How much bacon should be added to Rice Krispies treats?

July 11, 2008 1:03 PM

What is the right amount of bacon to add to Rice Krispies treats?

I've read online that bacon can be successfully added to Rice Krispies treats, but I can't find a recipe to figure how much bacon would be good to add--how much is too little or too much. Also, would I replace some of the butter with bacon grease, or does that matter as far as flavor?

I'm trying to make a trio of bacon treats for a road trip & music show this weekend, and would l like to have this one to go with the bacon cookies and bacon brittle. Thanks!

posted by troybob to food & drink (22 answers total)

It's food -- experiment!

I would guess that for a standard pan of treats, maybe 4 or 5 slices of bacon, cut into tiny squares (not crumbled -- I don't think dusty overcooked bacon would work as well), would suffice.
posted by crickets at 1:15 PM on July 11, 2008

oh yeah, I'm going to give it a shot tonight as a test...but nobody wants to waste bacon...or marshmallows...or Rice Krispies! And I wasn't too sure about the bacon grease part of it...
posted by troybob at 1:23 PM on July 11, 2008

I would pat them dry on a paper towel before stirring them in, but I would guess that the marshmallow will stand up fine to the bacon.

I could be wrong. It could catch on fire.
posted by crickets at 1:26 PM on July 11, 2008

I would only sub in bacon grease if you're looking for an all-out bacon flavor. Otherwise, just adding the chopped bacon would give you some nice flavor and saltiness without overpowering.

But hey, you could try it both ways!
posted by cabingirl at 1:29 PM on July 11, 2008

Yeah, put less butter.
posted by sondrialiac at 1:30 PM on July 11, 2008

*but don't add bacon grease
posted by sondrialiac at 1:31 PM on July 11, 2008

*but don't pat the bacon down too much either.

(sorry for the multiple posts, I got excited about the bacon)
posted by sondrialiac at 1:32 PM on July 11, 2008 [4 favorites]

Word up! Bacon! I recently made a pan of 24 cupcakes using two pounds of bacon and with maybe a third of the fat content (both butter and shortening) replaced by bacon-grease. I got great (but not overpowering) flavor out of that. But of course, you'd want less bacon, 'cause Rice Krispies are so much less dense than cupcakes.

So I haven't done what you're doing, but if I was about to, here are the proportions that I feel in my heart to be correct:

1/8 cup butter
1/8 cup bacon-grease
1 10 oz pkg. marshmallows
6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal
1 pound bacon, minced into little bits and then fried extremely thoroughly -- it should be reduced to its crispest possible state without burning it, because otherwise you're essentially eating little globs of gristle throughout the Treats. Remember that you'll be compensating for frying out the fat by adding some in place of some of the butter. I'd just mix the bacon throughout the treats to really get the flavors going. Putting it on top of each treat would look impressive, but I think it's a bad idea in the same way putting a disc of chocolate on top of a cookie is a worse idea than chocolate chips scattered throughout. Mingle, mingle.

If I wanted to get really fancy about this, I'd also look into a thin glaze of sweet maple icing over the whole thing, but it sounds like you have a busy night of cookery ahead of you, so maybe that's too much trouble for sweet frippery.

So yeah, I say a pound of uncooked bacon -- basically, one pack of Oscar Meyer's. I don't think that's too much bacon, but if it turns out to be, the worst-case scenario is that you basically just made something taste too much like Delicious Delicious Bacon, and it's not like subtlety is the name of the game here.
posted by Greg Nog at 2:04 PM on July 11, 2008 [3 favorites]

(Also, since I advocate the partial replacement of butter by bacon-fat, I would say that yeah, pat it down 'til it's as dry as it can get.)
posted by Greg Nog at 2:05 PM on July 11, 2008

Greg: marry me!

i didn't think to chop up the bacon before frying it...i wonder if that would out with the oven-baking method as well...

i'd go for the maple glazing, but the cookie recipe has a maple topping...

thanks everybody for advice!
posted by troybob at 2:16 PM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

This question made me smile.

This is strictly a guess on my part (as I haven't tried this... yet!) but I think that adding bacon grease into it might not work. Greg Nog's bacon cupcakes sound tantalizing, but I'd guess that because his end-result was a bread-type food, the bacon grease was "absorbed" into the batter and it wasn't overpowering. I don't know if using it in a food where very little cooking is involved (and very little stands between the rest of the ingredients and the grease) would work. Bacon grease is powerful voodoo.

