I gotta be honest, Valentine's Day is not my favourite. Heart shaped plastic chocolates and enforced declarations of romance are not really my jam. But since having kids I find renewed joy in little traditions or holiday treats and when I look at these things through their eyes it sparks happiness in me, from those same little candies.
These rice crispy treats could not be easier, you could actually make a batch AT WORK, with only a microwave. And something about those little pastel marshmallows are just so darn cute.
This recipe is super scalable, really just a ratio of mallows to rice. For a 9 x 11" pan (1" thick) I used 2 cups marshmallows to 3 cups rice crispies. Start with a microwave safe bowl and put 1 1/2 tbsps. butter and about 2 cups mini marshmallows. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Check about halfway through that it's not bubbling over, but you do want your marshmallows to get all weird and puffy looking. The magic is working!
Stir in your rice crispies and here I added about a cup of room temp. marshmallows and 1/2 tsp. of salt. Press it into a pan, using your fingers, you want to be pretty firm and make sure they are good and stuck together. Cover in plastic wrap and stick it in your fridge for about 30 minutes.
From here it's a real choose your own adventure in terms of portion. I got these cute little cutters at the dollarstore and they were perfect for making mom sized and kid sized treats. You can cut them right out of the pan or put the whole slab on a counter. Of course you end up with some little bits of crispy treats so you will probably have to eat those as you go. Sorry, it's the rules.
You can top your treats off with whatever you want but of course I went for the ubiquitous candy hearts. I told you, I'm becoming a real suck. But so cute! Happy Valentine's Day.
