Cookies and Cream Rice Krispy Treats

My Talented Friend

I can hardly think of rice krispy treats without thinking of my friend Angie. Angie is the best baker I’ve ever met. We met through work and she fed our entire team, coming in with trays of baked goods she had prepared the night before or bags of candy and snacks that she’d fill a dedicated “snack drawer” with. Her adage was “fed people are happy people, and I only want to work with happy people”. When it came to celebrating Angie on her birthday, it was difficult to top all the things she did for the rest of us throughout the year. Groups of people would get together to plan what we could do to create a seemingly small gift to deliver to our friend who would give us anything.  One year, Angie mentioned her favorite dessert of all time was rice krispy treats  - a simple, no-bake dessert for the queen baker herself.  I took charge in bringing in rice krispy treats to contribute to the celebration and, let me tell you, I was determined to make them the best treats ever.  I made a few test batches, tweaked the ratios, and voila!  Gooey, crispy, delicious rice krispy treats that I felt were up to par to serve my talented friend.

While we’re on the subject of Angie, she was also an integral part of our office’s Halloween competition.  We’d take our section of the office and decorate it to a theme, write out scripts, bring people through a journey, serve treats - we were incredibly committed to winning. Angie would paint scenes and create props that were movie set quality, the talent oozing out of her and really coming to life when anything slightly creepy was involved. So, in honor of Halloween, Angie, these treats are dedicated to you!

The Recipe Details

Alright, so I know I told the story about perfecting the rice krispy treat, but funny enough this is not that recipe (but I’m sure I’ll post it sometime in the future). This incredibly similar though, I’ve just removed some of the cereal and added in crushed sandwich cookies (you know… the chocolate cookie with the double cream… the one that comes out with orange cream this time of year… you know the one).  I felt a strong need to purchase a container of said cookies when LIGHTBULB.  Why not create a cookies-and-cream dessert from them? Hence the Halloween cookies and cream rice krispy treat was born! The actual making of these treats is so simple and requires no baking.  You’ll only need a medium to large saucepan and an 8x8 or 9x9 cake tin or casserole, whatever you have on hand that’s around that size.  Before melting the butter and marshmallows, I like to put the dry cereal and chopped cookies into the cake pan and mix them together.  That way everything is evenly distributed before you add them to the melted marshmallows, but you don’t have to make another bowl dirty.

Once you have your supplies out and the ingredients measured, it's time to melt the butter and marshmallows together. I start with melting the butter first then add in the marshmallows, stirring constantly until every marshmallow is completely melted, reminding you of the end of Ghostbusters once they defeat the giant stay-puff marshmallow man and the city is covered in fluffy marshmallow. You want it to look just like that, only contained in a saucepan. Once your marshmallows are melted, add in the cereal and crushed cookies, mix until the cereal is evenly coated in marshmallows and transfer back to the cake tin.  Let the mixture cool for at least 30 minutes, then slice and enjoy!  These are definitely best day of, but will last a few days in an air-tight container.