Does everything need to be zhushed?

November 7, 2023 by
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Does anyone remember the commercial for Rice Krispie treats that aired in the late 1980s? The commercial opens with a woman reading a romance novel while her child (in another room) asks if the treats are done yet. “These things take time!” the mother replies. Donning an oven mitt, the woman dips the mitt into the flour container, flicking flour onto her face as she takes the plate of treats into the other room, looking exhausted. Meanwhile, the narrator says “They taste so good your family will think you slaved over them all afternoon.” This commercial came to mind yesterday when a recipe for an upgraded Rice Krispie treat floated through my feed.

There are legions of similar zhushed up crisped rice treat recipes. Many of them call for browned butter to replace the regular butter. While there is no question that browned butter is more delicious, adding it to the simple recipe doubles the time it takes to make the treats plus creates another pan to wash. Other upgrades include using sweetened condensed milk and adding any number of mix-ins and colorings. Most of these variations seem to miss the point about making crisped rice treats, which are (if you use a microwave) a one-bowl affair that takes about 10 minutes start to finish.

That’s the beauty of these bars, which never aimed to be highbrow. When you crave a sweet snack but don’t want to fuss, you whip up a batch of these. There’s no need to zhush them up, creating more mess and adding time to the process. The Serious Eats recipe that sparked this post asks you to toast the crisped rice cereal in the oven in addition to browning the butter, turning a 10 minute walk in the park into a 65-minute ordeal that involves cleaning a sheet pan and saucepan in addition to the mixing bowl.

Don’t get me wrong; I love multi-bowl, multi-step baking challenges, but for back-of-the-box recipes like crisped rice treats I prefer to keep it simple. I peg this constant ‘upgrading’ of even the simplest recipe to the growing problem of being unsatisfied in general. Social media breeds a culture of one-upmanship; everyone must make theirs better, prettier, more. Forever chasing an unobtainable ideal isn’t healthy, and we should learn that good enough is, well, good enough.

When it comes to Rice Krispie treats, however, this seems to be a minority view. The browned butter Smitten Kitchen recipe (pictured above) enjoys a nearly five star rating in the EYB Library along with loads of positive comments, and there are 170 online crisp rice treat recipes in the Library, most of them zhushed up. Since I do not want to be the old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn, I will support you in making browned butter Rice Krispie treats but I won’t join you. The original recipe is good enough for me.

Category: Antipasto

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8 Comments

  • thegluttery  on  November 7, 2023

    This feels like a symptom of social media, at least to some extent. Everything needs to be bigger, fancier…”Instagrammable”. But because of that, we’re losing the beauty of simplicity. The most common question I am asked is my favorite food. And when my response is “pan-seared chicken thigh, mashed potatoes and gravy” or “Caesar salad”, the most common reaction is amusement. Most seem to think I am joking.

    But for my money, there is nothing better than simple. A chocolate chip cookie with a glass of ice cold milk. A plain bagel with cream cheese. Fresh pasta with sauce. The cookie doesn’t need to be the size of a frisbee with half a pound of piped buttercream. The bagel doesn’t need to be everything-seasoned or topped with fourteen different ingredients. Sometimes simple is best.

  • dgiles  on  November 7, 2023

    I completely agree. The beauty of Rice Krispie Treats is their simplicity. Makes me want to whip up a batch…

  • GenieB  on  November 7, 2023

    While I am not a fan of Rice Krispie treats (I don’t like marshmallow), I agree that many recipes have been “zhushed up”, not just this one. And most of those “improved” recipes did not need improving.

    A previous post about including cleanup time in the recipe comes to mind as well.

  • cookbookaddict2020  on  November 7, 2023

    it’s about the investment vs reward, I think. Like if the rice krispy treats are genuinely much better with browned butter, and browned butter only dirties one additional little saucepan and takes an extra few minutes and no more work (since those minutes can be spent, like, watching animal videos on youtube) then the math works out. It’s got to be a LOT better for just a little more effort. If we’re talking a lot of additional effort, then nah.

  • CapeCodCook  on  November 7, 2023

    Chocolate Chip cookies, I’m looking at YOU!

  • Indio32  on  November 7, 2023

    Dark chocolate cornflake cakes for me….. with mint custard if I’m on a school nostalgia trip!

  • breakthroughc  on  November 9, 2023

    I made Rice Krispie treats with browned butter, vanilla and salt and they were much better than the originals. I took them to a bridge tournament and people went crazy. 3 days later people were still talking about them and asking me how I made them. I’ll never make the plain ones again.

  • ldyndiuk  on  November 22, 2023

    I don’t really like Rice Krispie treats, but this summer I needed a dessert that didn’t require the oven so I found a recipe for S’Mores Rice Krispie treats. They just required throwing in a couple extra ingredients so it didn’t really take longer and they were really good! I wouldn’t bother doing something like browning the butter to improve Rice Krispie treats – I’d just make a better dessert.

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