Heart Shaped Valentine Rice Krispie Treats with M&M's

Let's make the most chocolaty heart shaped Valentine Rice Krispie treats with M&M's and sprinkles. They're perfect for kids, Valentine's Day classroom parties, and more!

Rice Krispie treats are an all time favorite dessert, loved by many, and they're so easy to reinvent for all your favorite holidays. I mean, how cute are Christmas tree Rice Krispie treats and snowman Rice Krispie treats?

heart shaped Valentine Rice Krispie treats on white marble countertop with heart sprinkles

Heart shaped Rice Krispie treats are super easy to make, and just as cute too. Only they're perfect for Cupid's special holiday.

Why You're Going to Love This Recipe

Valentine's Day Rice Krispie treats don't use a lot of ingredients. They're very simple to make.
Even though they're very festive, you can decorate them with minimal effort. Mix in a bag of Valentine M&M's, sprinkle on a handful of heart shaped sprinkles, and you're pretty much set.
Rice Krispie Valentine treats make a fantastic classroom treat or a special after school snack for your sweethearts on Valentine's Day.

ingredients for Rice Krispie Valentine treats on white marble countertop

Ingredient Notes

Salted Butter – Use real butter, not margarine. And use salted butter so you get that extra boost of flavor from the salt.
Vanilla Extract – Most Rice Krispie treat recipes don't call for vanilla, but I really love the flavor it gives to these wonderfully chewy treats.
Mini Marshmallows – You can use big marshmallows or marshmallow cream (though ingredient amounts differ), but mini marshmallows melt more quickly and efficiently.
Rice Krispies cereal – You can use any brand of crisp rice cereal you want; I prefer to use either Malt-O-Meal Crispy Rice or Millville (from Aldi) because they're gluten-free.
Valentine M&M's – These colorful M&M's give an extra festive touch to your Valentine treats.
Valentine Sprinkles – Feel free to use whatever sprinkles you can find, the tinier the better, because you don't want to take away from the flavor of your treats.

How to Make Valentine Rice Krispie Treats

First things first, you'll need to make the treats.

How to Make Rice Crispy Treats

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven.
Then stir in the vanilla extract and salt.
Add the mini marshmallows, and stir 'til they melt into a smooth, creamy mixture.
Next begin to stir in the Rice Krispies cereal, partially stirring them in to your marshmallows.

steps for how to make Valentine Rice Krispie treats in blue Dutch oven

Now you'll stir in the M&M's candies, and finish mixing everything together.
Wet your hands with water; then spread the Rice Krispies mixture into a greased 9×13 baking pan. (Note: Sometimes I’ll use a regular cake pan, but if I know I’m cutting out shapes, I’ll use my more shallow brownie pan. The brownie pan really allows me to get in with the cookie cutter and not have to fight with the sides of the pan.)
Be sure to add the sprinkles right away, so they'll stick to the warm marshmallow treats. If you wait too long, the sprinkles will just fall right off.

mixing M&M's into Rice Krispie treat mixture, pressing into pan, and adding Valentine sprinkles on top

How to Shape Valentines Rice Krispie Treats

You can use cookie cutters to make any kind of shapes you want.

Once you’ve spread your Rice Krispies treats mixture in your pan, you can go ahead and start cutting out heart shapes with a heart shaped cookie cutter. I recommend dipping it in water before cutting, so the treats will fall right off the cutter.

Be careful because the treats will still be quite hot, so just take your time.

cutting heart shaped Rice Krispie treats with red heart cookie cutter

Decorating and Flavor Alternatives for These Treats

There are many things you can do to decorate Rice Krispie hearts for Valentine's Day.

Skip adding M&M's to the mixture, and add M&M's Minis on top instead. You'd probably need to pipe on a little marshmallow fluff or melted candy melts and then sprinkle them on.
Pipe a thin zig zag of melted candy melts all over the top of your Rice Krispie treats, and add Valentine sprinkles.
Add enough strawberry Jello mix to your marshmallow mixture to give the treats both a strawberry flavor and a pink color, sorta like strawberry Rice Krispie treats.
Make pink Rice Krispie treats by adding pink food coloring to the melted marshmallow mixture.
Instead of Valentine sprinkles, use pink Nerds. Kids LOVE Nerds.
Add Valentine sprinkles right into the Rice Krispie squares recipe instead of sprinkling them on top.
Make pops out of your Rice crispy treats by adding treat sticks into the treats.
Dip a portion of or the whole treat into melted candy melts, and sprinkle with sprinkles.
Try different Valentine shape cookie cutters! Maybe X's and O's for hugs and kisses.
Decorate your hearts with adorable little Cupid's arrows made out of toothpicks and gummy hearts.

As you can see, the options are endless.

heart shaped Valentine's Day Rice Krispie treats on white marble countertop

Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's

Can I make Valentine's Day Rice Krispies treats in advance?

Yes, you can totally make these ahead of time. Make them the day before, and you're all set for the party the next day. I wouldn't make them more than 1-2 days in advance, though, as they can grow stale over a couple of days.

Why are my treats not chewy?

There may be a couple of reasons your treats aren't chewy. First, your marshmallows and cereal may not have been fresh. It's also important to cook the marshmallow mixuture on low to medium heat, so the marshmallows slowly and evenly melt. Also, did you press hard when you pressed the finished mixture into the pan? It's important to lightly press them into the pan and don't overly compress them down. Lightly pressing them will help with keeping the treats soft and chewy, rather than hard and tough as nails.

Why are my Rice Krispie treats not crispy?

You shouldn't have this problem if you follow this recipe to a t. But it could be that the recipe calls for too much butter. Too much butter will give an overly soft treat that doesn't compact together into a nice, uniform, crispy treat.

How should I store Rice Krispie treats with M&M's?

It's important to store your treats in an airtight container or sealed plastic bag. You'll probably want to eat them within the first 2 or 3 days.

Valentine's Day Rice Krispies treat with M&M's on white marble countertop

More Valentine's Day Treats You'll Love:

If you want more Valentine treats, you'll love these heart shaped chocolate whoopie pies and Valentine snack cakes.

While these Ritz Cracker chocolate peanut butter cups are one of our favorite Christmas treats, they make an excellent Valentine's Day dessert too. Valentine marshmallow pops are another easy treat you can make in a jiffy.

Crazy Adventures in Parenting has a recipe for the cutest li'l Minions Valentine's Rice Krispies treats. Mom on Timeout shares how to make the cutest easy Valentine's Day patties.

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I made these yesterday exactly as written, including the 10 oz bag valentine plain m&m, although I used a 16 oz bag mini marshmallows rather than the standard 10 oz. Love the extra marshmallow!! More is better! I have made ka-jillions of cereal treats for decades with every variation imaginable. These are by far the BEST! The m&m addition takes it next level with just enough ooey gooey chocolate. And don’t skip the vanilla. It is a lovely noticable addition. A simple to make recipe made even better!! Will make for all holidays, using various holiday m&ms.

Heart Shaped Valentine Rice Krispie Treats with M&M’s