These homemade Rice Krispie Treats are perfectly soft and chewy every time, thanks to one secret ingredient. Ready in minutes with just 4 ingredients!
I’ve been making Rice Krispie Treats for more than 30 years. For school parties, holidays, bake sales, and plenty of “just because” cravings (usually mine). They seem like the easiest dessert ever, but I’ve learned that a few little details make the difference between soft, gooey treats and bars that turn out dry and hard. After more batches than I could ever count, I’ve found my winning combination: extra marshmallows, a splash of vanilla, and a simple trick for pressing them into the pan.
That’s really what I want to share here at Shugary Sweets: recipes you can count on. I test every recipe in my own kitchen, usually more than once, and when my family keeps asking me to make something again, I know it’s ready for you. Because I did all the work for you over the past 30 years, you know making these treats will turn out perfect the first time.
This recipe for homemade rice krispie treats was originally published in October 2016. It has been updated with new photos in February 2021 and updated recipe notes in July 2026.
Aimee’s Recipe Notes
If you’ve been searching for the best rice krispie treat recipe, you’ve landed in the right place. These are what I’m known for, buttery, gooey, and just the right amount of chewy. Everything the classic treat should be, with a little bit of a secret that makes them even tastier.
Taste: Sweet, buttery, and vanilla flavored.
Texture: Gooey, and chewy with a light crispiness from the cereal.
Ease to Make: Simple and quick, perfect for beginners or busy bakers.
Cooking Method: Stovetop, no-bake; just melt, mix, and set in a pan.
These are FANTASTIC and worth the time to refresh your rice Krispy teat skills.
-Sew
Homemade Rice Crispy Treats Ingredients
My recipes for rice crispy treats is so easy. Scroll down to the recipe card for full ingredient list and measurements.
- Butter – use salted butter for this recipe. Just trust me! Don’t have any on hand? Use unsalted butter and a pinch of salt while melting. DO NOT use margarine.
- Marshmallows – you’ll need 8-9 cups of mini marshmallows, keeping about 1 cup aside to add in at the end!
- Rice Krispies Cereal – any brand of crispy rice cereal will work, just make sure it’s FRESH.
Aimee’s Secret Ingredient to The Best Rice Krispie Treats
Adding my homemade vanilla extract or any pure vanilla extract takes this recipe over the top. Or make it lemon flavored using our easy lemon rice krispie treat recipe.
How to Make Rice Krispie Treats
Scroll down after the recipe card to see more tips and tricks as well as variations that I’ve created off this classic rice krispie treat recipe.
Tips on How to Make Rice Krispie Treats
- Use fresh marshmallows. Using stale marshmallows will result in stale treats. Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way.
- Brown the butter. Learn how to brown butter and make a batch of my flavorful brown butter rice krispie treats next!
- Add my secret ingredient. VANILLA EXTRACT. Not imitation vanilla, but Pure Vanilla extract. It makes a difference in creating the illusion that you’re using homemade marshmallows.
- Kelloggs is wrong. DO NOT press these bars into your pan firmly. Using your fingertips and gentlypress them in just until they are spread out. The harder you pack them in, the harder they are when it’s time to eat them!
- The trick to pressing them in your pan without sticking to your hands is to run your fingers in water. Dip in water, shake off the excess, and press. Voila. No sticking!
- Store in an airtight container for two days. If they last that long, I’d be shocked!
- Make these gluten free by choosing a crispy rice cereal labeled Gluten Free (and check your marshmallow labels too just in case).
How to Store Homemade Rice Krispie Treats
Rarely is this the case in my house, as we all know I can eat an entire pan of homemade rice krispie treats. But, should you find yourself with leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature. I usually just slide them into a ziploc bag.
Or you can freeze rice krispie treats. I was skeptical for a long time, and finally tried it out. I slide my leftovers into a ziploc freezer bag and placed them in the freezer.
Surprisingly, they thaw pretty quickly on the counter and they taste super fresh too!
Flavor Variations of The Best Rice Krispie Treats
Add in some flavored gelatin (or pudding mix) to the melted marshmallow for a unique twist! Cherry Krispie Treats!
Make Lucky Charms Treats for a St.Paddy’s Day dessert idea.
