Today, we’re making two types of Valentine’s Treats with Breakfast Cereal. The first is the classic heart-shaped Rice Krispies Treats (with various decoration options). Next, we’ll apply the technique of making Rice Krispies Treats to any other cereal you have around the house.
Start with the classic Rice Krispies Treats recipe. Melt about 3 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add a 10-ounce bag of marshmallows and stir until completely melted. At this point, I added 2 drops of red food coloring to give my final treats a pink tint.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the Rice Krispies. Mix it very well.
Roll out a large piece of waxed paper. Roll out the Rice Krispies mixture and shape it into a rectangle about 10 x 12 inches. Allow this to dry and harden for about 20 minutes. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out heart-shaped treats.
Now for the fun part… decorating the hearts.
I used a reliable donut frosting recipe to make the frosting for the treats. It’s just 2 cups of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, and enough water or milk to form a coating when stirred (usually just 3-4 tablespoons of liquid).
Dip a portion of each treat into the frosting and then sprinkle with candies or small candies like Red Hots.
Other decorating ideas you can try: 1) Use icing to pipe words on the hearts like “Be Mine” or someone’s name; 2) Insert one of these conversation heart candies into each of the treats; or 3) Glue a stick to each heart to make Valentine cereal pops.
Once you know the recipe for Rice Krispies treats, you can start using other grains to make super unique Valentine’s treats.
I randomly grabbed some Whole Hearts, Cinnamon Jacks, and FiberOne 80 Calorie Chocolate Cereal for a Valentine’s treat made with love i fiber
The marshmallow mix is ​​exactly the same. I used about 5 1/2 cups of total cereal and the treats held up wonderfully.
For these, I thought a chocolate coating might be a little more appropriate. So, I took the frosting recipe mentioned above and just added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips that were melted with 1/3 cup of warm milk and used that for the liquid component of the frosting.
That’s all there is to it. If you have a couple of marshmallows and a half-empty cereal box, you can make someone’s day!
Recipe Facts:
Rice Krispies treats can be frustrating to make. They’re gooey and there’s usually a moment after you’ve combined everything where you’ll worry that the treats will never have a cohesive shape. Do not you worry. You have “heart” – it works 97% of the time, even if your marshmallow/cereal ratio is off.
To avoid frustration, make sure your pan is large enough. If you don’t have a large saucepan, combine the marshmallows and melted cereal pieces in a large bowl.
To get a nice block of pre-cut goodies to work with, I’ll usually transfer everything to a 13×9 inch pan and then invert the pan onto waxed paper. This gives you a starting rectangle to work with. Use another large sheet of waxed paper on top of the cereal block to press the ingredients into your desired dimensions. Everything will be sticky, but the waxed paper will help considerably.
You have a couple of cookie cutters. The treats won’t work as a dough where you can regroup the scraps. I was able to get six 4 inch hearts from each batch and also eight small round treats (which worked great for the pops).
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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