Before you even start, you’ll want to lay a sheet of parchment (or foil) in your pan and spray it lightly with non-stick spray. The pan size we’re using is 12×18. This is one of the most useful pan sizes to have in your kitchen. It works so well to be able to make 1 and 1/2 times your favorite 9×13 recipes. When 9×13 just isn’t quite big enough. If you don’t have a pan like that, then use a 12×18 rimmed baking sheet. Chances are you have one of these! It’s the size of your standard cookie sheet. Next place your cereal in your giant bowl (if you don’t have a really huge bowl for mixing, I’ve used a roasting pan in a pinch!) Another secret to really great rice krispie treats is adding some whole marshmallows to the cereal mixture. It bulks up the mixture all together and makes the treats softer and fluffier when you eat them.
Melt your marshmallows and butter on the stove top until they’re really smooth. Sometimes people don’t cook these long enough. It should be easy to stir and fall off your spoon like a sauce. You’ll also stir in a little salt at this point. Most people don’t include salt in their rice krispie treats but they are so full of sugar, they need it for balance!
Pour the melted marshmallow mixture into the big bowl of cereal and marshmallow. Make sure to scrape out all that good melted goo and then immediately stir stir stir to get it all coated.
Immediately transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Either spray your hands with non-stick spray or rub them with butter and gently spread the mixture out and pat it down. Don’t pack it down. Once they set up you can pick up the whole sheet by the parchment paper and remove it from the pan and put it on a cutting board.
This recipe will make 12 jumbo rice krispie treats, or up to 48 normal sized ones. I love the jumbo size for bake sales and gifts. There’s just something so fun and enticing about a HUGE rice krispie treat. I don’t make these extra thick because I think that makes them kind of hard to eat. I’d rather have more surface area. You can see these ones are about as big as my hand!
If you are going to package these for sale or an event or picnic or whatever, my favorite way to package is with a strip of parchment and then in plastic wrap. This keeps them looking nice and they don’t get melted and stuck to the plastic.
Well-wrapped, these really stay great for several days.
If you need to make multiple batches in a row, my tip is to make 2-3 max and then wash and dry all your equipment! Any more than that and things are just ay too goopy. But I made 6 batches yesterday and it was relatively quick considering how many rice krispie treats I was able to make and wrap in one sitting.
Try this recipe for the best large batch jumbo rice krispie treats next time you need a bunch!