If I were you, I'd try this... get some thin strips of bacon, fry it crispy, dab off as much grease as possible, and maybe lube up the baking dish that you'll ultimately transfer the treats to with a very small amount of bacon grease (in lieu of no-stick cooking spray). Crumble the bacon into small-but-not-microscopic pieces. As soon as you put the treat mixture into the pan, sprinkle the bits of heavenly bacon goodness over the top. Gently pat it in to set and you *should* have an awesome rice krispie treat topping.

Do I know if this will work? No... but I may try it this weekend and find out ^_^
posted by kryptondog at 2:23 PM on July 11, 2008

Four or five slices, chopped fine, ought to do it.

This would probably work well with candied bacon. Trim off excess fat, lay the bacon on a wire rack over a pan, cover with light brown sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees, flip, coat the other side, bake for another 15 or until done. Most of the fat will run off, with the sugar sealing the rest of it. Chop up, stir into the Rice Krispies, and have at.
posted by truex at 2:44 PM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

mmm...candied bacon...

I liked nomisxid's answer ('all of it') but it disappeared...but then I'm a fan of fun answers...
posted by troybob at 2:50 PM on July 11, 2008

Oooh! Add some chocolate, too! I love choco-krispie treats... and choco-bacon. Ooh!
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 4:12 PM on July 11, 2008

My baking and bacon expert friend says this:

Cook up the bacon and just sprinkle it in when you stir all of it together. It's not like you cook the rice krispie treats after that, so adding bacon grease doesn't make sense.
posted by Airhen at 4:16 PM on July 11, 2008

Damn you to hell. Before 3 minutes ago, I might have lived my whole life without thinking of baconified Rice Krispie treats, making and eating bacon-ized goo squares, and having to live under threat of - if ever asked - having to admit that I did this.

On the plus side, I never cook bacon without making some extra bacon for the pets.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:56 PM on July 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

Have you considered laying down a 1/2 thickness layer of rice krispy treat, then laying down slabs of bacon, then laying down another 1/2 thickness layer of rice krispy treat on top, then cutting up the squares? Hell, you could make a black forest cake of bacon and rice krispy treats if you really wanted to. Bacon up!
posted by davejay at 11:04 PM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

Um...the bacon brittle didn't turn out so good...it's a bit oversoft in places and sticks to your teeth...but it's because the sugar mixture started to smoke and i got nervous, so it apparently didn't go all the way to crack stage...time for a new candy thermometer...but it tastes pretty good, if you don't have dental work...

The Rice Krispies treats are pretty good...I made the regular recipe, without the bacon grease, and added to the melted marshmallow mixture about 7 slices of chopped up bacon...pretty yummy...next time i might go for the maple idea...maybe a thin slab of maple icing and a little wedge of bacon on each treat (as they do in the cookie recipe)...

won't have time for bacon chocolate chip cookies today, because my peaches ripened and i needed to make a pie...but don't think i wasn't tempted to throw some bacon in there as well...

thanks for all the answers...i won't mark a best since they were all lovely...glad to see others get the bacon cravings like i do!
posted by troybob at 11:12 AM on July 12, 2008

Thank you for the update! I'm delighted to hear about the results, and I think my new go-to phrase for why I can't do something is going to be "my peaches ripened and i needed to make a pie".
posted by Greg Nog at 12:52 PM on July 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

my partner says the rice krispies treats have a subtle bacon taste, so i made a second batch with about 12 pieces of bacon sliced up, and we'll see how that goes...

..and yeah, peaches are in the right state of ripeness for only about five minutes, so that's always a good excuse...
posted by troybob at 1:22 PM on July 12, 2008

wow at first i was like wait, bacon and rice krispie treats? i must be not understanding something....but then i read down....and agree....greg nog please marry me. i love you. please.
posted by Soulbee at 6:39 AM on July 16, 2008

Late update: I took the BRK treats to my buddies' band's show, and it went like this:

Me: Hey man, do you want to try some rice krispies treats...

Him/her: No, thanks...

Me: ...with bacon?

Him/her: Uh...with bacon?

Me: Yeah...

Him/her: That sounds disgusting...let me try it...

...

Him/her: Man, that's awesome!

Me: Thanks!
posted by troybob at 5:37 AM on July 17, 2008