I must have a thing for pistachios this year. It looks like the last recipe I posted was for Pistachio, Currant and Toffee Biscotti, and I recently totally fell in love with pistachio butter, I’m blaming this recipe on that one, and FYI pistachio butter, chopped pistachios, pure olive oil and fresh ginger is a fabulous glaze on roasted salmon. And shame on me because I haven’t posted in a while.
I came across this recipe from the New York Times earlier this year and printed it out intending to try it sometime and, as I am wont to do, couldn’t resist tinkering with the recipe. The recipe is good as is, but being a lover of nuts and sesame seeds/tahini, mine has a bit more of a few ingredients (in terms of amounts). I haven’t made rice crispies treats in literally 30+ years, but these sounded delish.
I have been making these, portioning them out and throwing them into the freezer, and they are just dandy straight from the freezer.
Here is the original recipe for reference.
I also cheat in areas where I find you can cheat. In the recipe, it calls for browning the butter. I tried it with browned butter and tried it straight, and honestly IMO you can’t really tell the difference. Also you can add all the wet ingredients (plus salt) together after you melt the butter and melt all of it together, marshmallows, condensed milk, tahini, pistachio butter, vanilla paste and salt. I skipped the halvah and added cashews to this as well. Time is money so to speak, and if I were making this in a commercial sized batch, any few minutes you can cut and still come out with a great product, you do if possible.
- ½ cup grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I am and always will be a Kate’s Butter fan)**
- 1(10-ounce) bag mini marshmallows
- ⅓ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 3 tablespoons tahini, well stirred
- 4 tablespoons pistachio butter (I love CAMPO D’ORO – Pistachio Butter Sweet)**
- 2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract (I love Trader Joe’s Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste)**
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (or generic store brand)
- 1 cup shelled roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup cashews (roasted is good too)
- ½ cup white sesame seeds, lightly toasted and divided
Melt the butter in a large heavy bottomed sauce pan (brown if you wish), add marshmallows, condensed milk, tahini, pistachio butter, vanilla paste and salt and stir well until melted. Remove from heat.
Immediately add the toasted sesame seeds and mix well. Add in the chopped cashews and pistachios and stir until incorporated.
This makes approximately 2 8X8 inch pans or a 9×14 pan. I use parchment paper in the pans before adding the mix and spreading.
**Not affiliate links