These Rice Krispie Treat pumpkins are ADORABLE! But I need to tell you right out of the gate – if you make them, your hands are going to get messy. Very messy. Before I figured out how to roll them properly I had gooey Rice Krispie treat mixture all over everything. Just picture me standing at the counter, trying to roll a ball, except instead of it turning into a ball, it got stuck on my palms and in between all of my fingers. Grrrr! I hate when that happens!
Don’t worry though, I figured out how to get it not to stick, so I promise you, these aren’t that bad if you follow my directions. But I’ll admit, I was getting really frustrated before I figured it out!
So here’s the trick… Every time I rolled one of the little balls, I had to rub both sides of both of my hands with vegetable oil. A LOT of vegetable oil. I filled a small bowl with about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, and I pretty much dipped my hands in it and rubbed it all over the fronts and backs of my hands like I’d rub in lotion. My hands weren’t dripping or anything, but they were definitely generously coated. And I had to coat my hands in oil after every single pumpkin. So if you plan to make these yourself, just be prepared with a small bowl of oil.
I LOVE holiday treats (haha As if you couldn’t tell by seeing how many treats I post about at this time of year!). I never would have thought of rolling Rice Krispie treats into balls, but I saw the idea over at Cincy Shopper and I knew I had to try them! So many fun possibilities!
Other than the messy hands, they’re really easy to make!
Check out our video for how to make Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins:
For more fun Halloween and Thanksgiving recipes, check out our videos for:
Scarecrow Crunch Snack Mix Recipe
Chocolate Turkey Thanksgiving Treats
Halloween Harvest Hash Chex Mix
Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins
The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
- Rice Krispies
- Butter
- Marshmallows
- Food Colouring
- Mini Rolo’s
- Green M&M’s
You’re pretty much making regular Rice Krispie treats, except before you add in the Rice Krispies, add food colouring to the marshmallow and butter mixture.
I think the amount of food colouring you need to use will depend on the type of food colouring you use. I started with only a couple drops of each colour, but the colour wasn’t very good. So I went a little crazy and squeezed in tons of drops. I kind of lost track of how many drops it was, (sorry about that…) but I think it was somewhere around 4 to 6 drops of red and 12 drops of yellow. You’re going to have to experiment.
I recommend starting with the yellow food colouring instead of what I did. Add the yellow, mix it all up, and then add the red, a drop at a time until you get a good orange colour.
Here’s what mine looked like after all the food colouring was mixed in:
Then add the Rice Krispies and stir it all together to combine.
It was just too messy to take pictures of me rolling the balls, but this is where you’ll want your small bowl of cooking oil to coat your hands and keep the balls from sticking to you. After you’ve rolled the balls, set them on parchment paper.
Gently press a Mini Rolo into the top of each pumpkin for the stem while the Rice Krispie treats are still warm. If it gets too hard, use a thick marker, apple corer or some other round object to make a small indent for the chocolate to sit in.
Then for the leaf, gently press a green M&M into the Rice Krispie treats (about half way in so it sticks) right next to the Rolo.
And easy peasy, you have your cute little pumpkins!
I rolled exactly 12 pumpkins from one recipe of Rice Krispie treats. They were fairly large though, so if you want to make more, you can just roll smaller balls.
Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 bag large marshmallows approximately 40 marshmallows
- 6 cups Rice Krispies
- Red & Yellow Liquid Food Coloring
- Mini Rolos
- Green M&M's
- 1/4 cup cooking oil or melted butter in a small bowl to keep it from sticking to your hands
Instructions
- In a large pot, melt the butter over low heat.
- Add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted and combined with the butter.
- Remove from the heat. Add several drops of yellow food colouring, mix it together, then add red food colouring one drop at a time, mixing as you go. Add red/yellow drops until you reach your desired colour. (I used about 4 drops red and 12 drops yellow). Mix well.
- Add the Rice Krispies and stir to combine.
- Coat both sides of your hands with a generous amount of cooking oil or butter, and roll the Rice Krispie mixture into small balls. Set on parchment paper. Add oil/butter to your hands after each ball.
- While the balls are still warm, gently press a Mini Rolo into the top of each pumpkin for the stem and add a green M&M beside it as the leaf. (Tip: If the pumpkins cool before you're finished, use the end of a thick marker or apple corer to make a small indent in the top for the chocolate to sit in.)
- Allow to cool until firm.
Notes
These Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins are so cute and they’re really easy to make once you get the hang of it. They’d be perfect for Halloween, or even Thanksgiving! You could even take it a step further and draw little jack-o-lantern faces on them with a small tube of black squeezable icing – wouldn’t they be adorable with little faces?! Such a fun little Halloween treat!
