M&M Rice Krispie Treats

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Here’s why you’ll love this recipe:

• Easy to make
• No baking required
• Great for sharing
• Fully loaded with marshmallows and M&Ms
• Brown butter makes everything better

For the fellow cereal lovers, you also  need to try our fruity pebbles cookies and s’mores rice krispie treats.

Ingredient Notes

• Butter. Salted or unsalted butter work in this recipe. Butter adds rich flavor, and keeps the marshmallows from drying out. We brown the butter before melting the marshmallows, adding rich toffee notes to these rice krispie treats.
• Marshmallows. We add marshmallows in with the melted butter to act as a binder, but also mini marshmallows into the mix whole for bursts of marshmallow.
• Marshmallow Fluff. Marshmallow fluff, also called marshmallow cream or marshmallow crème makes these extra marshmallowy, giving a creamy, gooey texture.
• Vanilla. Vanilla enhances the flavors.
• Salt. A little salt enhances the flavors. We also top off the treats with a little sea salt for a sweet and salty flavor.
• Rice Krispies Cereal. You’ll need a crisp rice cereal like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, any off-brand will work great too.
• M&Ms. Milk chocolate M&Ms are recommended. I used a mix of regular M&Ms and mini M&Ms, either will work. M&Ms are mixed into the rice krispie treats and cover the top of the rice krispie squares.
• Mini Chocolate Chips. This is optional, I like to sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top of the rice krispie treats.

How to Make this Recipe

Pro Tip: Freeze the M&Ms before adding them into the mix to keep them from melting.

1. Brown the Butter. Place the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and melt the butter. Continue stirring and cooking the butter until it turns a deep amber color and smells toasted. It should take about 8 minutes. If you need a visual and step-by-step tutorial see our post, How to Brown butter.
2. Melt the Marshmallow. Set aside 3 cups of mini marshmallows for mixing in later. Add the rest of the marshmallows into the pan with the brown butter. Stir around coating the marshmallows in butter. Keep stirring until the marshmallows and butter are completely melted and smooth.

3. Remove from Heat. Remove the pot from the heat. Add in the vanilla, salt, and marshmallow fluff. Stir together until mostly smooth, a few chunks of marshmallow fluff is okay.
4. Mix in the Cereal. If you pot is large enough, you can add it directly into the pot, or use a large mixing bowl. Mix the marshmallow mixture, with the rice krispies cereal, 2 cups of M&Ms (mini or regular), and reserved mini marshmallows. Stir together until everything is evenly mixed.  

3. Press in Pan. Grease a 9x13-inch pan or line it with parchment paper. Pour M&M rice krispie treat mixture into the pan. Grease your hands with butter or nonstick cooking spray and gently pat the mixture until even and smooth in the pan.
4. Top off. Top off the rice Krispie treats with reserved M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, and a little bit of flaky sea salt. Cool for about 30-60 minutes before cutting into.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Expert Tips

• Freeze the M&Ms. Freeze the M&Ms for at least 30 minutes or longer before mixing  them! The milk chocolate has a low melting point, meaning that even the warm marshmallow mixture is enough to melt them making a chocolatey mess in your rice krispie treats. By freezing the M&Ms, they keep their shape when mixed in with the cereal.
• Don’t overheat the marshmallows. You want to heat the marshmallows just enough that they melt. If heated for too long the sugar will harden as the temperature rises, leaving you with hard rice krispie treats.
• Press gently. When pressing the rice krispie treat mixture into the pan, press gently. You don’t want to make the treats too dense and you don’t want the M&Ms to burst open while they are warm.
• Wait before cutting. We recommend waiting 30-60 minutes before cutting into these rice krispie treats with M&Ms. That’s for two reasons: 1) to allow time for the marshmallow to set up so the treats don’t fall apart and are easier to cut, and 2) so the chocolate M&Ms can reharden and won’t burst when cut into.

Rice Krispie Treat Variations

Use Holiday M&Ms

Seasonal M&Ms are the easiest way to mix these up! Use the orange fall mix for Halloween, the red and green for Christmas, pink and red M&Ms for Valentines, pastel Spring M&Ms around Easter time, or even the red, white, and blue ones for the 4^th of July.

You can also dye the rice krispie treat base to make them more festive for the holidays. Just add a few drops of food coloring into the melted marshmallow mixture. I love turning them green for Christmas or pink for Valentine’s day 

Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

These rice krispie treats are great when paired with a chocolate rice krispie treat base! You can do this two ways, use a chocolate cereal like cocoa krispies or cocoa pebbles. Or you can flavor traditional rice krispies by adding an extra tablespoon of melted butter and ¼ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to the melted marshmallow mixture before mixing it with the cereal.

Peanut Butter M&M Rice Krispie Treats

Peanut butter M&Ms are my favorite M&Ms easily. Try swapping regular M&Ms for peanut butter M&Ms in this recipe! I also love pairing the peanut butter M&Ms with a chocolate rice krispie treat base (above). You can also add a couple heaping spoonfuls of creamy peanut butter into the melted marshmallow mixture if you want the base to be flavored with extra peanut butter!

Flavored M&Ms

M&Ms have so many different flavors these days! These rice krispie treats with M&Ms would be fun to mix up with some different flavors. Some fun flavors to try in this recipe could be the key lime M&Ms, caramel cold brew M&Ms, caramel M&Ms, dark chocolate M&Ms, or pretzel M&Ms.

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