Easy to make, brilliantly colored rice krispie treats? Yes please! These Peeps Rice Krispie Treats are so fun with their multi colored layers.
Whether you're a huge peep fan or not, these Peep Rice Krispie Treats are sure to dazzle your eyes and your taste buds.
How to Make Peeps Rice Krispie Treats
A fun and easy way to also add color to your rice Krispie Treats is by using colorful marshmallows. Which is exactly how we will be making these Peeps Rice Krispie Treats. These taste pretty much like your standard Rice Krispie treat, they're just layered with different colors.
These are super fun Easter themed Rice Krispie Treats to make. Check out these additional Easter Rice Krispie Treat ideas.
There are a few different ways to make colored rice krispie treats. Probably the most common way is with food coloring, like these Green Rice Krispie Treats or Watermelon Rice Krispie Treats. But you can also use brightly colored cereal or colored candy add-ins as well.
If you know how to make rice krispie treats, then you should be able to make these with no problem. We will simply be substituting regular marshmallows for marshmallow Peeps. Even if you've never made rice krispie treats before, these are so easy to make.
Tips:
For these rice krispie treats made with peeps, we will be substituting regular marshmallows with Peeps. One thing to be aware of is that the Peeps are a little more difficult to work with than regular marshmallows.
I used this four pack of colored Peeps - you will need several packs of each color if you are making a full batch.
- Be Cautious with how long you heat: Due to the sugar coating, the Peeps are a bit harder to start with and you have to melt them just right so that you can work with the mixture.
- Work Quickly: I also found they tend to harden a bit more after heating than regular marshmallows, so be ready to use them right after they're done melting.
- Use Fresh Peeps: Quite frankly, Peeps can get stale easily and stale marshmallows will result in hard treats instead of the gooey marshmallow cereal bars you are looking for.
- Don't smash them: with the way these peeps can harden after heating, you want to be extra cautious while stirring everything together and pressing it into your pan that you do so gently. Otherwise you will end up with hard treats.
Variations
There are a few different ways you can make these treats. We did ours layered with four colors. However, here are a few other ideas:
- use only 2 or 3 colors instead of 4.
- instead of layering them, swirl them together or roll them like a spinwheel.
- Use flavored peeps. I have seen cotton candy, and hot tamale just to name a few flavors.
- Use Christmas or Halloween themed peeps. Peeps aren't just Easter themed chicks anymore. They come in monsters, ghosts, pumpkins, Christmas trees and more.
Ingredients
- 6 cups of Rice Krispies
- 4 - 4oz packages of Peeps. We used 4 different colors of peeps.
- 4 tbs of Salted Butter
- (optional) canola oil
Supplies:
- Measuring Cup
- 9x13 pan
- spatula
- Microwave safe bowl or large stock pot
Instructions
We highly recommend to just go ahead and pre-grease everything before you get started. The marshmallow mixture is super sticky and it needs to be mixed and spread fairly quickly. So, it's just easier to have things greased and ready to go.
You should pre-grease your pan and your spatula. To do this, you can either use a pad of butter and rub it all over both items thoroughly. Or, you can thoroughly spray them with non-stick cooking spray. Either way works just fine.
Do keep in mind that the cooking spray can leave a slightly different taste than the regular butter, however, it is also a little easier to coat things with.
Step one
First you need to divide up your ingredients. Since these are layered, you will be essentially making 4 batches - one of each color.
You'll want to take your butter and divide it into however many colors of peeps you are using. In this case, I used 4, so I divided the butter into 4 and stuck each piece in a separate dish.
Toss each color of peep into a separate dish (where you've already added you butter in step one above).
Step two
Next, you will melt your peeps and butter together. For this recipe, I used the microwave since there were four different batches that needed to be melted. It just made it faster and easier. But you can also melt them together on the stove top.
Since these are layered, you will want to melt one color of peeps at a time.
If you choose to do it in the microwave, then you will pop your 4 tbs ofbutter and 1 package of peeps in for about 60 seconds. Once done, stir them up and then pop back into the microwave for 30 second intervals until the peeps are thoroughly melted.
PRO TIP: these will puff up some when microwaving. But they get hard way easier than regular marshmallows, so stir frequently to spread the heat and help melt without heating extra time.
Step Three
Immediately mix in one quarter of your rice krispie cereal to your peep and butter mixture. Make sure that the mixture is evenly coated with marshmallows.
Step four
Get your mixture spread out into a pan. It will be fairly sticky, so make sure that you're using a greased pan and spatula to spread it.
PRO TIP: You want it to be spread evenly, but you also don't want to crush the rice krispies. So, press the mixture out into the pan, but don't do it too hard.
Step five
Repeat steps two through four for each of your peep colors. Layering them one on top of the other in your pan. For the melting and mixing part, you will want to have either cleaned your pot or bowl out in between batches. Or, you will want to have 4 separate pots or bowls.
Allow your treats to cool for about 30 minutes or so and then cut and enjoy! If you want them to cool faster, you can stick them in the fridge, or even the freezer.
Peeps Rice Krispie Treats
Equipment
- 9x13 Pan
- Spatula
- 4 small microwave safe bowls
Ingredients
- 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
- 4 tablespoon Salted Butter
- 4 oz Pink Peeps
- 4 oz Blue Peeps
- 4 oz Yellow Peeps
- 4 oz Purple Peeps
Instructions
- Divide butter into 1 tablespoon sections and add them to the four microwave safe bowls.
- Add one color of Peeps to each of the bowls of butter.
- Microwave the first bowl of Peeps and butter until they are fully melted. Do this in 30 - 60 second intervals, checking and stirring before adding more time.
- When melted, add in 1.5 cups of the Rice Krispies cereal and thoroughly stir.
- Spread the mixture into your greased 9x13 pan.
- Repeat with the other three colors of Peeps, layering each color on top of the previous.
- Let everything cool for around 30 minutes, cut and eat.
Nutrition information provided is just an estimate and may vary based on specific ingredients used.
