We turned our love of rice Krispie treats into a holiday-themed yummy pretty enough to take to any bake sale, party or family get-together. The Halloween treats are easy to make and can be changed up in so many ways. We have a non-chocolate lover in our fam so I make half of these with white chocolate chips and the other with the chocolate chips for my chocolate fiend. You can add craisins at Christmas and candy hearts at Valentine’s! You can also turn the Rainbow Cheesecake Bars into holiday-themed treats with different colors!
Bring the kids in, no matter their age, to help build these Halloween treats from start to finish. Littles can dump the crispy rice into the bowl, pull the skewer through the icing because you can’t go wrong with swirls or abstract art by tiny hands on top of the treats.
What kids learn by cooking
When you corral kids into cooking with you in the kitchen, you create memories and build on their skillsets. Baking requires measuring and counting to create an exact combination of the right ingredients. As you add ingredients, talk to your kids about why they need to be measured and the cups and/or teaspoons counted correctly. Discuss how the baking powder helps cookies rise, eggs act as a binder and other important pieces of the cooking magic.
Rice Krispie treats teach kids about volume, which is the amount of space a three-dimensional object takes up. Volume is calculated by length and multiplied by its width and by its height.
Consider, if you fill a 13-9-2 inch pan with these Halloween Rice Krispie treats, what is the volume? That is 13X9X2 = 234 cubic inches. Now, how many 3-inch treats will that pan make?
As the marshmallows melt into the butter to create that gooey base for the Rice Krispies, talk to your kids about what causes them to change from a solid to a liquid. As they melt, the energy (heat) melts the solid butter and marshmallows and helps the molecules to combine. When the heat is removed, the mixed marshmallows and butter solidify into a new form, that is particularly yummy!
Equipment
Large bowl Medium-sized bowl
Measuring cups & spoons
Rubber spatula
Parchment paper
Nonstick spray
9×13 (half sheet) baking pan (or close enough)
Skewer or toothpick
Metal or plastic Spatula, optional
Ingredients
6 cups Rice Krispie Cereal (half box) 5 tbs Butter
14 oz Marshmallows
8-10 Oreos, finely chopped
1 jar store-bought vanilla buttercream 1/4 cup black candy melts
1/4 cup orange candy melts
Paramount crystals, coconut oil or vegetable oil
Directions:
In a large microwave-safe bowl melt marshmallows and butter for 90 seconds.
Go around the bowl with a rubber spatula making sure the marshmallows aren’t sticking to the bowl.
Add half of the crispy cereal and half of the crushed Oreos. Mix well. Add the remaining cereal and Oreos.
Line the dish with parchment paper (for easy removal when cutting)
Spray with nonstick spray
Add all of the rice cereal mix to the pan and mash down with a metal or plastic spatula (you can also just press it but this makes it even).
Allow it to set 10-15 min before icing.
Icing
Add 1 tbsp of paramount crystals or coconut oil and heat the candy melts in 30-second increments until melted.
Add chocolate to piping bags (or ziplock bags) and cut a small zip in the end. Spread buttercream all over the top of the rice Krispy treats.
In an alternating pattern do a horizontal stripe of the orange and black chocolate. Run a skewer down and then back up to create the design on top.
Allow to set for 60-90 mins or until the chocolate is set.
Lift up the parchment paper. Slice treats into even sections and serve.