If you’re looking for more Halloween Rice Krispie treat ideas, check out our Rice Krispie Treat Monsters. These are super easy to make and they’re sooooooo much fun!!
For even MORE Halloween treat ideas check out:
Halloween Harvest Hash Chex Mix
Chocolate Turkey Thanksgiving Treats
Paula says
I am thinking you could keep a little bowl of cold water instead of oil to prevent sticking. I make a similar mixture for a different recipe (Christmas “strawberries”) and the water does the trick of preventing a sticky mess.
Margaret Worrall says
Or try icing sugar, I’m sure it would taste better than oil.
Maggie says
Hi, I just made these and they are so easy and very cute.
I did use powdered sugar on my hands and it worked beautifully.
Great recipe!
Vicki Outlaw says
I use gloves and a soft stick of butter. I cover the gloves generously with butter. I also use the end of a wooden spoon to make my indention. Works like a charm!
Betty Glosson says
Forget the oil…forget the water….the very best thing to use to prevent sticking is rubbing butter / margarine on your hands…..done it many times…..and the butter/margarine tastes good too since it is in the recipe already!….try it …you will see!!!… bg
JoAnne Jersey says
Yes, this works great and tastes best!
LaDonna says
I’m thinking this would be a good “craft project” for kids at a party. Do you think the final mixture would stay pliable in a crockpot for 2-3 hours?
Ginger Johnston says
I was a little worried about using oil didn’t kniw know if it would make them taste greesy
Valerie says
Use real butter — that’s how I’ve always done it. You don’t have to keep applying it. I might make some transfers for the jack-o-lantern faces (glaze I use for my cookies, piped on parchment until set, then “glue” on with a dab of glaze).
Jeannette Pehrson says
yaaaaassss! exactly what I was going to suggest. It tastes MUCH better than oil! 😉
Rosanne Marheine says
Yes I have made Christmas wreaths with my grandchildren for years and years. I always told them to put margarine all over their hands. It work great and adds a better taste
Patti Morrison says
I use butter as well for my rice krispy treats. how do you make Christmas Wreaths? Sounds adorable and yummy
Geri Curtis says
Thanks for the tip about the b utter. I just couldn’t imagine how they would taste coated in oil!
Pauline Vega says
I like to use butter as well. Tastes good because it is already in there.
Mary Lou Hefling says
I use the water also. Instead of food coloring, I add a small package of orange jello. It gives a great flavor. I used to make these for the cub scouts when my Godson was a little “cub.” red jello for Valentine’s day and cut with a cookie cutter, lime St. Patrick’s day etc.
Kathy C. says
When do you add the jello mix? In the marshmallow mixture just before adding the cereal?
Hellen says
yikes your blog about shuts down my computer with all the ads you have. This is horrible.
Lorrie says
How about using orange jello to color and flavor the rice krispies???
ND_Gal says
I think using a greased ice cream scoop would be perfect to shape them and less mess on your hands.
Colleen R McGaughey says
I was thinking the exact same thing – or a large cookie scoop. Could do a small amount of shaping if necessary, but since pumpkins are all different, I don’t think your pumpkins need to be perfectly round.
Geo says
Buy orange marshmallow treats.
Ann says
Great idea
nkdeck07 says
Butter, just grease your hands up with butter inbetween maybe each 3rd ball. Doesn’t introduce any weird flavors and works just as well. Also a KEY step missing is let the mixture sit for maybe 10 min before you start trying to roll them or it will fail.
Frances Petrice says
Thanks for the tip. Wish I would have seen your comment before making because mine failed. Plus oil doesn’t work. I had a notion to let them set but was afraid I wouldn’t be able to spread the mixture if I did so when they started falling apart I just spread it into a pan. I will try again since I read your comment.
Mickey says
I am going to use these for a baby shower in October, and I think I will make the balls smaller so they can just be popped in to your mouth (yum)…I have had success using butter, also, but I melted it first so it went on just like the oil. Love this idea!
Lynn says
Did you make these already? I was thinking of making them mini-sized as well. About how many were you able to make with 1 recipe?
Valerie says
The mini roll would be too big for the stem … maybe use a piece of a stick pretzel?
Beverly says
I was thinking Tootsie Rolls cut into pieces instead of the rolos. Especially since I can’t find the mini rolos.
Barb R says
Every Fall, Wal-Mart has pumpkin flavored mini-marshmallows. We have made these using them.perfect!
Steve says
I would substitute mini Reese’s cups for Rolos.
Annaliese Rush says
Yes, I was wondering about that as well, since I CANNOT find mini Rolos anywhere except Amazon for $9 a bag…I found Nestle Chunk pieces that i will try and will hopefully work
Heather says
Or tootsie rolls!
Leslee says
I had no luck with the oil on hands thing…but used an ice cream scooper instead! Much easier and quicker and less messy!