Brown butter & vanilla bean Rice Krispies treats
People say bananas are the perfect portable snack. I say wrap up a Rice Krispies treat instead: even better.
For as long as I can remember, I've given my Rice Krispies treats a little smush before eating them, to make them more compact. Which is exactly why I wrote this recipe. These bars are dense enough that you don’t need to smush them (if that was always weirdly your thing too). The trick is blending some of the cereal into a fine flour, which gives them that density.
I've given very specific ingredient brands here because they really matter. I've tried Whole Foods' store-brand "rice cereal," for example, and it just didn't have the right texture. Kerrygold butter makes them taste so much richer. Bourbon vanilla bean paste makes them adorably speckled. And the rainbow sprinkles are the perfect silly hat for an otherwise boring-looking bar.
Brown butter & vanilla bean Rice Krispies treats
Makes 9 (giant!) treats, or 18 regular-sized ones
7½ cups (225 g) Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, divided — 7 cups (210 g) for mixing, ½ cup (15 g) for blending
2 tablespoons Carnation malted milk powder
1 cup (2 sticks / 226 g) Kerrygold unsalted butter
Two 12-oz bags (685 g) Jet-Puffed regular marshmallows
2 cups (100 g) Jet-Puffed mini marshmallows
1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla bean paste (I like Nielsen-Massey or Trader Joe’s)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
~1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles (try Watkins, which I think are the prettiest natural colored sprinkles), for topping
Grease an 8½ × 8½-inch pan (or whatever size you have) with canola oil spray, or butter it generously.
Add the ½ cup Rice Krispies and the malted milk powder to a blender. Blend until they reach the consistency of flour. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a large pot over low heat. Keep cooking, low and slow, until the milk solids turn toasty brown, about 5 minutes. Don’t walk away like I did once… it goes from brown to burnt fast, and wasting two whole sticks of butter is a tragedy.
Add the regular-sized marshmallows, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Keeping the heat low, stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the marshmallows are completely melted.
Remove from the heat. Stir in the blended Rice Krispie–malt mixture and the 7 cups whole Rice Krispies until everything is evenly coated. Gently fold in the 2 cups mini marshmallows, mixing as little as possible so they stay intact — those become the pockets of gooey marshmallow in the finished treats.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan. Lightly wet your hands and press it firmly and evenly into the pan; the water keeps the marshmallow from sticking to you.
Scatter rainbow sprinkles generously over the top, pressing lightly so they stick.
Let cool completely before cutting, at least 1 hour.
