You’d never guess crispy, gooey marshmallow magic hides in these glorious little goodies. Are they reindeer or cleverly disguised rice krispies treats? You decide!
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What’s better than rice krispies treats?
Rice krispies treats dipped in chocolate!
These sensational snacks look happy enough to pull Santa’s sleigh and tasty enough to satisfy even the most discerning sweet tooth. Crispy rice, suspended in a buttery web of marshmallow, is plunged into milk chocolate and emerges as the perfect canvas for making delightful deer.
These Reindeer Rice Krispies Treats are super simple to put together. Deciding how many you’re going to give away as gifts, well, that’s a little harder to do.
Making the antlers for the reindeer is the only thing that takes some time, but it’s just drying time so you can skip out for a few hours to do some holiday shopping or even make them the night before.
If you haven’t worked with fondant, you’ll be happy to know it doesn’t require the voodoo most people think it does. It’s pliable, forgiving, and actually really easy to work with. The only real enemy is premature drying, but that shouldn’t be a concern in this recipe because you’re only cutting out a few things.
There are a few tips that can help make it all even less painless, though. Using a silicone mat and/or rolling pin will help with sticking. Lightly sprinkling the work surface with powdered sugar can help with sticking too. If it’s particularly humid where you are, you can even use a mixture of ½ powdered sugar and ½ cornstarch. I also like to keep an offset spatula or other thin spatula handy for moving the antlers onto a cookie sheet or cutting board for drying.
Melting wafers are a great thing to keep on hand during the holidays because you can dip just about anything in chocolate – fruit, pretzels, Oreos – and turn it into something special. (You can also get good deals if you buy the wafers in bulk, and they’ll last a long time, especially if you throw them in the freezer.)
Ghiradelli is my favorite brand because of the quality and flavor.
Dipping Rice Krispies Treats is a no-brainer given the delicious pairing of chocolate with the unique crunch and pop of the cereal and gooey, sticky marshmallows. Seriously, why aren’t they marketing these in the candy bar aisle?! Using the packaged treats from the store is a great time saver too, and they’re all uniformly cut (unlike the ones I usually make at home).
Although the microwave is a useful tool for melting chocolate, I find it cools and thickens too quickly for me to do a good job on the dipping. The double boiler keeps the chocolate waiting on me, not the other way around. It can harden fairly quickly once you’ve set your treats out to dry, so make sure you have your antlers and candies ready to press into them once the treats are prepped with the chocolate.
Any round, red candies will work for the noses on the deer, and there are definitely some fun M&M flavors around the holidays (I’m partial to the white peppermint). If you don’t have any use for the other M&Ms in the bag (said no one ever), you can certainly use any of the colors you’d like for the noses.
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These Reindeer Rice Krispies Treats are a perfectly acceptable finger food, but you can make them even more festive by pressing a small peppermint stick into the bottom of the treat before you dip them. Then you’ve basically got a Rice Krispies Treat pop that can occupy vertical space on your crowded holiday dessert table.
They’re obviously perfect presents or party fare, but they’ll keep just fine in an air-tight container stashed somewhere only you can find them.
Recipe Notes:
Speed things up: The only thing that takes any time in this recipe is waiting on the fondant to dry. You can accelerate the drying process a bit by using the oven. Place the antlers onto a cookie sheet. Turn your oven on to the lowest/warming setting, then let it preheat. Once it’s hot, turn the oven off. Place the cookie sheet into the oven and let it sit for 8 – 10 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and let the pieces air-dry for about 30 minutes. Depending on the humidity in your house, it could take a little longer.
Homemade Treats: Using pre-made treats in this recipe really saves some time, but you can definitely substitute homemade. When I make my own version of Rice Krispies Treats, I discourage pressing them too firmly into the pan since I prefer a more delicate texture. If you’re making some from scratch, though, I’d suggest pressing them pretty firmly so they’ll be dense enough to hold up to the chocolate-dipping. I’d also suggest lining your pan with parchment so you can pull the whole thing out once they’re set and cut them. If you make ~ 3” x 2” treats, you’ll get about 16 treats out of a 9” x 13” pan, so you’ll need to double the recipe to accommodate that many.
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