Rice crispy treats are an oldie but a goodie. I mean, who doesn’t love a rice crispy treat?! They have become quite popular around here. So much so, that my youngest son had them as his “cake” for his 3rd birthday. Along with, you guessed it, Homemade marshmallows.
But let’s take it a step further. We live near the strawberry capital of the world! Well, maybe not the world but I think you get my point. We are approaching strawberry season and with that comes the Florida Strawberry Festival. It’s kind of a big deal around these parts. So with this strawberry theme and it being near Valentine’s Day, I thought I would make something really special and unique. Strawberry rice crispy treats.
Yeah… They were pretty righteous.
So, how did I cram all that strawberry flavor into these guys without artificial flavoring? With the use of freeze dried strawberries. ﻿﻿Using freeze dried fruit is a great way to get the flavor you want without the water content from the actual fruit. And since it’s freeze dried, the flavor is much more concentrated, so you get the full on flavor.
﻿﻿I also used the small blender attachment from my ninja to grind the strawberries into a powder, however, a coffee grinder can be used as well. If using a coffee grinder, make sure that it is thoroughly cleaned.
These make a great Valentine’s treat for school, friends, loved ones, or just yourself. These treats are naturally gluten free, too. Even with the extra step of grinding the freeze dried strawberries, it is a simple dessert that even the kids can do. Especially the licking of the sticky marshmallow bowl. Full on fights have occurred here for that sticky, sweet bowl.
And if you’re more of a purist, I’ve got you covered. An original recipe is also included.
Happy day of love and treats.
Generously butter a 13×9 baking pan with parchment paper with some hanging room on the sides and set aside.
Add 1 tbsp of fresh lime juice to the strawberry powder in a bowl until it becomes a thick paste; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, measure 12 cups of rice cereal and mix in marshmallows in layers of every two cups of cereal poured; set aside. This will make for pockets of marshmallow goodness in the treats.
Melt butter over low heat in a large pot. Once butter is melted, add all ingredients but strawberry paste, vanilla and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until marshmallows are completely melted then add the remaining ingredients until blended and smooth.
Immediately pour marshmallow mixture over rice cereal and gently stir until cereal is evenly coated. You will need to work quickly here!
***Original rice crispy treats: just omit the strawberry powder and lime juice for the original rice crispy recipe, and increase the vanilla to 1 Tablespoon.
When using cookie cutters, you can fold or push the treats into each other to get the most cut out shapes. Kind of like you would sugar cookie dough.
You can add all sorts of extras, such as, nuts, chocolate chunks, sprinkles, bacon! Insert wild streak here!