Our friend showed up to a picnic earlier this summer with an 8x8 pan packed to the rim with gooey marshmallow rice krispies. "I used a whole stick of butter," he said with a certain pride, "and I added a little bit of cinnamon."
He couldn't wait to dig into the fruits of his labor. I, on the other hand, was feeling pretty neutral about the dessert. I had nothing against rice krispie bars; I'd just never given them much thought.
Then I tried one.
Oh! We couldn’t stop exclaiming. So gooey! The buttery vanilla flavor! The CINNAMON!
For weeks after this picnic, my mind kept wandering back to those bars. They had tasted like horchata, or like the milk left over from a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Eventually, enough was enough: I had to recreate them to the best of my ability; I had to spread the good word.
So here it is. They aren't an exact reproduction of those heavenly picnic bars, but they're close enough. The cinnamon and salt add depth; they even seem to enhance the vanilla flavor of the mallows. These bars are chewy-gooey-irresistible, and I’ll never go back to the box recipe.
Ingredients
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
16 oz bag marshmallows
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
6 cups crispy rice cereal
Directions
Grease a large pot, rubber spatula, and 8x8 pan with butter or oil.
Melt the butter in the pot over medium high heat.
Add the mallows to the pot and stir until they’ve melted into the butter.
Take the pot off the heat and stir in the salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Gently stir in the cereal until every crispy crunchy is coated in buttery mallow goo.
Nestle the gooey krispies into the 8x8 pan and let them cool before cutting.
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