One year for class Christmas party, back when you could call it a Christmas party, my mom made the most amazing treats for me to bring to school. She hand-crafted 31 Rice Krispy Treat Christmas Trees, each dyed green, and decorated with Nerds and Skittles, and topped with a foil star with the name of each kid in my class written on it.

Labor intensive?

Yes.

Awesome?

Hell yes!

Ever since then, it has mystified me how people think something like this, could be called festive/impressive/worthwhile, when its clearly not:

Crappy decorated stars

For Halloween I was having a krispy-craving so I decided to make some pumpkins for my coworkers, and teach Monkey the ways of the Rice Krispy Treats, that will someday make him the coolest cat around.

We made two batches, one orange and one green…we had too much green so we made some monsters too. There are a couple tricks:

  1. Add the food coloring before the marshmallows are completely melted.
  2. Butter everything; pot, spoon and, most importantly, YOUR HANDS!
  3. Only do one color at a time. Otherwise your treats will get stiff and hard to mold.

From there we basically used the standard Rice Krispy Treat recipe, found on their website or on any box of the stuff:

Pumpkin Rice Krispy Army

Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treat Army

ingredients

  • 3 tbsp Butter
  • 10 oz bag Marshmallows (make sure these are fresh, not the stale ones from your last camping trip)
  • 6 cups Rice Krispies (I have not had good luck with substitutions)
  • Food Coloring
  • Extra butter for your hands and things
  • Wax Paper
  • Melted Chocolate

instructions

  1. Butter your pot and spoon.
  2. In a large pot, melt the butter over low heat.
  3. Add the marshmallows, and continue stirring until completely melted (add food coloring towards the end)
  4. Add the Krispies, and stir vigorously until they’re all coated
  5. Are your hands buttered? Butter your hands well!
  6. Working quickly, grab a handful of Kripies and mold into a pumpkin shape. This best way to do this is to make a ball, press it on to wax paper, and then form with your thumbs.
  7. Allow to cool, then decorate with additional colored treats, melted chocolate, or leftover candies of your choice.
Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treat

Happy Treat

Now lick your fingers clean, and enjoy the fruits of your labor! Pumpkin’s a fruit, right?