Pumpkin Spice Crispy Treats

I’m continuing on with my October love affair with pumpkin spice. This also satisfies Tim’s love of marshmallow crispy treats.

These are easy and fun and yummy. Most everyone I know likes marshmallow crispy treats. Except maybe for the one marshmallow hater that I know. You know who you are! And even she might like these.

Speaking of pumpkin, let me tell you about a kitchen failure that I had last week.

I decided I was in the mood for brownies. I love brownies. Fudgy brownies from a mix are fine by me. Whenever I take the time to make them from scratch  they never come out as good as a silly, cheap, boxed brownie mix.

I just happened to have a brownie mix in the pantry. And also some spanish peanuts and candy corn. Sounded like a good mix for a fall treat.

So I poured the brownie mix in a bowl to get to work and realized I had no vegetable oil. Oops. Remember how I mentioned using pumpkin puree as an oil substitute? Well I had a couple of cans on hand and have successfully used it in a cake mix in the past. I thought brownie mix would be no different. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I used the can of pumpkin, poured it in a pan, sprinkled the top with peanuts and candy corn and popped it in the oven. I was so excited to eat a candy corn brownie.

When I took them out of the oven they looked a little odd. After they cooled Tim and I tried one. AWFUL! They were oddly spongy and yet sort of play dough-ish. Just terrible. Not even edible. I ended up throwing the whole pan out. So sad.

Clearly pumpkin puree does not work in everything. Good to know.

Of course, I made them again after I bought more oil. They were yummy! The candy corn melted and got very chewy. A good combo with the fudgy brownies. Plus peanuts and candy corn always go together. I recommend them if you want a halloween brownie treat.

Another good Halloween treat would be these crispy treats. A crowd pleaser.

By the way. . these are a little more orange than they would be normally. My mini marshmallows had gone bad(who knew that marshmallows could go bad) so I had to use the Halloween themed marshmallows that we bought last week. They are orange colored. You could add a couple of drops of orange food coloring if you want.

On a side note. . .my love affair with pumpkin spice flavored things might be coming to an end. I may actually have almost had my fill. Of course, I bought some pumpkin yogurt today so you never know!

Pumpkin Spice Crispy Treats

6 Tbsps butter

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

6 cups mini marshmallows

9 cups crisp rice cereal

In a large pot melt the butter. Add the pumpkin puree and the pie spice. Let the mixture bubble over a medium low heat for a couple minutes.

Add the marshmallows. Stir until melted. Add the cereal and stir well to evenly coat the cereal with the marshmallow mixture.

Press the mixture into a greased 9×13 pan. Allow to cool and harden for several hours before cutting into bars. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature.