Ooey gooey rice krispy treats get dipped in chocolate then decorated like footballs to make these festive football football rice krispy treats! They’re perfect for serving up at your next football party or enjoying while you watch your favorite teams play!
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Football Rice Krispie Treats
There are just a few desserts that my family always requests when we have parties whether it be for family dinners or Super Bowl Sunday – sugar cookies and rice krispy treats.
We tested a TON of different variations for rice krispy treats and came up with the best rice krispy treats ever – they’re ooey, gooey, and delicious. But they aren’t great for shaping into footballs.
So we did more rounds of testing with different amounts of marshmallows, rice krispies, and even butter to figure out what still tasted good but would hold their shape when we cut them out into shapes. These football rice krispy treats use our shapeable rice krispy treat recipe – they taste just as good as the originals but hold their shape better to be cut out, dipped, and decorated!
It’s the same recipe we use for our Thanksgiving rice krispy treats and rice krispie nests – just a different shape and different decorations, making them perfect for your next Super Bowl party!
Why people love these treats
- Gooey – our rice krispy treats used a tried and true method of cooking to make the treats super gooey all while holding their shape!
- Hold shape – these have the perfect balance of rice krispy cereal and marshmallow that allows them to hold their shape for cutting out!
- Quick – the treats come together super fast, leaving you time to spend game day anywhere but in the kitchen. Or if you are in the kitchen, you’re making something like buffalo chicken sliders instead of dessert!
Ingredients in football rice krispies
You’ll Also Need:
In order to get the best football shaped rice krispy treats, you’ll also need a football cookie cutter. And football-shaped one will work, just avoid anything with a lot of small details or they might get stuck. I recommend a medium sized one so it’s not too small (a mini football is cute but also a lot of those will be a pain to decorate) and so you don’t giant rice krispy treats.
Ingredient Notes and Substitions
- Marshmallows – you can use large in a pinch, but minis really are the best for this. Make sure you are using fresh marshmallows, dried out ones won’t melt the same.
- Butter – both salted butter and unsalted butter will yield same results, just depends on your preference but honestly you don’t really taste any difference so just use what you have.
- Rice Krispy cereal – name brand or not name brand will work for this.
- Vanilla extract – if you’d like to switch it out for almond extract, half the amount in the recipe card. Otherwise, just stick with vanilla.
- Candy melts – you can use candy melts, chocolate chips, semi-sweet baking chocolate, or my personal favorite if you can get them are the Ghirardelli chocolate melting wafers. If you are going to use chocolate chips for the white chocolate, make sure it’s a high-quality brand because cheap white chocolate chips just don’t melt well.
How to make rice krispie footballs
Now that you know everything you need and how these are the best shapeable rice krispy treats you can make, let’s get started so you can make these for Super Bowl!
1 – Make Rice Krispy Treat Base
Begin by melting butter in a large pot on medium-low heat. Once the butter is fully melted, you’ll add 1 1/2 bags of miniature marshmallows into the pot and set the other marshmallows aside for later!
Mix the butter and marshmallows together with a rubber spatula, stirring continuously until the marshmallows have completely melted, making sure to keep the heat on low.
Once the marshmallow mixture is totally melted, remove the pot from the heat and stir in vanilla and salt.
Add roughly half of the rice krispy to the marshmallow mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom thoroughly to incorporate all the marshmallow mixture.
Tip!
We have tested adding all of the rice krispy cereal into the pot at this point in the recipe and it is not the same as setting some aside to add in later. Resist the urge to just add it all at once – trust the process (and our testing).
Once that’s all mixed together, add in the remaining marshmallows and rice cereal. Adding the rest of the cereal and marshmallows later is what makes these the best – those other marshmallows don’t totally melt, but they get soft and gooey!
Stir the additional cereal and marshmallows in gently so you don’t break all the cereal!
2 – Cool and Cut the rice krispy Treats
Okay, now that you have the base made, it’s time to transfer them to a pan to cool.
Grab a 9×13 pan and line it with parchment paper. Next, carefully pour the rice krispy treats into the pan and spread them evenly.
With parchment paper, wax paper, or the back of a rubber spatula, gently press the rice krispies until you have a flat layer that is slightly thinner than your cookie cutter. Do your best not to crush the treats in the process.
Cutting Tip
If you have a thin cookie cutter, spread the rice krispies onto a cookie sheet instead so you have enough room to spread them out thinner.
Allow the rice krispy treats to cool for 10 minutes to harden slightly. But don’t get distracted because you don’t want them to harden for too long or it’ll be more difficult to cut these out (not that we’ve done that or anything)!
Once they’ve rested for a few minutes, grab the ends of the parchment paper and pull them out of the tray for cutting.
Lightly spray the inside of your cookie cutter with a non-stick cooking spray, press it gently into the rice krispy treats, and press out the desired shape. Transfer the finished treat to another tray to allow it to set completely.
Repeat the process, reapplying the non-stick spray as necessary until you run out of room. Snack on the scraps while you cook or gently hand-shape them into footballs.
3 – Dip the Football Rice Krispy Treats in Chocolate
Now let’s turn those shapes into footballs. First thing you need to do is melt your chocolate.
Place the melting chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl and heat it in thirty-second increments, stirring between each until it is smooth.
If you work with chocolate more than once a year, I highly recommend getting a Wilton chocolate melting pot. I can’t say enough good things about it if you melt chocolate, but I use mine all the time. It’s a game changer if you are ever dipping things into chocolate.
