Experimental Individual Cereal Bars

A customizable twist on the classic Rice Krispies Treat.

If you’ve known me for a while, you might know that my favorite dessert pretty much of all time is the humble Rice Krispies Treat. They’re light, they’re sugary sweet, and they’re not too cloying to eat a ton of at any one time. This makes them one of the most dangerous desserts to have in the house, because I will devour them all if given half a chance.

I’ve been wanting to make some for a while, but this time, I decided to experiment. Rather than just make the classic, traditional cereal bar out of Rice Krispies, I decided to do a bunch of different cereals to see how they came out.

Spoilers: they were delicious.

I decided to be a little more reasonable (read: my partner convinced me to be reasonable) and only make small, individual-sized cereal bars. This turned out to be a good idea, because if I had made full pans of all of these, they’d have gone stale long before we could finish them all, even with my insatiable appetite for cereal covered in melted marshmallow.

I chose six cereals for my bars:

• Classic Rice Krispies
• Honey Nut Cheerios
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Cocoa Puffs
• Peanut Butter Chex
• Pokemon Cereal

All of these should be pretty familiar to anyone who browses a cereal aisle at the grocery store with any regularity. The only oddball is the Pokemon cereal, which we got just to be silly. Turns out, it’s a pretty tasty cereal! It’s basically Trix with marshmallows in terms of flavor, and identical in texture and size to the Cocoa Puffs.

For individual cereal bars, I used my ramekins, because I love those little things. I was worried the cereal bars would stick, but I made sure to butter them really well, and it worked fine.

I highly recommend using fresh, large marshmallows for this. If you’re making individual-sized bars like I was, it only takes 5-6 of them, depending on how big they actually are. This is for about a cup of cereal, depending on the cereal. If you have too much marshmallow in your mixture, just add more cereal, it’ll be fine. Cereals with smaller bits, like the Rice Krispies, tend to need a bit less cereal. The larger cereals like the cocoa puffs might need a little more. Just play it by ear!

I was also brainstorming some other ideas to add to this dessert. You could add chocolate chips to the cereal, but they’ll probably melt a bit, so it could get extra messy. You could use a double boiler to melt some chocolate and dip the bottoms (or tops) of the finished, cooled bar to give it that extra sweetness. You could also work in a bit of spice into the marshmallow, like cinnamon, kind of like the dust does naturally in the Cinnamon Toast Crunch bar. The world is your oyster! Just don’t add oysters. Unless you want to, I’m not going to stop you, I’ll just judge you.

This is an incredibly easy recipe to throw together in just a few minutes, start to finish. It’s perfect for a quick dessert, and since you can make individual-sized portions, you don’t need to worry about storing leftovers (or eating way too many in one sitting, giving yourself a stomach ache, and still not regretting it. Ask me how I know.)

5 from 1 vote

Individual Cereal Bars

A customizable recipe for sticky, sweet ceral bars in the tradition of the Rice Krispies Treat. Use whatever cereal you like, and adjust proportions to suit.

Servings 1 Bar

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Equipment

• Ramekin, or other small container (A bowl works fine.)
• Sauce Pan
• Rubber Spatula

Ingredients

• 5-6 Large Marshmallows Adjust depending on size
• 1 Tbsp Butter Plus more to coat the serving dish/mold
• 1 Cup Cereal Any cereal you want to use works fine

Instructions

• Thoroughly coat the inside of your mold dish or ramekin with butter, to ensure a non-stick surface.
  
• In a sauce pan, melt 1 Tbsp of butter and your marshmallows over medium-low heat. This should take about 3-5 minutes. If the mixture starts to brown, turn the heat down.
  
• Once melted, turn off the heat and mix in the cereal, stirring to thoroughly coat.
  
• Pour/scrape your mixture into your buttered mold. Let cool for a few minutes to solidify and harden. Once cooled, remove from container and enjoy!
  

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Dessert, Homemade