These red, white, and blue Rice Krispie treats are a fun patriotic take on a classic and easy dessert. A couple of special ingredients enhance a traditional recipe to make them extra yummy.
How To Doctor Rice Krispies Treats
Posting a recipe for Rice Krispies treats feels a little silly, right? Everyone knows how to make these things. But I wanted to make some fun patriotic themed treats because sometimes when I'm planning a family get together or party and need something fun and decorative for my dessert table, I totally forget how easy and versatile these things are. They look so cute and festive with almost no work or special skill required.
Aside from showing you the easy way I decorated these treats, I also like to add a couple of special ingredients that are not included in the original Rice Krispies treats recipe from Kellogg's: a pinch of salt and some pure vanilla extract.
Yup, it doesn't seem like it's anything special or fancy, but I promise those two little additions will make these already tasty childhood treats just that much more yummy. Give it a try!
Possible Problems
Running into some issues when making Rice Krispies treats? Here are some possible problems and their solutions:
- Your Treats Don't Stick Together: Make sure you're using the proper amounts of butter, marshmallows, and cereal called for in the recipe. Using too much or too little of any of those things can cause your treats not to stick together and set up properly when cooled
- You Set The Stove Too High: Using a higher heat setting on the stove may seem like a good idea - it'll melt the butter and marshmallows faster - but doing so can result in rock hard treats that aren't very much fun to eat. Keep the heat on low and be patient with melting the butter and marshmallows - it's worth it!
- You Used Old Marshmallows: A bag of stale marshmallows that are dried out and hard won't melt well at all, resulting in clumpy, tough Rice Krispies treats. Use a fresh bag for best results!
- You Made Them Too Early: While Rice Krispies treats will stay at their best for a few days when stored in an airtight container, they will quickly start to lose their gooey texture and become stale and hard. If possible, make the treats the day you plan to serve them.
How To Decorate Red White and Blue Krispie Treats
Since the whole point of Rice Krispies treats is that they are totally easy to make, I wanted to keep that same trend going with how I decorated these. Melting Candy Wafers to the rescue!
You can find these in the baking supply aisles of most craft stores and some grocery stores may even carry them. They come in lots of different colors. I recommend buying candy wafers in the store instead of online. They tend to be overpriced online (regardless of where you get them) and sometimes they melt in transit during the warm months. But if you can't find them or need a specific color that's not available locally, you can find them online. Amazon sells a complete set of patriotic goodies like this:
Patriotic Wafers & Sprinkles (Find Here)
You'll need a small amount of red candy wafers and blue candy wafers to decorate your treats. I used about ¼ cup per color. I placed the wafers into a plastic sandwich bag, microwaved them in short 20-second increments until melted, and then snipped off a tiny corner and drizzled onto each treat. Then just toss the bags when you're done for easy clean up.
TIP: I chose to cut the treats into individual squares before drizzling the melted candy. When candy drizzles dry they become brittle and break easily, so if you were to try to slice the treats after drizzling, part of the drizzle would break and fall off. That may be fine, but if you want the best, most uniform drizzles - cut first!
Patriotic Stars Sprinkles (find here)
Some Fun Ways To Use These Treats
These treats will look adorable just sitting on your dessert tables, but here's some other ideas for using them:
- Package them up: Wrap the treats in cellophane and tie with some patriotic ribbon as a fun party favor or prize
- Make a lollipop: Insert a lollipop stick into the squares for the kiddos to cut down on the sticky fingers!
- Freeze Them: Need to make a ton of treats for an event and don't want them to go stale? Wrap squares tightly in plastic wrap, place in freezer-safe gallon zip bags, and place into the freezer for up to 3 months. They will thaw in about 15 minutes on the counter. I recommend freezing before drizzling or decorating.
Red White and Blue Rice Krispie Treats
Classic Rice Krispies treats enhanced with a couple of extra ingredients get fun patriotic decorations for Memorial Day or the 4th of July!
- Total Time: 15 mins + cooling time
- Yield: 12 treats 1x
Ingredients
- 3 TBS butter
- 1 10-ounce package of marshmallows (about 4 cups)
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (or similar brand)
- ¼ cup blue melting candy wafers
- ¼ cup red melting candy wafers
- 2 plastic sandwich bags
- Patriotic sprinkles
Instructions
- Rub a little softened butter onto the sides and bottom of a 9x13 pan and set aside.
- In a large saucepan on low heat, melt the butter. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir.
- Add the marshmallows and stir using a nonstick spatula until they are melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Add the cereal and use the nonstick spatula to fold the cereal into the melted marshmallows, being carefully not to crush the cereal too much.
- Transfer mixture to the prepared 9x13 pan. Use the spatula or clean hands to press the mixture evenly into the pan. You want to press down so that the cereal sticks together, but don't compress it too tightly - this will help the treats stay gooey and not tough.
- Allow to cool and set up. Cut into 12 2-inch squares. Transfer squares to wax paper or a baking sheet so that you can have a little space in between each one.
- Place the blue wafers into a sandwich bag. Microwave in 20 second increments until the wafers are melted, squeezing with your fingers after each time to help smooth them out.
- Cut a tiny corner off of the sandwich bag and drizzle onto the squares, moving from corner to corner.
- Repeat step 7 and 8 with the red wafers, drizzling in the opposite direction to create a criss cross pattern.
- Top squares with patriotic sprinkles and serve.
Notes
Drizzling the melted candy after cutting the squares will prevent the drizzles from breaking off when cutting the treats.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stovetop
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