While the chocolate is melting, grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.
When the chocolate is ready, dip the entire football treat into the chocolate. Once coated, remove it and allow the excess chocolate to drip off before transferring to the prepared cookie sheet.
Repeat this process until all the footballs have been dipped. Then move to tray to the fridge for ten minutes to allow the chocolate to harden while you prep the while chocolate.
4 – Add Laces to the Football Rice Krispies
Melt the white chocolate in the microwave as before, then transfer the melted white chocolate to a piping bag with a thin tip attachment. A Ziplock with a small hole cut out will also work.
Grab those chocolate-coated footballs out of the fridge, then pipe on the laces and curves as shown in the picture.
Once you’ve got all the football rice krispies done, place them back into the fridge until the chocolate has completely set.
Transfer to your favorite football tray and add some of these Super Bowl printables to serve while you enjoy the game.
Expert Tips & Storage Information
Make sure to be gentle, you don’t want to smash all the cereal pieces.
If shaping with a cookie cutter, arrange your cookie cutter to get as many cutouts as possible. You will not be able to reform excess treats to get another cut like if you were making cut out sugar cookies.
Avoid using detailed cookie cutters so the shapes come out. You can always add details back in with the decorations.
This recipe can also be shaped with a knife by letting it cool on a pan and then cutting out the desired shape or done by hand as described in this shaped rice krispy treats recipe.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.
Recipe FAQs
Can I use cocoa krispie cereal instead?
We’ve tried these with cocoa krispie cereal before and I’ll be honest, I don’t love them nearly as much as the regular rice krispies. They do work but the chocolate on chocolate flavor is just a little overpowering for me.
Can I make football rice krispy treats without a cookie cutter?
While we like using a cookie cutter for consistent shapes and sizes, a football shape isn’t too hard to create by hand. Use the instructions written out for “shaping rice krispy treats by hand” in our shaped rice krispy treat post and just hand shape them instead.
What is the best way to store rice krispy treats?
Once rice krispy treats are cut out, they can be stored either in a zipper top bag or an airtight container at room temperature. If you live in a warm environment and you’re worried about the chocolate melting on these, I recommend storing in the refrigerator or another cool place but it’s not required – it’ll just keep the chocolate from melting.
Can I substitute marshmallow fluff for the marshmallows?
Marshmallow fluff is completely different than marshmallows and will not work the same in this recipe as marshmallows, so I highly recommend not trying to substitute it for the marshmallows. If you can’t find mini marshmallows, you can use regular size ones but not marshmallow fluff.
More Easy Football Treats
These football rice krispy treats would be great served with any of these other Super Bowl desserts!
- Football brownies – our super popular homemade brownies get turned into football treats!
- Football stadium cookies – yummy sugar cookies get decorated to look just like football stadiums!
- Cut out sugar cookies – use that same football cookie cutter to make football shaped cookies!
- Sweet Chex Mix – there’s nothing better than a snack mix for watching a football game and this sweet variation is always a hit!
- Snickers brownies – top these with some white chocolate laces for the ultimate Super Bowl dessert!
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Football Rice Krispy Treats
Ingredients
- ½ c butter
- 20 oz mini marshmallows divided
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 9 oz rice krispies cereal divided
- 20 oz chocolate melting wafers
- 4 oz white chocolate melting wafers
Instructions
- Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper.
- Melt butter in a large pot on medium-low heat. Once the butter is fully melted, you’ll add 1 1/2 bags of mini marshmallows into the pot and set the other marshmallows aside for later!½ c butter
- Mix the butter and marshmallows together with a rubber spatula, stirring continuously until the marshmallows have completely melted, making sure to keep the heat on low.20 oz mini marshmallows
- Once the marshmallow mixture is totally melted, remove the pot from the heat and stir in vanilla and salt.½ teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons vanilla
- Add roughly half of the rice krispy to the marshmallow mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom thoroughly to incorporate all the marshmallow mixture.9 oz rice krispies cereal
- Once that’s all mixed together, add in the remaining marshmallows and rice cereal.
- Pour the rice krispies into the pan, then spread the treat evenly onto the pan.
- With parchment paper, wax paper, or the back of a rubber spatula, gently press the rice krispies until you have a flat layer that is slightly thinner than the cookie cutter.
- Allow the rice krispy treats to cool for 10 minutes to harden slightly.
- Remove the rice krispy treats onto a flat surface using the parchment paper.
- Lightly spray the inside of your cookie cutter with a non-stick cooking spray, press it gently into the rice krispy treats, and press out the desired shape. Transfer the finished treat to another tray to allow it to set completely.
- Repeat the process, reapplying the non-stick spray as necessary until you run out of room.
- Place the melting chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl and heat it in thirty-second increments, stirring between each until it is smooth.20 oz chocolate melting wafers
- While the chocolate is melting, grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.
- When the chocolate is ready, dip the entire football treat into the chocolate. Once coated, remove it and allow the excess chocolate to drip off before transferring to the prepared cookie sheet.
- Repeat this process until all the footballs have been dipped. Then move to tray to the fridge for ten minutes to allow the chocolate to harden while you prep the white chocolate.
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave as before, then transfer it to a piping bag with a thin tip attachment.4 oz white chocolate melting wafers
- Remove the tray from the fridge and pipe on the laces and curves as shown in the picture.
- Once you’ve got all the football rice krispies done, place them back into the fridge until the chocolate has completely set.
- Transfer to your favorite football tray to serve!
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