Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats

A grown-up spin on the kid-favorite Rice Krispies treats

I’ve chronicled my interesting diet as a child before – how I was picky (or a “purist” as I like to describe it), how I ate vegetable sushi and a whole pint of sliced strawberries for school lunches, and mostly how I managed to miss out on a lot of classic kid-favorite foods. It wasn’t really until college that I started tasting some of these kids' menu favorites and started trying to make them at home, which is why it shouldn’t be too surprising that last weekend was the first time I’ve ever made rice krispies treats. I’d eaten a few at parties growing up, but since my mom never made them they were always sort of a mystery to me. Luckily, a recipe in Smitten Kitchen caught my eye and now I can sing the praises of the easiest ever dessert, a real crowd-pleaser that can be made in minutes. The brown butter and salt adds a wonderfully nuttiness and complexity to the lighter-than-air treats and I like to amp up the amount of marshmallow so they’re extra sticky.

Related Recipes:
- Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Flourless Chocolate Cake

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats:

• Melt 8 tbsp. of butter in a large pan until it foams, turns clear, and then start to brown.*
• Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and add in 16 oz. marshmallows and a pinch of flaked sea salt.
• Stir until the marshmallows completely melt and turn smooth, then turn off the heat from under the pan.
• Stir in 6 c. rice krispies cereal until coated with the marshmallow sauce.
• Pour into a well-buttered baking dish** and press down to pack them in and smooth the top.***
• Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or until hardened.
• Cut into squares and serve.

Serves eight-twelve

*Watch carefully, butter goes from brown to burnt very quickly.

**Such as a 9"x9" or 9"x13" pan.

***I like to spray my hands with non-stick spray to easy pat them in.