Gingerbread Marshmallow Treats
It’s impossible to look at these little gingerbread houses and NOT crack a smile. They’re just so adorable and so fun to decorate! With a gingerbread rice krispie treat base, cookie butter fudge topping, and white chocolate decorative icing, these treats taste just as good as they look.
How to Make Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats
These gingerbread marshmallow treats have a unique spice-sweet flavor that’s so warm and cozy!
The base is made with a mixture of butter, cookie butter, marshmallows, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon. Cookie butter just feels like a very natural flavor to pair with gingerbread as it’s very reminiscent of ginger snaps.
It also adds a nice chew and texture to these bars that would otherwise be a bit too soft. Since they’re sliced into little houses, these marshmallow treats need a bit more structure and the cookie butter does just that.
Along with these flavors, the bars are mixed with a combination of rice cereal and oats. Not common to rice krispie treats, I love the addition of oats because they create a chewy bite that rice cereal alone cannot provide. The fine texture also allows the bars to spread as smooth and as flat as possible which is a much needed surface for the house decorations.
To create that smooth layer for decorating, the top of the bars are covered in a cookie butter fudge. This combination of chocolate and cookie butter adds a delicious layer of flavor that makes these no bake treats so unique.
Once layered and chilled, these bars are ready to transform into little houses. It’s the perfect alternative to Christmas cookies when you want something to decorate but don’t want to go through the process of making a dough, chilling, cutting, and baking. With these treats, simply just mix, press, pour, slice, and decorate!
How to Slice Gingerbread House Bars
The idea for this recipe was inspired by another no bake Christmas treat I made a few years ago – my peanut butter Christmas trees.
Thinking of simple Christmas-themed shapes to help recreate this idea, I landed on these adorable gingerbread houses! They’re a little bit trickier to slice than the basic tree triangles, but definitely worth it to create these little houses.
Once the bars are chilled solid, lift then out of the pan and place onto a flat surface. A large cutting board is best.
Starting at the bottom, make two slices about 2 inches long to create three sections.
Finding the center of each of those sections, carefully create a little mark with your knife to indicate the point of the roof. Using that point, slice down to the corner of the “house” walls to reveal the bar shape.
I suggest peeling away the bars as you slice rather than slicing everything and then peeling. The photo shown above is just used as a visual template, otherwise I remove the bars as I go.
Since these are marshmallow treats, the bars can get pretty sticky. To prevent too much sticking, the pan is dusted in some powdered sugar beforehand.
If you find your bars are still sticking, I suggest freezing the bars for about 30 minutes to help firm them up. They’re much easy to handle when chilled solid.
For decorating, the bars are placed onto a sheet of powdered sugar to further prevent any sticking.
Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats FAQs
Sure! Just slice into squares instead of houses and leave them as is or decorate to your liking.
If you don’t have access to cookie butter, cashew or almond butter are great alternatives.
I suggest sticking with the oats for the best texture, otherwise you can replace the oats with equal parts rice cereal. Alternatively, you could replace the oats with equal parts broken gingersnap cookie bits.
If you’re struggling with melting in the microwave, try a more gentle melting method. Fill a small pot with a shallow amount of water and bring to simmer. Place a heat-safe bowl on top of the pot (not touching the water) and pour in the white chocolate chips. Stir and gently melt until smooth.
These can be kept in an air tight container at room temperature for a couple days, otherwise store in the refrigerator for about 5 days.
Yes, double all ingredients and press into a 9×13 baking dish.
For more no bake Christmas desserts, check out my:
- Gingerbread Tiramisu
- Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Fudge
- Salted Peanut Butter Christmas Trees
- Puppy Chow Marshmallow Treats
- Toffee Crunch Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram and leave a review below if you make these gingerbread rice krispie treats. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, the buttons above or below this post, or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make these gingerbread marshmallow treats:
Gingerbread Marshmallow Treats
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 9 bars
Description
These gingerbread rice krispie treats are so easy to make but so fun to decorate! Topped with a layer of chocolate cookie butter, these bars are sliced into little gingerbread houses and decorated with white chocolate icing.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (120g) cookie butter
- 10 oz bag mini marshmallows
- 1 1/2 tbsp molasses
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups (150g) quick oats
- 2 cups (55g) crispy rice cereal
- Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Cookie Butter Fudge
- 1/2 cup (80g) dark chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup cookie butter, divided
White Chocolate Icing
- 1/4 cup (55g) unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/4 cup (27g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup (80g) white chocolate chips, melted
Instructions
Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats
- Grease and line the bottom and sides of an 8×8 pan with parchment paper. Once stuck in, give the paper another spritz of nonstick spray on all sides.
- In a large pot over medium heat, melt together the butter and cookie butter.
- Once smooth, add in the marshmallows and melt completely. The cookie butter will appear clumpy at first, but will smooth out as the marshmallows melt.
- Remove from heat and mix in the molasses, milk, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- Then mix in the oats and rice cereal.
- Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Since the mixture is sticky, I like to lightly spray my hand with some nonstick spray to make this process easier.
Cookie Butter Fudge
- In a microwave safe bowl, add the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cookie butter. Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Then mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of cookie butter.
- Pour over the bars and spread even. Chill the bars for about an hour or until the surface is set.
White Chocolate Icing
- Shortly before the bars are set, make the decorative icing.
- In a bowl using a fork or an electric mixer, mix together the softened butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Then in a microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave in 20 second intervals. Make sure to mix the chocolate chips between each round and keep a very close eye on them. If white chocolate chips overheat, then turn thick and dry.
- Once smooth, mix the melted chips into the butter and sugar.
Assemble
- Lift the bars out of the pan and place onto a flat surface. Off to the side, dust a large baking sheet with powdered sugar (this is where we will place the sliced bars to prepare for decorating – the powdered sugar prevents them from sticking to the surface).
- Slice the bars into 8 houses, following the image in this post (it’s easier to see rather than explain). You will have some small leftover pieces (perfect for snacking), but two of them can be stuck together to make one additional house. These are the two halves at the end of the second row of slices.
- Peel the houses off of the paper and place onto the sheet of powdered sugar. If you’re having trouble, stick the bars into the freezer as they’re much easier to work with when chilled solid.
- Now place the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Pipe your gingerbread house decorations and enjoy!
Equipment
Buy Now → - Prep Time: 1 hour
- Chill Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
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Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
I haven’t made these yet. What would you recommend in place of cookie butter? I have celiac and the rest of this is gluten free. Do you think crunchy peanut butter could work? I’m off to see if I can find gluten free cookie butter or a recipe to make one. Thank you!
Can I use old-fashioned oats instead of quick oats for this recipe?
Haven’t made it yet, but I missed where there’s a “bottom of the sugar dusted pan”. I’m assuming it’s on top of the parchment paper?