Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats are a sophisticated twist on the childhood classic! My version is made with an easy homemade caramel sauce and finished with a drizzle of chocolate.
Gourmet Rice Krispie Treats
These salted caramel rice krispie treats are the gourmet version of your favorite childhood snack. They are thick with caramel, crunchy, chewy, and SO easy to make too. I like to top mine off with a chocolate drizzle (you know I can’t resist caramel and chocolate!), and I’ve lightly salted them too, because what’s caramel without a little salt?!
Today’s recipe starts with a quick and simple caramel sauce, but please don’t let that intimidate you. Making caramel sauce on the stove is not difficult, and unlike making caramel candy, there is no boiling and no need for a candy thermometer. It’s easy!
Why try my recipe:
- Just 25 minutes to make!
- Perfect for packing in lunchboxes.
- Rich flavor with minimal effort.
- A simple, but satisfying no-bake dessert!
What You Need
Only 8 ingredients come together to make this easy dessert! Here are the important ones:
- Butter. While I like to use European butter in my regular rice krispie treats, I don’t find it makes much of a difference here since we’re getting so much flavor from the caramel sauce (though you could certainly use European butter, I just like to save my money here). While I recommend using salted butter, you can substitute unsalted and just add a pinch more salt.
- Marshmallows. Make sure you use mini marshmallows, as these will melt easier. Save your full sized marshmallows for s’mores or hot chocolate!
- Heavy cream. Double cream or whipping cream will also work.
- Chocolate. A drizzle of semisweet chocolate (either from a chopped bar, chocolate chips, or melting wafers) is a necessity for me. You can always skip it though!
SAM’S TIP: If you can’t wait for your treats to cool, you can always pop them in the refrigerator for a few minutes to help them firm up a little before cutting them. Just don’t leave them there too long — the refrigerator can dry out rice krispie treats and make them hard and stale.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats
- Stir together the butter, brown sugar and heavy cream over medium-low heat until melted, then increase the heat to medium and whisk for 2 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the salt and vanilla.
- Add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted.
- Stir in the cereal until everything is fully coated, then spread the mixture into a buttered 9×13 pan.
- Drizzle with melted chocolate and let harden before cutting.
SAM’S TIP: Press your cereal mixture into your pan so your salted caramel rice krispie treats stick together once cooled, but be careful not to pack the mixture too firmly into your pan, or they will be hard and too dense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your treats will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature. Refrigerating can make them too hard, so I don’t recommend storing this way.
I talk more about this in my original rice krispie treats post, but essentially this can happen for one of two reasons: too high of heat when cooking or too much pressure when pressing into the pan. Make sure you don’t crank up the heat when cooking (particularly when melting the marshmallows) and use a gentle, but firm hand to spread the cereal mixture into your pan.
It depends on the cereal you use. While rice itself is gluten free, some puffed rice cereals use additives that contain gluten. Always make sure to check that all of the products you use are certified gluten free before serving to any gluten sensitive guests!
Love these? You simply have to try my caramel popcorn or caramelitas next!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Salted Caramel Rice Krispies
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter (plus additional for greasing pan) (113g)
- 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed (200g)
- 6 Tablespoons heavy cream (88ml)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 10 oz marshmallows (mini or regular-sized will work fine) (283g)
- 7 cups crisped rice cereal (205g)
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips or chocolate baking bar for drizzle, optional
- additional flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top optional
Instructions
- Prepare a 13×9" baking pan by lightly greasing the bottom and sides with butter. Set aside.
- In large pot melt together butter, brown sugar and heavy cream on medium-low heat, stirring constantly until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.
- Once butter is melted, increase heat to medium and whisk for 2 minutes (do not allow to come to a boil).
- Reduce heat to medium-low.
- Stir in salt and vanilla extract.
- Stir in marshmallows, stirring constantly until completely melted.
- Add cereal and stir well, ensuring ingredients are well combined and cereal is entirely coated by caramel mixture.
- Spread into prepared pan.
- Melt chocolate in microwave by heating at 15 second increments and stirring regularly.
- Drizzle chocolate over cereal in pan. Allow rice krispies to sit until chocolate hardens before cutting and serving.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. I do not recommend refrigerating.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Bruce
I hate these, but only because I can’t decide whether these or the peanut butter treats are better. Another amazing Sam recipe. Keep coming up with new variations, because you do them so well, as well as improving on the original recipe. (Of course, the fact that the original recipe used margarine left it open to improvement just by using butter.)
Sam
Thank you so much, Bruce! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed these as well as everything else! 🙂
Bruce
I’m sleeping better now, because I settled the debate. In the war between these and the peanut butter treats, I’ve declared a tie. This one has a subtle but rich flavor, while the other has a solid peanut butter flavor that instantly makes them comfort food. Please keep the variations coming, so I can have this fight again.
Sam
🤣🤣🤣
Andres
I love it when you do recipe makeovers(the old photos are still great, and I’ll gladly spend 15 min of my day going through your recipes laughing and then proceeding to go to the store to empty my bank account for one of your recipes), but I would love to see this one with a new look! I made your Brown Butter Toffee cookies but replaced the milk chocolate toffee bits with 3 ingredient toffee that I made on the stove(butter, brown sugar, salt). They were sooo good and gone in one day.
Sam
I’ll have to see what I can do. Sometimes it’s fun to see how much better the new pictures are. 🙂