I hate to waste food.
Even when I have mess ups in my kitchen, I try to follow my grade school art teacher’s advice and “take a mistake, and make it great.”
But that was not going to happen this week when I decided to try a fun dessert that features browned butter.
The directions said to turn the stovetop on high, but in what I’m sure is my own ignorance about how quickly butter can burn, I managed to take it from yellow, way past brown and into blackened territory in what felt like 30 seconds flat.
I very briefly considered still trying to use the now ebony slurry, but I thought about countless TV chefs I’ve heard repeat over and over that burnt butter is bitter butter, and while that might be a fun tongue-twister, it’s certainly not something I wanted to actually taste.
The good news is my second attempt—with my pot on lower heat—turned out great, and it elevated what would be fairly normal Rice Krispies treats to something a little more special.
This recipe comes from influencer Sarah Kraffty. You can find her under her name on pretty much all the social media platforms. I left out sprinkles and changed some of the directions in my version.
Sugar Cookie Rice Krispies Treats
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup butter
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 10-12 ounces regular-sized marshmallows
- 1/2 cup sugar cookie mix
- 9 ounces Rice Krispies cereal
- 5 ounces mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Add the butter to a stock pot or Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. Stir continuously and remove from heat immediately when the butter reaches a light-milk-chocolate-brown color (when the butter starts browning, it will go quickly).
- Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk. Add in the entire bag of regular-sized marshmallows, and stir until the marshmallows melt completely. (If there isn’t enough residual heat in your pot to accomplish this, place it back over medium heat, stirring continuously until the mixture is melted, and then remove it from heat to finish up.)
- Stir in the sugar cookie mix, and then add in the Rice Krispies, stirring to coat the cereal in the marshmallow mixture.
- Finally, fold in the mini marshmallows, and then press the mixture into a nine-by-13-inch pan.
- Let the treats cool, slice and serve. Store the treats in an airtight container.
These weren’t drastically different from normal Rice Krispies treats, but they were enough dissimilar that the people I shared them with immediately asked me what I did differently. They just had a slightly richer flavor.
And I think I have officially conquered browned butter for any of my future endeavors. It’s sad I had to waste part of a stick in my journey, but the final result more than made up for it.
This first appeared in print Oct. 29, 2026.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
