Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats

My friends, what you see before you is pure genius. It's a rice krispie treat made with heart-shaped jet-puffed strawberry marshmallows (in place of the usual marshmallows) and freeze-dried strawberries tossed into the mix. Cut them out with heart shaped cookie cutters and you have one of the cutest and tastiest Valentine's treats you can make. What's even more wonderful is that I picked up the ingredients for this at Target! And who doesn't love Target?!

Go to Target, buy the ingredients and make these! You will be ♥loved♥.

Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats

Yield: One 9"x13" pan

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces Strawberry flavored marshmallows (1½ bags)
• 6 TBSP unsalted butter
• 9 cups Rice Krispie cereal (or knock off)
• 1 cup freeze dried strawberries

Butter a 9-x-13-x-2-inch pan. Or be lazy like me and use baking spray. Over low heat, melt 6 TBSP butter in a large pot (I like to use my stock pot because I am a messy person).

Once butter has melted, add marshmallows. Continue to cook over low heat while they melt. It may take a little time. Don’t turn up the heat to try and make it go quicker, you could end up with burned marshmallows or your treats could end up too hard once they firm up

When most of the marshmallows have melted and they resemble marshmallow crème with a few lumps, remove from heat and add the cereal and sprinkle in freeze dried strawberries (try not to dump those all in one place).

Using a wooden spoon, stir, stir, stir some more, until all the cereal is fully coated and other parts of the pot are not hogging all the marshmallows (so evenly coated).

Pour into prepared baking pan. Take a rubber spatula and either spray it with non-stick spray or simply get some water on it (I just put mine under the faucet real quick). Using the spatula, press the cereal/marshmallow mixture down into the pan, attempting to create a flat, even surface.

Cover with foil and let sit for a few hours to firm up.

Take foil off. Place wax paper down that is a little bit longer than the baking pan. Flip the pan over onto the wax paper. Cut into squares. Some would say 2-inch. But whatever size you would like works. You can also use cookie cutters to make them fun shaped.

Source: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody