Colored Rice Krispie treats are the perfect easy holiday treat to make! Find out how to make colored Rice Krispie treats with this easy recipe, and dye your own Rice Krispies treats for different holidays!

I have to start off by saying that these colored Rice Krispie treats start out with my hubby’s BEST ever Rice Krispies treats recipe.

And then we just add food coloring.

Sounds simple because it is simple.

We actually made colored Rice Krispie treats for the first time a few months ago, when I was working on a genius idea for this Rice Krispie Treats Christmas tree.

I didn’t want to just make white Rice Krispies treats and then cover them in colored candy melts, so we decided to try our hand at food colored Rice Krispie treats instead.

They turned out great, and they were so easy to make! We literally just had to add ONE step to our normal Rice Krispie treats recipe.

And what’s better than normal Rice Krispies treats? Cute, colored Rice Krispie treats… perfect for the holidays, birthday parties, or just a normal Tuesday. 🙂

Here’s How to Make Colored Rice Krispie Treats:

Step 1: Gather your ingredients.

Here are the ingredients for our BEST EVER Rice Krispies treats recipe:

• 1 12 oz. box Rice Krispies
• 2 10 oz. bags mini marshmallows
• 1 stick butter
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• food coloring (the liquid drops NOT the gel tubes)

Step 2: Melt one stick butter in a large non-stick saucepan.

Heat one stick of butter (we use unsalted) in a large non-stick saucepan over medium heat just until melted.

Step 3: Mix in one and a half bags mini marshmallows and vanilla extract.

Once the butter is melted, add in one and a half bags of mini marshmallows. You can just eyeball the half bag… no need to get out the measuring cups.

Stir constantly until marshmallows are melted.

Step 4: Add liquid food coloring drops to the mixture, and stir to combine.

We added several drops of red food coloring to our marshmallow/butter mixture. Sorry, I lost count of how many drops we used!

But I will tell you this… you will need to use more drops of food coloring than what you think. Remember, you will be adding the colored marshmallow mixture to light-colored Rice Krispies and marshmallows, so it dulls the color pretty quickly. I’m thinking that we used 6+ drops of red here.

The number of food coloring drops that you need will also depend on how many cups of Rice Krispies that you use. We used a full 12 oz. box of Rice Krispies in our recipe, so if you use less than that, you will obviously need less food coloring.

On our first attempt at making colored Rice Krispies treats, we actually ended up having to add MORE food coloring drops AFTER we had mixed the melted marshmallow/butter mix into the dry Rice Krispies cereal.

Here’s the green Rice Krispies treats mix that was NOT green enough on the first go around:

As you can see, it looks like it would be fine for a bright green Christmas color, but once we added it to the dry cereal, our Christmas Rice Krispies treats looked more like pale green Easter Rice Krispies treats.

Step 5: Pour entire box of Rice Krispies cereal and remaining half bag of marshmallows in a large bowl, and toss together.

Step 6: Pour colored marshmallow mixture into dry Rice Krispies cereal and marshmallows, and stir.

Stir until combined. And work quickly… the marshmallow mixture will start to harden and then it will be more difficult to get a nice, even color.

Step 7: Spread colored Rice Krispie treats onto large sheet pan or mold into fun shapes. Let cool.

We rolled our dyed Rice Krispies treats into balls to use for cute Christmas ornament treats.

You can also shape them into eggs for Easter, or pumpkins for Halloween. The possibilities are endless!

Quick tip – If you do decide to shape your colored Rice Krispie treats into 3-D shapes, then I recommend spraying your hands with cooking spray first. The treats are super-sticky, and the cooking spray makes it so that your hands don’t end up a sticky mess.

These food colored Rice Krispie treats would be perfect for a school holiday party, and your kids will have a blast helping you decorate them! Mommy points for you!

Want to make shaped Rice Krispies treats… but don’t have any cookie cutters? Go HERE to see how to make bunny Rice Krispie treats without a cookie cutter! The same idea applies to any shape of Rice Krispies treat.

Gotta love an easy treat for the kids, that doesn’t require you to go out and buy more kitchen utensils! 🙂

And be sure to check out this adorable (and impressive!) Rice Krispie Treats Christmas Tree that I made out of my red and green Rice Krispie Treats “ornaments”!

Here’s the printable version of my dyed Rice Krispies treats recipe: