Rice Krispie treat

A Rice Krispie treat is a sweet dessert or snack made from Rice Krispies, melted margarine or butter and melted marshmallows. Sometimes marshmallows and/or cereal that is seasonal is used to make these treats holiday specific. They are often homemade, but one can find them in many stores usually packaged under the Rice Krispies brand.

There are many variations to the treat; adding caramel instead of marshmallows, adding condensed milk to the mixture before adding the rice krispies, using corn syrup and peanut butter, adding mandarin oranges, vanilla and others. One variation is to use chocolate instead of marshmallows which is known as "Chocolate Crackles". Kellogg's has now produced commercial varieties of both the marshmallow and chocolate-based treats under the name of "Rice Krispies Squares".

History
Rice Krispie treats were invented in 1928 by Mildred Day, who was at the time working for the Kellogg Company, the maker of Rice Krispies. She used the cereal to develop the snack as a fundraiser for a Camp Fire Girls group. Mildred Day died in June 1996 at the age of 92.

Cereal
Kellogg's company came out with a cereal based on this treat, perhaps making the first cereal based on a dessert that was based on a cereal. Kellog's Rice Krispies Treats cereal briefly surged in popularity, and received a 6 out of 7 rating on popular breakfast critic website Mr. Breakfast. Recently this cereal has become harder to find, though a page on the Kellogg's website can help make finding their rarer cereals easy.