Last Days of Fall: Rice Crispy Treats

We're counting down the last few days of Autumn, since once we get past Thanksgiving it will be all Christmas everything.  For a final, sweet fall hoorah, I've put together these rice-crispy treats that would make a super simple, tasty Thanksgiving dessert.  Not only are rice crispy treats a crowd pleaser, they aren't super filling which means you'll always have room for one no matter how much turkey and stuffing you eat next Thursday.

For my Fall Rice crispy treats, I chose to coat them in Harvest colored sprinkles from Sur la Table and used a couple cookie cutters in autumn-themed pumpkin and leaf shapes to make individual serving sizes.

To make about a dozen pieces you'll need: 

• 4 heaping cups of rice crispy cereal
• Half bag of mini marshmallows
• Quarter stick of butter
• Sprinkles (optional)
• Candy melts (optional)
• Food coloring (optional)

To make the treats:

• Start with melting the quarter stick of butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. 

• Once the butter is almost entirely melted, add in half the bag of mini marshmallows. Stir the marshmallow and butter combination frequently until the marshmallows are completely melted. (A cute variation of this recipe would be to include some orange food coloring at this point to make the treat look pumpkin-colored).

• Add in the 4 heaping cups of rice crispy cereal and combine the marshmallow mixture thoroughly into the cereal.  Once the cereal is fully coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into a cool, unlined jelly roll pan and smooth into the pan to make a flat layer. Cover the top with sprinkles and using a rubber spatula press the sprinkles into the cereal, to make sure it's secure.  Let cool for 30 minutes. 

• Once the rice crispies are cool to touch use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out. Since the treats can be fairly sticky, I needed to wiggle the cutter a bit to create a clean cut out.  Lay out the shapes on a flat surface, to avoid warping. 

• If you want to get adventurous, you can pipe frosting or candy melts into designs on top of your treats.  I dyed some white candy melts with green food coloring and added little stems and leaves to the top of my pumpkins for an extra pop of color.  If you choose to add frosting or candy melts, be sure to let your treats dry 30-60 minutes before stacking them.

• If you can practice the self control to not eat all of the rice crispy treats and need to transport them to your Thanksgiving get together, lay them flat in a plastic container, separating the layers with wax paper to avoid having pieces stick together. 

Enjoy!