Crispy Rice Pumpkin Treats (Easy to Make Recipe for Kids)

Made from crispy rice cereal, these cute, pumpkin treats are easy to make & fun for kids! Perfect for fall celebrations!

While I don’t usually have a ton of time to make them, I absolutely love themed snacks for kids and having fun with food! Aren’t these little pumpkins the cutest! They’re made from crispy rice cereal and they are super easy to make. And, the best part – my kiddos had a blast making them and eating them!

Ingredients to Make Crispy Rice Pumpkin Treats:

I adapted a recipe I found online to make the cutest littlest pumpkin treats ever! Here are the ingredients you need to make my version of the crispy rice pumpkin treats.

• 3 cups of crispy rice cereal (Read my crispy rice cereal explanation below!)
• 1/2 package of large marshmallows
• 1.5 tbsp of butter
• 1 envelope of orange Kool-Aid (or orange Jello)
• baking spray
• wax paper
• large pretzel sticks (or Tootsie Roll candies)
• white icing, optional
• red, yellow & green food coloring, optional

About the Crispy Rice Cereal:

There’s a reason why I call these Crispy Rice Pumpkin Treats rather than Rice Krispie Pumpkin Treats. We used some kind of fancy, organic, whole grain, crispy brown rice cereal to make them – because, well, at the time I was pretty anal about my kids eating super healthy. Yeah, I was that mom.

In fact, this was the first time I had ever made any type of sweet, sticky, crispy rice snack for my kids. I know, I know my kids were deprived.

But, trust me – I’ve made up for this shortcoming 100 times over with all the junk food I’ve given them since!

All this to say, you can use regular Rice Krispies cereal! Heck, you could even refer to the recipe as Rice Krispie Pumpkin Treats. Regardless of what you want to call them or what brand of crispy rice cereal you decide to use, let’s move on to the directions…

Crispy Rice Pumpkin Treat Directions:

Note: I know the pumpkins are way more exciting, but I highly recommend you make the “stems” first. Trust me on this!

Otherwise, you might end up with kids asking “Are they done yet?” every two minutes as you continually tap the green icing to see if they’re done enough.

Yep, I’m speaking from first-hand experience! On to the directions…

Step 1: Break the pretzel sticks and mix the icing and green food coloring together to make the “stems” green. We basically followed the same procedure as with our Edible Crayons! Simply dip the pretzels (or Tootsie Rolls) in the icing and allow them to harden on wax paper.

Step 2: Put the marshmallows and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir and then microwave for an additional minute.

Step 3: Remove the mixture from the microwave and stir in the Kool-Aid (or the orange Jello). If it is not “orange enough” for you, you can add some red and yellow food coloring to enhance the color.

Step 4: Add the crispy rice cereal to the bowl and stir well.

Step 5: Spray your hands with baking spray and roll the mixture into balls and place them on wax paper.

Step 6: Lastly, push one hardened green “stem” into each of the pumpkins. And, that’s it!

Your crispy pumpkin treats are ready to be eaten. Or displayed for all your mom friends to admire – because you “always make the cutest snacks for your kids!” 😉

Looking for more pumpkin fun?

In addition to the crispy rice pumpkin treats, be sure to check out some of our other pumpkin-themed activities and snacks:

• Pumpkin Lollipops
• Pumpkin Grid Game
• Mr. & Mrs. Pumpkin Heads
• Pumpkin Snowmen

Related Post: Mini Jello Watermelons

This post was originally published on September 27, 2011.