- For best results, name brand cereal stays fresher longer and can hold up to the melted butter and marshmallows better
- Always start with fresh marshmallows. If you use stale marshmallows in hopes that melting them will give you good results, you’ll be disappointed!
- More mix-ins: fold in some m&m’s or Reese’s peanut butter cups for a delicious dessert idea.
There are thousands of recipes for showing how to make rice crispy treats, and I’m putting it out there that my recipe is BEST. You may see some similar nowadays, but they all stem from my original add-ins.
- Only 4 ingredients
- Thick and chewy
- Vanilla flavor
- Perfect ratio of cereal to marshmallows
We love that this classic treat can be changed up using different cereals too!
- Chocolate– Cocoa Krispie Treats
- Fruity– Fruity Pebbles Treats
- S’mores– Golden Grahams Treats
- Cheerios– Cheerio Treats
Basic, original, homemade rice krispie treats that captures my taste buds.
Homemade Rice Crispy Treats FAQs
The biggest question is how to spell it. Some people say Rice Crispy treat, Some say Crispy Rice, some say Rice Crispies. Either way, you get the point! This rice crispy treats recipe is the best you’ll find.
Packing the cereal mixture too firmly into the prepared pan pushes the air out and makes them dense and dry.
Keep treats at room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.
Obviously it was marshmallow’s plan all along to create a cereal for the perfect dessert. In my professional opinion, the treat always comes before the cereal.
Along the way, package sizes change, and here in the US, they are measured by weight. When I first created the recipe, 16 ounces of mini marshmallows were used. Which is roughly 8-9 cups, or about 70 regular-size marshmallows.
More No Bake Treats
- Puppy Chow Recipe (muddy buddies)
- Pistachio Fluff Salad
- Chunky Candy Bar
- Paula Deen banana pudding
- How to Make Fudge
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Easy Rice Krispie Treat Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons salted butter
- 16 ounce bag mini marshmallows divided
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 cups rice krispies cereal
Instructions
- Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once melted, add in all but 1 cup of the marshmallows. Reduce heat to low and continue stirring until completely melted.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Add the cereal and the remaining 1 cup of marshmallows and gently stir until combined.
- Pour into the prepared baking dish. Press GENTLY with your fingertips just until completely spread out (the harder you pack them in, the harder they are to eat).
- Allow to set, about 1 hour. Cut and enjoy!
Notes
- How many marshmallows do I need? One 16 ounce bag of marshmallows is about 8-9 cups. You’ll melt all but one cup of the marshmallows in the butter, reserving the last cup for adding with the cereal.
- Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. This way you don’t have to worry about extra butter on your fingertips, or the other extreme of your bars sticking to the pan! Use binder clips to help the parchment paper stay in place.
- Use fresh marshmallows. Seriously, they make a difference. Don’t grab that bag that’s been in your pantry for months and months thinking it will be okay since you are melting them. It won’t be okay.
- Add my secret ingredient. VANILLA EXTRACT. Not imitation vanilla, but PURE VANILLA extract. It makes a difference in creating the illusion that you’re using homemade marshmallows.
- DO NOT (I repeat) DO NOT press these bars into your pan firmly. Using your fingertips, GENTLY press them in just until they are spread out. The harder you pack them in, the harder they are when it’s time to eat them!
- The trick to pressing them in your pan without sticking to your hands is to run your fingers in water, shake off the excess, and press. Voila. No sticking!
- Store in an airtight container for two days. If they last that long, I’d be shocked!
- Make these gluten free by choosing a crispy rice cereal labeled Gluten Free (and check your marshmallow labels too just in case).
- Can you freeze rice krispie treats? YES! I slide them on a parchment paper lined sheet into a ziploc freezer bag. Thaw on counter until soft again!
Video
Nutrition
Best Rice Krispie Treats Recipe
Original Rice Krispie Treats recipe with all the tips and tricks for making them thick and chewy!
Can I simply just double this recipe and mold in a 9×13?
I made these for an Easter treat and they were perfect! The right amount of marshmallows so they were just gooey enough and not dry.
I’m the recipe it states place in a container for two days. In a sealed container will they last longer than two days? I’m looking to make them ahead of time.
The cereal tends to get stale after a few days with the marshmallow. I wouldn’t suggest making them too far in advance.
Can’ t you freeze them?
She meant they would be eaten before then.
My mom always added vanilla when I was a kid and I do too. Wouldn’t make them without it luv the clip idea
I have marshmallow cream, how much should use?
Can you recook rice crispy marshmallow & rice crispy because they will not pick up all the rice crispy & won’t spread 😢
Trouble with making my rice crispy treats-I microwaved 1/4 c butter & 10oz bag of large marshmallows – it did not go creamy & was hard
to get out of bowl to put into 6 c of rice crispy-it was very hard to get it to stick together-Can I salvage or start all over?
These are delicious! I thought it was weird to use parchment instead of wax paper and not grease it, but I went by the recipe and ended up with a very stuck pan of treats. They still taste amazing, but there will be a lot of wasted treat and there definitely won’t be nice looking squares out of it haha.
Just remember to GREASE the pan/paper and maybe use wax paper instead haha!
How odd. I never have issues when I use parchment paper 🙁
Sorry, your secret ingredient of vanilla ruined the treats. They have an off taste to them. The original recipe without vanilla tastes better.
I’m sorry you didnt enjoy the recipe. Did you use pure vanilla extract, not imitation?
My family and boss love them! So good..just followed your recipe exactly and followed your tips. THANK YOU SO MUCH
You’re welcome!
I only had regular size marshmallows and I weighed out 16 oz. of them and then counted them – it was 70 marshmallows. The butter and this amount of marshmallows are double what the original recipe is to 6 cups of cereal, and so what this does is make the finished treats more gooey and provide enough “sauce” for mix-ins like M&M’s. So good, especially with the addition of the vanilla! Thank you for this recipe!
This recipe is wonderful. Thank you for sharing. The binder clip idea. 🎯 Never knew I needed this in my life. And vanilla. And varied textures of marshmallows. Love this! Now my go-to!
I’m really bummed about these… I couldn’t find the recipe I’ve always used with amazing results. I did a quick search and came across these and thought I’d give them a try. I needed to make heart Rice Krispie treats for my daughters class for Valentine’s Day. I just made these and am so disappointed with how they came out. Like somehow else stated…the cereal somehow came out tasting stale. It was a brand new box of cereal and marshmallows (bought today.) They are also way overly sticky. The other recipe I used were light, fluffy, and completely stick free. Sad that now she has blah treats for her party tomorrow. :/
This is hard to believe! I wonder if maybe the marshmallows were stale?
Didn’t taste stale here – delicious!!!
I made this without the butter, just more marshmallows (actually this recipe uses more than the original anyway?). Lower fat, but more carbs so . . .?
Vanilla and/or marshmallows added at the end made it very tasty thanks.
In the notes it says you’d be shocked if they last 2 days in an airtight container…is that true? I was hoping to make them the day before a party.
I think she means because they would get eaten before the 2 day mark 😉 I have made them in the past and they are delicious next day, as long as you store properly. Enjoy!
haha, I meant because they don’t last two days in our house uneaten. Yes, they can be made the day before 🙂
Ohh phew okay thanks!!
She meant because they will be eaten so fast they probably won’t last two days 😂
The recipe does not say how much vanilla extract to use
It does. It’s in the recipe card as the third ingredient. 1 teaspoon.
Love this recipe! I always add a little bit of cinnamon or Nutmeg to them. Super easy for my kids to follow along too and add mini m&ms or chocolate chip.
I only have regular jet puffed marshmallows. How many would I have to use for this recipe?
I’d use the whole bag
Perfection! Thank you!
OMG! Thank you! I finally made GOOD Rice Krispie Treats! I was pressing them down too hard. The Vanilla Extract-pure genius!
Made this recipe today, added m&ms for the chocolate kick my boy wanted. Turned out real nice. Very pretty!
TAKE THE ADVISE OF USING FRESH MARSHMALLOWS ITS REALLY DOES MATTER I am sadly speaking from the experience of someone who has a hard time taking advice 😞
How many regular marshmallows could I use,don’t have mini.
40 of the big ones
I just made these exactly per the instructions, perfect and easy recipe. I sprinkled mini M&Ms over the top for Christmas (did not fold them in) so good! Thank you for a great recipe!