The One Step You're Missing When Making Rice Krispies Treats

Kids and adults have been enjoying Rice Krispies Treats for nearly a century. Created by former Kellogg's recipe tester Mildred Day and her colleague Malitta Jense in 1939, this recipe still appears on nearly every box of Rice Krispies cereal today. Riffing off the solid base, folks have been adding their own ingredients and implementing new methods over the years to make a good thing even better. One such tip is to use mini marshmallows, reserving ⅓ of the bag to mix in at the end for a softer and sweeter chew.

Even though the official Rice Krispies Treats recipe remains a crowd-pleasing go-to, let's face it — day-old bars can become dry and uncomfortably hard, scraping gums and sticking to your teeth with each successive bite. As a kid, going all in for a sugar fix was all part of the fun. But for adults who enjoy Rice Krispies Treats, there's no reason to beat up your gums if you don't have to.

To get the softest Rice Krispies Treats possible, melt ⅔ of your package of mini marshmallows and butter together, then add the Rice Krispies cereal, and mix. Once it's well incorporated, mix the reserved marshmallows, and transfer to a well-buttered pan. Those late addition marshmallows won't fully melt, leaving gloriously gooey pockets between the crisped rice, resulting in a softer bite.

Another way to keep your Rice Krispies Treats from becoming too hard to chew is to slowly melt the marshmallows and butter over low heat — a tip that's noted in the original recipe. If you cook at a high temperature, the sugar in the marshmallows will quickly enter the brittle hard-crack stage in candy-making, and when cooled, your bars will be unyielding and difficult to enjoy.

You can also soften this campfire-friendly confection by upping the amount of butter to 4 or 5 tablespoons (as opposed to 3 tablespoons). There's also the option to make richer Rice Krispies Treats with one invisible ingredient: canned sweetened condensed milk. Just add it to the butter before tossing in the marshmallows for a truly luxurious treat. After that, the sky's the limit when it comes to mix-ins. Everything from peanuts to M&M's to cake sprinkles only make the original recipe taste that much better. Plus, bacon adds a savory crunch to Rice Krispies Treats.