Enjoy the flavor of hot cocoa in a crispy, chewy marshmallow cereal treat. These Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats are easy to make and will be a favorite wintertime snack for the whole family.
If you love the flavor of hot chocolate, you've got to give this fun Rice Krispie Treat recipe a try. It's made with hot cocoa mix, chocolate, and marshmallows.
Enjoy these crispy treats with a mug of hot chocolate. It's the perfect treat for Christmas, a snow day, or any day.
I shared these chocolatey treats with my family on Thanksgiving along with some Rice Krispie Treat Turkey Legs and Pumpkin Pie Rice Krispie Treats and they got rave reviews. I hope your family loves them too!
Let's make some Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats.
Ingredients
- Rice Krispies Cereal - We always recommend using Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal. They have the best texture of all the cereals we taste-tested. Check out our Best Rice Krispie Treats Recipe for more information about our taste test results.
- salted butter - If you use European-style butter like Kerrygold salted butter, your treats will have the best flavor.
- hot chocolate mix - I used Nestle Hot Chocolate packets with tiny dehydrated marshmallows. The flavor was very nice. You can use your favorite hot cocoa mix with or without marshmallows.
- chocolate - Use your favorite chocolate bars, chopped, or chocolate chips.
- marshmallows - Choose either mini marshmallows or regular marshmallows. Either will work fine. Check out our Marshmallows tips tutorial to see how to choose the best marshmallows and how to measure
- tiny dehydrated marshmallows - These little marshmallows will hold their shape nicely, will add flecks of white in the chocolate treats, and will add a nice vanilla flavor to the treats.
Supplies
- extra-large mixing bowl
- 9-inch or 8-inch square baking pan - You can also use a 9x13-inch pan using a large batch recipe (see notes in the recipe card below).
- silicone spatula
- medium saucepan
Instructions
Grease an extra-large mixing bowl, a 9-inch (or 8-inch) square baking pan, and a silicone spatula with butter (preferable) or baking spray.
Pour 5 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal into the greased mixing bowl. Measure out 1 ½ cups of dehydrated marshmallows.
Cut 4 tablespoons of butter into slices and place them in a saucepan. Set the pan over LOW heat and allow the butter to begin to melt.
Add ½ cup of dark, semi-sweet, or milk chocolate chips.
Add ¼ cup (2 packets) of hot chocolate mix.
Stir together the butter, chocolate, and hot cocoa mix until melted.
The tiny dehydrated marshmallows won't melt completely.
Pour in the contents of a 10-ounce bag of marshmallows. I used minis.
Stir to coat the marshmallows with the hot chocolate mixture.
Stir often, until about 75% of the marshmallows melt. Then, remove the pan from the heat. Stir until the mini marshmallows are melted. If you use hot cocoa with marshmallows, those marshmallows won't melt.
Pour the melted hot chocolate marshmallow mixture over the cereal.
You can see tiny lumps in the melted chocolate marshmallow mixture. Those are the dehydrated marshmallows.
Begin to stir the marshmallow mixture into the cereal.
Then, toss in 1 cup of the tiny dehydrated marshmallows.
Stir until well combined.
Then, gently spread the crispy treat mixture into the greased pan.
Immediately, sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of the tiny dehydrated marshmallows over the hot cocoa cereal treats.
Press down on the marshmallows gently to ensure they stick to the tops of the treats.
Let the treats cool for at least one hour. Then remove the treats from the pan by sliding a thin spatula under the edge of the treats and sliding the whole treat out of the pan onto a cutting board.
Cut the treats into 16 squares or 12 rectangles.
Storage
Store these treats in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freeze in a zip-top bag or airtight container for up to 3 months. See our How To Freeze Rice Krispie Treats post for details about freezing and thawing your treats.
Tips
Do not raise the heat on the stove. Use low heat. Higher heat can burn the chocolate.
Do not overheat your marshmallows and chocolate. If it gets too hot, your treats will be too hard.
Be sure to check out our How To Make Rice Krispie Treats Tip page for tips on making the very best marshmallow cereal treats.
Substitutions
If you prefer, you can mix mini marshmallows into the treats and sprinkle them on top. I like the look of the tiny marshmallows, but mini marshmallows would work fine too.
Variations
Minty Hot Cocoa Rice Krispie Treats - Add ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon peppermint extract to the melted hot chocolate marshmallow mixture to give your treats a minty flavor. Then, sprinkle on some crushed candy canes or starlight mints for color and added flavor.
White Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats - Make these by swapping out white chocolate chips for the chocolate chips and white hot chocolate for the regular hot cocoa mix.
Related Recipes
Recipe
Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats
Equipment
- 1 extra-large mixing bowl
- 1 9-inch or 8-inch square baking pan
- 1 silicone spatula
- 1 medium saucepan
Ingredients
- 5 cups Rice Krispies cereal
- 4 tablespoons European-Style salted butter
- 10 ounces marshmallows (mini or regular)
- ½ cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark, or milk chocolate)
- 2 packets (or ¼ cup) powdered hot cocoa mix
- 1 ½ cups tiny dehydrated marshmallows, divided
Instructions
- Grease a 9-inch or an 8-inch square baking pan, an extra large mixing bowl, and a silicone spatula with butter or baking spray.
- Pour the Rice Krispies Cereal into the greased bowl and set aside.
- Cut the salted butter into slices and place in a medium saucepan set over low heat on the stove. Allow the butter to begin to melt.
- Add the hot cocoa mix and chocolate chips to the saucepan and stir until the butter and chocolate chips have completely melted.
- Stir in the 10 ounces of marshmallows.
- Stir often until about 75% of the marshmallows have melted.
- Then, remove the pan from the heat and stir continuously until melted. If you used hot chocolate mix with marshmallows, the tiny dehydrated marshmallows will not melt completely so you will still see some tiny lumps in the mixture.
- Pour the melted hot chocolate marshmallow mixture over the cereal and stir to combine.
- Add 1 cup of the tiny dehydrated marshmallows and continue to stir until well blended.
- Gently spread the cereal treat mixture into an even layer in the greased baking pan.
- Immediately, sprinkle on the remining ½ cup of dehydrated marshmallows.
- Gently press the marshmallows onto the treats just to ensure they stick.
- Let the treats cool for at least one hour before cutting into 16 squares or 12 rectangles.
Notes
Large Batch Recipe
To make a larger batch of these cereal treats, grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan, and use the following ingredients:- 16 ounces marshmallows (about 68 regular-size marshmallows OR 9 cups mini marshmallows)
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 7 ½ cups Rice Krispies cereal
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 3 packets of hot cocoa mix
- 2 ¼ cups tiny dehydrated marshmallows
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