Cinnamon Toast Crunch Rice Krispie Treats (No-Bake)

The classic marshmallow bar, upgraded with cinnamon sugar crunch and a white chocolate drizzle.

There’s a specific kind of person who drinks the milk at the bottom of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch bowl. If that’s you, this recipe is essentially engineered for your brain.

Regular Rice Krispie treats are great, but let’s be honest — they’re a delivery vehicle. Marshmallow and butter doing the heavy lifting while the cereal mostly provides texture. Cinnamon Toast Crunch actually brings something to the party: that cinnamon-sugar coating dissolves slightly into the warm marshmallow and threads cinnamon through every bite. The Rice Krispies stay in the mix to keep things light and snappy, so you get crunch without the whole pan turning into a dense brick.

Forty minutes of work, most of it waiting. No oven required.

Why This Version Works

The 2:1 cereal ratio. Four cups of Cinnamon Toast Crunch to two cups of Rice Krispies. Go all-CTC and the squares get heavy and a little tooth-achingly sweet. Go all-Krispies and you’ve just made regular treats with a cinnamon rumor. This split gives you the flavor of one and the texture of the other.

Low and slow on the marshmallows. Medium-low heat, not medium. Blasting marshmallows over high heat is the number one reason homemade treats turn out hard — the sugar starts to caramelize and sets up firm as it cools. Patience here is the whole recipe. (If you’d rather keep the heat off your stovetop entirely, my Instant Pot Rice Krispie Treats use the sauté function for the same effect.)

Vanilla and cinnamon in the drizzle. A teaspoon of vanilla rounds out the marshmallow, and stirring cinnamon directly into the melted white chocolate means the topping tastes like something instead of just looking pretty.

Ingredients

• Unsalted Butter: Adds richness and binds the melted marshmallow together.
• Mini Marshmallows: Melt into the gooey glue holding everything together.
• Vanilla Extract: Rounds out the sweetness and deepens marshmallow flavor.
• Rice Krispies Cereal: Keeps the bars light, crisp, and never dense.
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal: Brings cinnamon sugar crunch through every single bite.
• White Chocolate Melts: Melt smooth and set firm for clean drizzling.
• Ground Cinnamon: Warms the white chocolate drizzle with extra spice.

For complete ingredients and quantities, as well as nutritional information, keep scrolling to the printable recipe card below.

A Few Notes

• Mini marshmallows melt faster and more evenly than the large ones. If jumbo marshmallows are what you’ve got, tear them in half and give yourself an extra couple of minutes. And if you’re out of marshmallows altogether, a jar of fluff will get you there — that’s exactly what I do in my Rice Krispie Treats with Marshmallow Fluff, which come out even softer.
• Unsalted butter lets you control the salt. If salted is all you have, use it — the treats will just read a touch saltier, which honestly isn’t a bad thing against all that sugar.
• White chocolate melts (also sold as melting wafers or candy melts) are formulated to melt smooth and set firm at room temperature — the same wafers I drizzle over my Banana Pudding Rice Krispie Treats. Real white chocolate chips work too, but thin them with ½ teaspoon of coconut oil so they drizzle instead of clump.
• Fresh cereal only. Stale cereal is soft cereal, and soft cereal makes sad treats. Open a new box if yours has been sitting in the cabinet since spring.

Directions

Step 1: Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and lightly coat with nonstick spray. Leave some overhang on two sides — that’s your handle for lifting the whole slab out later.

Step 2: Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat.

Step 3: Add the marshmallows and stir frequently until completely melted and smooth. This takes a few minutes. Don’t rush it.

Step 4: Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the Rice Krispies and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, mixing until everything is evenly coated. Fold gently — you want the CTC squares intact, not pulverized.

Step 5: Transfer to the prepared dish and press into an even layer. If it’s sticky, let it cool slightly and coat your hands with a bit of oil before pressing. Press firmly enough to hold together, gently enough to stay chewy — compacting it like you’re building a retaining wall is how you get hockey pucks.

Step 6: Let the treats set at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Step 7: Transfer to a cutting board. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second bursts, stirring between each. Stir in the ground cinnamon.

Step 8: Drizzle the cinnamon chocolate over the treats and sprinkle with extra crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Slice into bars, serve, and enjoy.

Tips for the Best Treats

• Butter the spatula, not just the pan. Or use a sheet of parchment pressed on top and push down through that. Either beats scraping marshmallow off your hands.
• Cut with a hot knife. Run a sharp knife under hot water, wipe it dry, and slice. Repeat between cuts. You’ll get clean edges instead of jagged ones.
• Let the drizzle set before slicing if you want the chocolate to stay put — about 10 minutes at room temperature.
• Crush the topping cereal in a zip-top bag with the flat of your hand. You want coarse rubble, not dust. (For a coating you’d actually want fine — that’s the trick behind my Air Fryer Cinnamon Toast Crunch Donut Holes, where the crumbs need to stick evenly.)

Variations

• Brown butter base. Cook the butter an extra 3–4 minutes until it smells nutty and the milk solids turn golden. It adds a caramel depth that plays beautifully against cinnamon.
• Add a pinch of flaky salt over the drizzle. Sweet, salty, cinnamon — it’s a good combination for a reason.
• Swap in Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros for half the cereal if you can find them.
• Make it seasonal. Pastel sprinkles and candy eggs turn these into a spring dessert — same move I use for my Easter Rice Krispie Treats.
• Extra gooey? Reserve a cup of the mini marshmallows and fold them in after you kill the heat. They’ll stay partly whole for pockets of melty marshmallow.

Storage

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. They’re genuinely best on day one — cereal treats lose their crunch as they sit, and the CTC softens faster than plain Rice Krispies.

Don’t refrigerate them. The fridge turns marshmallow treats hard and dry. If you need to freeze them, wrap individually in plastic wrap, freeze up to 6 weeks, and thaw at room temperature for an hour.

FAQ

Why did my treats turn out hard? Almost always heat. Marshmallows melted too fast, or the mixture got pressed too aggressively into the pan. Low heat, light hands.

Can I make these ahead for a party? Make them the morning of. Any earlier and the texture starts to slide.

Can I skip the white chocolate drizzle? Sure. They’re still great without it. But it’s five minutes of work for a much better-looking pan, and the cinnamon in the drizzle adds a nice layer.

Can I double the recipe? Yes — use two 9×13 pans rather than one deep dish, and melt the marshmallows in two batches so nothing sits on the heat too long.

More Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ideas

Still have most of a box left? That’s the real reason this recipe exists.

• Air Fryer Cinnamon Toast Crunch Donuts — soft, cinnamon-sugar coated, no deep fryer involved.
• Air Fryer Cinnamon Toast — the original that inspired the cereal, back in its bread form.