Chocolate Rice Krispie treats are the last minute potluck’s savior
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I’m so glad that chocolate rice krispie treats are one of those things that will never go out of style: filled with rich chocolatey flavor in gooey marshmallow crispness and the potential of fun mix-ins like trail mix and coconut, it’s hard to pass these up.
And that’s great because we all need quick to make baking recipes in our arsenal, especially after a Holiday season of baking all the things. Like my lemon pistachio biscotti, and chocolate cookie dough bark, sometimes you need big bang for your time kind of recipes.
These would be equally welcome at any potluck, Superbowl party, or as a bake sale treat. I made this batch for a Christmas Eve potluck one of my friends always hosts, and I was personally glad to have something so quick to put together on such a day. I always play violin for Christmas Eve service, so our Christmas Eve food plans need to be quick and easy.
Without further ado, I give you a 10 minute dessert with these chocolate rice krispie treats.
Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats
Why you’ll love these bars
- Adaptable: Use whatever kind of chocolate you have on hand, and add any kind of mix-ins. I kept these easy, just calling for chocolate chips, but really anything goes. Shoot, if you’re short on your marshmallows because you made a batch of perfect whipped cream frosting, you can still have awesome rice krispie bars.
- No bake!: If you can stir, you can make these bars. There’s no heating up the house, so even if it’s the dog days of Summer, these bars are an easy treat to make.
- No sugary cereal needed: There is no need to use sugary Cocoa Pebbles or other sugary chocolate cereal to make these chocolate cereal treats. The amount of chocolate added into the recipe will coat whatever cereal you choose just fine, plus real chocolate tastes better than fakey chocolate cereal any day.
- Quick and easy: You don’t even need to separately melt your chocolate. Throw everything together and cook things slowly until they melt. I’m being conservative saying this will take 10 minutes to make. It’s more like 5.
Ingredients for Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats
Krispie Treats
- Mini marshmallows
- Butter
- Chocolate chips
- Vanilla paste
- Rice Krispie cereal: or Rice Chex, plain Cheerios or similar cereals
Mix-ins
- Unsweetened large coconut flakes
- Chocolate trail mix
What other mix-ins can I use besides trail mix and coconut?
- Dried fruit: freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries, dates, apricots, cranberries
- Granola: my applesauce granola would be good here.
- Pretzels or chips: crush them up a little and stir them in, leaving a few for the top of the bars.
- Any chocolate candy: cut up into chunks and mix into the marshmallows or press into the top. See my leftover Halloween candy recipes for more ideas for leftover candy.
- Peanut butter chips
- Butterscotch chips
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Chocolate Rice Krispie treats
- Total Time: a little over 1 hour, largely unattended
- Yield: 30 cereal treats 1x
Description
Make these no-bake bars when you have a last minute potluck to go to and you want something chocolatey but no patience to bake more. These bars are a great place to mix in extras like coconut or chocolate trail mix.
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 10 oz mini marshmallows (283 g)
- 1 stick butter (113 g)
- 1 cup chocolate chips (170 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional)
- 6 cups Rice Krispie cereal (160 g)
- 1 cup unsweetened large coconut flakes (60 g), optional
- 1 cup chocolate trail mix (170g),optional
Instructions
Make the bars
- Spritz a 9 x 13 pan with a little cooking spray. Then line the pan with a sheet of parchment that covers the bottom and extends up the long sides of the pan.
- Melt the butter, chocolate chips, and marshmallows in a large pot over low heat, stirring occasionally. It’s important to keep the heat low so that the marshmallows don’t burn. Cover the pan with a lid or a sheet tray to help melt the marshmallows a little more efficiently.
- Spritz a large bowl with a little cooking spray. Mix the cereal with the coconut (if using) in the bowl.
- Turn off the heat once the marshmallows are completely melted and smooth.
- Pour the melted goo over the cereal and mix with a baking spatula until everything is well coated.
- Quickly scrape the coated cereal into the 9 x 13.
Smooth the mixture into the pan as best you can, and then take a piece of plastic wrap, placing it on top of the bars. Scatter the trail mix over the top of the bars. Press with your hands to smooth and press the bars into the pan until they’re well packed and the trail mix is sticking to the top. 
- Let the bars cool and set for about an hour or as long as you can stand it.
- Cut the cooled bars into triangles by first cutting the bars into 15 squares, and then cutting each square into 2 triangles.
Store the bars at room temperature for up to a couple days in an airtight container.
Notes
Swap out your candy: These bars could be a great place to use up leftover chocolate from Easter, Halloween, or Christmas. Just chop things up and either melt them into the bars or scatter them on top of the bars.
- Prep Time: 2 minutes
- + 1 hour cooling time:
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Bar cookies
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cereal treat
- Calories: 139
- Sugar: 7.8 g
- Sodium: 49.2 mg
- Fat: 8.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.8 g
- Fiber: 0.9 g
- Protein: 1.8 g
- Cholesterol: 8.2 mg
