Rice Krispie...well, Crisp Rice Clumps

Having had a Rice Krispie cake for my wedding (seriously, best cake ever...4 tiers, ribbons, and little farm animals on each tier), I am quite partial to Rice Krispie treats. They're just so good! It made me smile when we had our first Rice Krispie Pinstrosity sent to us by Jamie. These scrumptious treats seem too easy to mess up, but so many of us just have a hard time with them.

The Original Pin

http://lilluna.com/fouth-of-july-rice-krispies-treats/

Aren't those awesome! I love it. Because Jamie's email was funny and fantastic, I'm going to give you her words about this Pinstrosity: 

"After having great success with a modified strawberry dessert from pinterest, I was hoping dessert #2 for the fun 4^th of July would have everyone’s tail wagging. Apparently not."

"Rice Krispie Treats are just about the easiest things in the world to make yet for some reason, those three little krispie guys never have me in their favor. But I was convinced that because this was a holiday and I was going the extra mile that they would help me out and I would have amazing red, white, and blue treats that would awe the masses and they would think I was some creative dessert genius."

"The first item on the list is Rice Krispies Cereal. Well my first mistake was probably that I bought 'Crisp Rice Cereal' because HELLOOOOOO it was a whole dollar cheaper!  Not only was the cereal a dollar cheaper it has its own recipe for 'crisp rice treats' right on the box!!  Since I was making these treats at my mother in laws house, I had not printed out the 'original' recipe and just used the one off the cheap cereal box (5 cups as opposed to 6 cups from the original recipe). What could possibly be the difference?! 'Rice Krispie Treats', 'Crisp Rice Treats'…same thing."

"The original recipe said to divide the ingredients in thirds before mixing together but I thought I was above that extra work and just piled it all together and made magic! Then I divided it into thirds and I’m pretty sure they weren't even. Oh well.  Saved a dollar, saved some time, I’m on a roll. I added my food coloring and was ready to layer my tasty treats. Blue, then white, then red. The directions said to pat down firmly with wax paper but my finger worked just as good.  As I was patting though, the crisp rice (because remember, they’re not rice krispies) kept sticking to my finger and I had a feeling that I would have a gooey mess on my hands when I was done."

"The treats in the picture are perfectly packed and perfectly square so I figured I would have to refrigerate them for a while to get them firm enough to do that. So they sat in the fridge for 2 hours. The original recipe said to “let set for a bit” but she must live in a fantasy world where rice krispie treats get hard after “a bit”.  I was so anxious and excited to cut them up when I took them out of the fridge that I made a huge ruckus out of it and had everyone excited and on their toes, waiting in anticipation (even though they were in the other room obviously with something better to do). I grabbed my knife and made the first slice and my crisp rice stuck to the knife and the blue got smeared up through the white and red and when I cut back down, the blue smeared the red on top and they were just a huge mess. I tried to make small squares because I had the genius idea to put little toothpicks in them but that was also a huge fail. By the end, they had turned into a psychedelic mess. I was only able to salvage a few and those few were still ugly. I have no idea where I went wrong. Maybe that dollar would have made all the difference."

The Pinstrosity

So...not so pretty, but I'm sure they still tasted awesome. But now how do we get those perfect Rice Krispie (or Crisp Rice) Treats? Let's look at a few issues and ideas.

• Crisp Rice vs. Rice Krispies. Honestly, I've never had a problem switching out the two. Anyone else? 
• A few things to help the treats firm up a little (try only one of these at at time, and then combine tactics if necessary)
• Add more cereal. Start with 1 c. if that doesn't do it, add another. 
• Add extra butter (butter here, not margarine). Start with 2-3 TBS, but more can be added. 
• Cook the mallow/butter concoction 1/2 to 1 minute longer than normal. 
• When refrigerating them, keep them uncovered to help them dry out a bit (but they really aren't going to dry out a ton in just a few hours, but they will dry out a bit). 
• If they still come out sticky, when you go to cut them, butter the blade of the knife or spatula. That will help the knife to just slice right through and not tear the treats up as much.