Rice Krispies Marshmallow Treats

The current box of the prepackaged ones

I’m not quite done writing about Rice Krispies yet. I almost forgot to mention one of the main reasons I buy them.

Homemade Rice Krispies Treats are a big favorite in our house.

I make'em when I have the time, and buy'em when I'm lazy. Store-bought or homemade, they don't last very long. In fact, we usually polish off a whole batch of them in two days!

I still remember that when I was a kid in the 1960s, they were called Marshmallow Treats in the commercials – and that Snap, Crackle and Pop would bribe you to make them.

That's right. If you sent in the refund form off the box, and the requested label from the marshmallow package, the elfin trio would send you a quarter just for using up some of their cereal, and hastening the need for Mom to buy some more.

Here’s a 1965 magazine ad (below) with the 25 cents offer. It also features the original, less healthy (but tastier) Treats recipe that used more butter and less cereal.

As often as I make Treats now, I don’t remember ever making them as a kid. I guess something made with cereal and melted marshmallows just didn’t fit in with the more ambitious cookies and bars Mom regularly made.

(You might notice that at the bottom of the 1965 ad it says, “A Nancy Sasser Suggestion.” "Buy-Lines" by Nancy Sasser was a weekly syndicated newspaper column for homemakers. It was all about shopping and featured “new and interesting” products and suggestions.)

Here’s the same basic Treats ad from 1970.

Here's a later ad from December 1974 that ran in the Joplin Globe. Apparently Snap, Crackle and Pop were feeling the effects of the recession; now their bribe was in the form of a coupon and was worth one thin dime!

Just for comparison, here are a few more vintage ads featuring the Treats recipe. This one (below) appeared in a Canadian newspaper in 1941.

And here’s one from the days when Woody Woodpecker was the manic spokes-bird for Rice Krispies.

I don’t know how your Treats turn out when you make them, but I must be using the wrong pan or something. Mine end up very flat compared to the Treats shown in the ads, which would seem to make fine pavers.