmallow part of the recipe by a third or half so that there isn’t excess moisture making the cereal soggy. I really think the solution is that simple. With that in mind, I need to make this again sometime and let you know how they turn out.

    Reply
  16. Stacey R-M
    December 6, 2020 at 9:45 am (3 years ago)

    So everytime i have tried with homemade marahmellows into rice crispy treats, rhey go so stale… All fresh ingredients but still stale, so i tried again with store bought and they where perfect, my problem is my husband is allergic to SOMETHING in store bought mearshmellows – not gelatin. Im so puzzled at what to do x

    Reply

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