Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

When I was a kid I never really ate Rice Krispie Treats except when other kids would bring them in to class for holidays and whatnot. I found this recipe and made them back in October for a picnic in Griffith Park with kids from the Los Angeles program and they were a hit. They were so delicious and definitely seemed like a grownup version of the treat people loved as children. And they are SO easy. Painfully easy. 5 minutes, 1 pot, 1 glass baking dish, 4 ingredients and a spatula. So get in there already and I promise, these will make you new friends, impress your coworkers and make you very sick if you eat them all yourself.

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
From Smitten Kitchen (of course)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (plus a bit of extra for greasing the pan)
1 ten-ounce bag marshmallows
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt*
6 cups Rice Krispie Cereal

1. Butter an 8 inch square cake pan with 2 inch sides or a 9x13 pan. The 8-inch square pan will produce fewer, thicker treats which I prefer but if you're trying to spread the love around go for the 9x13.
2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large pot. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear and finally start to brown. Stir constantly and scrape up the little bits as it cooks and once it begins to brown watch it very closely as it is easy to burn the butter and ruin a perfectly good batch. Once the butter takes on a golden brown color and begins to smell nutty pull it off the heat.
3. Stir in the marshmallows. The heat from the melted butter might not be enough to melt them so you can return the pot to the stove and melt over low heat until the marshmallow-butter mixture is smooth.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the cereal and salt together, a silicon spatula works great here. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan and push into the edges with the spatula or a piece of parchment paper or saran wrap.
5. Allow to cool for a few hours and cut into squares. Enjoy!

*This is important: regular table salt will not work. Besides being a chemical compound (NaCl - hooray chemistry!) table salt is made in a factory, of chemicals. You want real salt from the sea. You can find a sea salt grinder at target (or probably in any supermarket) for $2.00 and it will give your treats the right taste.