Dairy Free Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats (Gluten Free)

Our delicious dairy free Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats are flavored and colored with real strawberries so they have the best taste! These are also gluten free, fairly simple to create, and fun to make with kids.

I’ve been loving all things strawberry lately as the weather warms up and my thoughts turn to spring. If you are looking for a fun treat for spring parties, Easter, Mother’s Day, or just because, make a batch of our delicious Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats!

One of the best things about these rice crispy treats (also called rice krispie treats) is that they are flavored and colored with real strawberries (not strawberry-flavored marshmallows) so they taste delicious and more natural.

You’ve probably noticed that we love using powdered freeze dried strawberries in several of our recipes because it tastes pretty amazing and adds beautiful natural color and bold strawberry flavor. You can’t get the same strawberry flavor from the artificial stuff!

Our rice crispy treat recipe is:

• Dairy free
• Peanut free
• Gluten free
• Soy free (depending on what kind of dairy free butter you use)

How to make dairy free strawberry rice crispy treats

Even though these take a few steps, they are pretty easy to make and the results are worth it.

Here are the steps to make our rice krispie treats. This is just a recap of the steps, the full recipe card with measurements is at the end of the post:

1. Process about 1 cup of freeze dried strawberries in a small blender or food processor until it’s mostly powdered (I used our NutriBullet).
2. Sift the strawberry powder to remove the bigger pieces and most of the seeds. Set the powder aside.
3. Brush oil (or dairy free butter or coconut oil) into the bottom of an 8×8-inch square baking pan. Set aside.
4. Melt the dairy free butter in a 2 quart saucepan and once it’s fully melted, stir in the marshmallows and stir constantly until they are completely melted and smooth.
5. Turn off the heat and add 2 Tablespoons of strawberry powder to the marshmallow mixture and stir until it’s smooth and combined.
6. Stir in the rice krispies cereal.
7. Gently press the strawberry rice krispies into the bottom of the greased pan (don’t press too hard or they will get crushed and flattened).
8. While these are cooling, melt some dairy free white chocolate and drizzle over the top of the rice crispy treats.
9. Once the rice crispy treats are cooled and the chocolate has set completely, remove from the pan and cut.

You can have some fun with this recipe and swap the white chocolate drizzle for regular semi-sweet chocolate, or cut these into different shapes using cookie cutters (these would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, too!).

Is crisp rice cereal really gluten free?

That ultimately depends on which brand you’re using. The plain Kellogg’s brand of Rice Krispies cereal is not considered gluten free since it contains malt (made from gluten-containing barley). Kellogg’s however does make a gluten free variety.

But a few other brands, such as Nature’s Path, make crisp rice cereal without malt, so they are gluten free. We actually used the Great Value store brand of rice crispy cereal that does not have malt in it for these (although the box is not labeled specifically gluten free).

Here are some brands of gluten free crisp rice cereal (ingredients and cross contamination can change, so make sure to check labels before purchasing if you have severe allergies):

• Barbara’s Bakery brown rice crisps cereal (made in a facility that processes peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds, wheat, and milk)
• Nature’s Path brown rice crisp cereal (made in a facility that uses peanuts, tree nuts, and soy)
• One Degree Organic Foods sprouted brown rice crisps (made in a facility with soy, tree nuts, and dairy)
• Kellogg’s gluten free brown rice krispies
• Inspired Organics (not specifically labeled as gluten free, but does not list malt as an ingredient)
• Great Value crisp rice cereal (this is not labeled as gluten free, but this does not use malt. Contact the manufacturer for more details on how this is processed)

How to make our rice crispy treats vegan

We used the regular Jet-Puffed mini marshmallows in our rice crispy treats which contain gelatin. But if you want to make our recipe vegan, here are some vegan marshmallow brands you can try instead of regular marshmallows in this recipe.

Please note that we haven’t tried any of these brands in our recipe, so we’re not quite sure how they might affect the taste or texture. Make sure to check the labels for allergen cross contamination warnings for each brand since those can change over time.

• Yummallo vegan marshmallows (has no soy protein, the most promising one for multiple food allergies!)
• Trader Joe’s mini marshmallows (contains soy protein)
• Dandies vegan mini marshmallows (contains soy protein)
• Goodland Farms mini vegan marshmallows (contains soy protein)

Check out our pumpkin spice rice crispy treats and our peanut free scotcharoo bars!