Brown Butter-Crispy Rice Treats

The best "crispy rice treat" recipe I've made. The flavour of the browned butter (with vanilla bean seeds) really brings this humble childhood treat to another level. And the little bit of kosher salt helps to make it a little less sweet without being salty. Everyone who's sampled these has commented on how good they are- even people who claim not to like sweets.

Super-easy, but the instructions for browning butter are useful if you've never made it before. The author says that "if you lean in and listen, it will sound like an audience of people politely clapping their hands (in anticipation of these treats!)". Accurate and funny.

The lowly Rice Krispie Treat taken to new heights. I actually questioned Joanne Chang's wisdom in including a recipe for this in her book....until I tasted it!

It's amazing what a few simple, but key changes can do to a recipe: replace regular butter with browned butter (and use a lot more of it!), use vanilla bean seeds instead of extract and add a pinch of kosher salt.

They take just a few minutes longer to make than the original recipe - basically the time it takes to brown the butter - so they are still a quick and easy snack that happens to taste fabulous.