Double Marshmallow Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats

Whew, that title’s a mouthful!  But it’s a tasty mouthful, trust me.

The beloved carnivore was out of town for Valentine’s Day, and frankly, I don’t like the holiday anyway.  He and I both feel this way, which means we’ll both get away with goofy little gifts for the rest of our lives, instead of feeling pressured to be all romantic.  This year, I sent him cookies, and he sent me these:

That’s right, wedding-themed rubber duckies.  They’re so much fun.  See how that one groomsman is totally checking out that one bridesmaid in the middle of the ceremony?  So rude.

Those of you who love the holiday – more power to you.  But at least for me it seems like it’s always been about whether or not people have a Valentine – rather than whether or not people are happy with their love lives, be they in a couple or single.  And it makes having first dates any time in late January so awkward – people are always wondering if it’ll work out well enough to be “serious” enough for a real Valentine’s date.   The resulting over-analyzing of dates makes January conversations less fun.  And I don’t like the taste of those conversation hearts.

You know what I like better than conversation hearts?  Delicious meals.  A few weeks ago, one of my favorite area restaurants sent out an e-mail about their Valentine’s Day specials and all of it looked delicious.  So Emily and I decided that we’d go on a foodie Valentine’s Day date.   Scrumptious Italian food and the opportunity to scandalize the old couples around us?  Win-win.

I decided to make these rice krispie treats as a Valentine’s Day present for Emily – and beloved carnivore, if these look better to you than the sugar cookies I sent you for Valentine’s Day, well, I’ll make another batch next week when I visit.

I knew that Emily loved Deb’s salted brown butter Rice Krispies treats, but I’d also been itching to try a recipe I’d found for double-marshmallow Rice Krispies treats.  So I combined the two recipes and tweaked them a bit.

I’m a huge fan of these – the nuttiness of the brown butter and the salt make them the perfect snack.  If you can’t decide between sweet and salty, put down the candy and put down the potato chips – this treat is the perfect solution.  However, if you’re longing for the traditional taste of Rice Krispies treats, don’t make these.  Or don’t brown the butter and don’t add the salt.  But when your craving for traditional Rice Krispies treats goes away, make these.  They’re delicious.  Look at all the marshmallows . . . .

Double Marshmallow Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats

Adapted from Chow and Smitten Kitchen

This is an easy recipe, but most of the action happens all at once, so you’ll want to have your ingredients all ready before you begin.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and a spatula.

Measure the Rice Krispies into a very large bowl.  Put 8 cups of the marshmallows into another bowl, and then put the remaining 3 cups of marshmallows into a small, separate bowl.

Now it’s time to brown the butter – put the butter in a medium or large saucepan and let it melt, stirring constantly until it begins to brown.  Deb’s recipe (link above) has great instructions for browning the butter, but I wanted to share a little advice based on my experience.  Deb says “[The butter] will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty.”  It’s true that the butter will turn brown after melting and then foaming up.  But in my experience, the butter always melts, then foams up, then turns clear golden, then starts to bubble up and look almost like soap bubbles before finally foaming up again and turning nutty brown almost immediately afterward.  Maybe this whole double-foam thing is just a quirk of my kitchen, but it’s happened multiple times with different types of butter, so maybe this is a useful tip.

Immediately after the butter has begun to brown, remove it from the heat – it turns from yummy brown to burnt in a matter of seconds.  Stir in the 8 cups of marshmallows – if you’re using a medium sauce pan, this may be difficult to stir, so just push the marshmallows down into the warm butter over and over until they all start to get melty and they’re easier to stir.  Stir well until all the marshmallows are fully melted and mixed completely with the browned butter.  Quickly add in the heaping ¼ tsp of coarse sea salt and stir well.

Using the greased spatula, pour the marshmallow and butter mixture over the Rice Krispies and mix them all together with the spatula.  This was taking too long and I’m impatient so, with the knowledge that I had washed my hands with boiling hot water moments before, I just used my hands.

Now, add in the remaining 3 cups of marshmallows and blend well – either with the spatula or with, you know, your hands again.  These will melt a little bit but for the most part stay whole.  Once they’re evenly distributed, use the spatula to scrape all of the yummy Rice Krispies goodness into the greased 9 x 13 pan.  Using the spatula, press the mixture into place to form an even layer.

Let cool completely (about an hour) and cut into about 24 squares.  For added effect or to prevent excessive stickiness, you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap.