Gourmet Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
Incorporating brown butter is a simple way to elevate classic rice krispie treats to gourmet status. The brown butter flavor shines and really adds extra oomph to the final product, which is flavorful, satisfying, and simply impressive.
Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Gourmet taste with minimal effort. The hardest part is browning the butter, but even that is really simple. I have a separate post on how to brown butter if you’re especially nervous about this part.
- No fancy equipment or ingredients needed.
- Fast: only 5 minutes to prep and another 5 to cook. If you need a last-minute, impressive dessert, this is it!
- A sprinkle of sea salt makes this a balanced salty sweet treat, similar to my peanut butter rice krispie treats!
From my cosmic cookies and brown sugar pop tarts to my ding dong cake, I think I’ve developed something of a thing for taking nostalgic childhood treats and turning them into gourmet desserts. Today’s recipe is my latest addition.
What You Need
Just 5 ingredients, and none of them should surprise you!
- Butter. Just like when making my classic rice krispie treats, I like to splurge for European butter for this recipe too. It’s not a necessity, but it will make your treats taste even more gourmet. Note that unlike many of my recipes, I am using salted butter here.
- Vanilla and salt. As if brown butter wasn’t already flavorful enough, a pinch of sea salt and a dash of vanilla enhance the flavor of our treats even more! Make sure you wait to add the salt til after the treats have cooled for a bit though.
- Marshmallows. Stick with plain marshmallows. Mini or regular-sized marshmallows will work just as well, so use whichever you can find.
- Rice Krispies cereal. The name brand is a classic choice, but really any crisped rice cereal should be fine!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
- Brown the butter: cook the butter in a light-bottomed pan over medium-low heat until melted, then increase the heat to medium and stir. Do NOT walk away! The butter will start to bubble and pop, and once this slows down, you should see brown bits on the bottom of your pan. Now you have brown butter!
- Add the marshmallows: reduce the heat to low and stir in the vanilla and marshmallows. If you used unsalted butter, now would be the time to add your additional ¼ teaspoon of salt.
- Keep stirring until the marshmallows melt. Be gentle and don’t crank up the heat!
- Add the cereal: take the pot off the heat and add the cereal. Stir until uniformly coated.
- Press into your pan: gently spread the mixture into a greased baking dish (don’t be too firm with this or your rice krispie treats will be hard!) and let cool for a few minutes before adding your sea salt.
- Cut and enjoy! Once cooled, cut into squares and serve. If you greased your pan, you should have no issue removing the treats to do this.
