Chewy, gooey, crispy-edged brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies taste like a brown-butter-infused rice krispie treat in cookie form. It’s all the nostalgia of a marshmallow cereal bar, wrapped up in the comfort of a bakery-style cookie. If you love the marshmallow crispy cookies from Costco, these have a similar chewy, crispy texture—just made from scratch and boosted with brown butter.
We all have our favorite go-to cookie recipes—the anytime classics like chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal raisin cookies; and the seasonal traditions like snowball cookies or peanut butter blossoms.
Then there’s the excitement of something new and different. A cookie recipe that gets people talking. “What is in this?” they’ll say. And then, more urgently: “Can you send me the recipe??”
These brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies are THAT type of cookie. The brown butter brings deep, toffee-like flavor, the mini marshmallows melt into caramelized pockets of gooey magic, and the crispy cereal adds that light, crisp-crackle texture in every bite, especially with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top.
Brown butter sometimes gets lost in busy cookie doughs, but not here. These are unapologetically brown-butter-forward, and we’re not mad about it!
Why You’ll Love These Brown Butter Marshmallow Crispy Cookies
- Recipe adapted from my popular chewy chocolate chip cookies!
- Brown butter = ultra-rich flavor with caramel and toasted notes
- Chewy centers + crisp edges, the dream cookie texture!
- Rice Krispies stay crispy, adding a fun contrast in every bite
- Puddles of melty marshmallow (the best kind of puddle)
- No mixer needed, just a saucepan and a bowl
- Perfect for gifting, cookie exchanges, bake sales, or holiday cookie trays
Ingredients You Need & Why:
- Butter: You’ll start by browning the butter. Toasting the milk solids gives the cookies incredible depth.
- All-Purpose Flour + Baking Soda: Our classic cookie structure duo.
- Cornstarch: For added softness.
- Crispy Rice Cereal: Fold them in gently to keep from crushing them.
- Mini Marshmallows: They melt into gooey pockets that caramelize on the edges—YUM.
- Brown & Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar helps the cookies spread and the edges crisp. Brown sugar adds moisture and chewiness, plus extra caramel flavor to complement the brown butter.
- Egg + Egg Yolk: To bind the ingredients, and for extra richness and that coveted bend-and-chew texture. (We use an extra egg yolk in these chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, too.)
- Vanilla + Salt: Flavor!
How to Brown Butter
Brown butter is melted butter with a delicately nutty and toasted flavor brought on by gently cooking it on the stove. This one-ingredient wonder adds so much depth of flavor to these marshmallow crispy cookies.
Browning butter takes less than 10 minutes and is a kitchen skill every baker can—and should!—learn. Here’s exactly how to brown butter with a video tutorial and lots of tips to help you begin. Once you’ve mastered browning butter, the possibilities are endless. Think brown butter chocolate chip cookies, brown butter apple blondies… and have you tried these pecan sugar cookies before? You MUST.
Overview: How to Make Marshmallow Crispy Cookies
Once you have browned the butter and transferred it to a bowl to slightly cool, combine your dry ingredients, including the rice krispies and marshmallows. (Something we learned in testing: if you wait to fold in the cereal and marshmallows at the end, you’ll have trouble incorporating them because the brown butter makes the dough quite slick.)
Whisk the sugars and remaining wet ingredients into the slightly cooled brown butter, then combine it with the dry ingredients. The dough looks like this:
Now, rather than the typical order of steps (chilling the dough before shaping the cookies), we’re going to shape the cookie dough balls first and then chill. The dough is a little greasy, so the best method my team and I found for shaping these cookies is to simply use your hands to squeeze the dough together to form a ball.
Freeze the cookie dough balls for 1 hour before baking to keep the cookies from overspreading. Why freeze? Freezing the shaped dough firms up the butter and the marshmallows, helping the cookies hold their shape in the oven and preventing the marshmallows from dissolving.
When you bake them, expect these marshmallow crispy cookies to have some irregular edges… each cookie will end up looking unique, and that is part of their charm!
Add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt as soon as they come out of the oven for the perfect sweet-salty contrast.
Tips for Success
- Watch the marshmallows: A few on the edges are great—they caramelize!—but if too many hit the baking sheet directly, they melt out. Tuck stray marshmallows back into the dough balls when shaping.
- Chill the dough: Because of the brown butter and marshmallows, these cookies benefit from a quick freeze so they don’t overspread.
If you’re looking for a cookie that’s part childhood nostalgia, part grown-up flavor magic, and 100% irresistible, this is the one!
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
Brown Butter Marshmallow Crispy Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
- Yield: 20-22 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (52g) crispy rice cereal
- 1 cup (60g) mini marshmallows
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- optional: flaky sea salt, for topping
Instructions
- Brown the butter: Place the sliced butter in a light-colored skillet or saucepan over medium heat. (Light-colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning.) Stir or whisk the butter constantly as it melts. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring. After 5–8 minutes, the butter will begin browning—you’ll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan and it will have a nutty aroma. As soon as the butter has browned, immediately remove from heat and pour it into a medium heat-safe bowl. Scrape up the browned solids at the bottom of the skillet and add them as well. Set aside to slightly cool. After browning, you should have around 185-190g butter.
- Make the cookies: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the rice cereal and mini marshmallows.
- Whisk the brown butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla together until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and stir with a silicone spatula until fully incorporated. The dough will be greasy and a bit crumbly; that’s ok.
- Scoop the dough, about 2 Tablespoons (40g) per cookie, and use your hands to form it into a ball. Squeeze firmly to help it hold its shape. Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze, uncovered, for 1 hour. If freezing for longer (up to 1 day), transfer the firm dough balls to an airtight container or zip-top bag.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Arrange the frozen dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 14-15 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned on top, the edges look crisp, and the centers still look soft. (If the cookies haven’t begun to spread by the 10-minute mark, remove the baking sheet from the oven, give it a few firm taps on the counter, then return it to the oven.) Some edges may over-spread if a marshmallow is on the outside. This is normal and expected.
- Sprinkle sea salt, if using, on top of the warm cookies right after you remove them from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cover cooled cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make-Ahead & Freezing Instructions: In step 4, you can freeze the shaped cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 1 hour, then transfer to a container or zip-top bag and freeze for up to 1 day before baking. This short freeze helps the marshmallows stay intact and keeps the cookies from overspreading. For longer storage, unbaked cookie dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months. Keep in mind that the longer they’re frozen, the less they tend to spread in the oven. If you prefer a slightly wider cookie, let the frozen dough balls sit at room temperature for 10–15 minutes before baking. However, don’t thaw them fully because marshmallows soften as they warm up and can begin to dissolve into the dough when it hits the oven. Baked cookies also freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Light-Colored Skillet or Stainless Steel Skillet (for browning butter) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Flaky Sea Salt or Coarse Sea Salt | Cooling Rack
- Do I Have to Brown the Butter? Yes, browning the butter adds deep, toffee-like flavor and really elevates these cookies. You can use regular melted butter, but the flavor won’t be as rich, and the texture may be slightly different. Because browning evaporates some moisture, you may need to add a little extra flour if using un-browned melted butter.
- Can I Use Regular Marshmallows Instead of Mini? Mini marshmallows work best here because they distribute evenly and melt into smaller pockets. Large marshmallows tend to melt out too much or create big empty tunnels.
- My Dough is Greasy, Is That Normal? Yes! Brown butter cookies often start out looking a bit greasy and especially since some of the dry ingredients don’t really soak up moisture (marshmallows and rice cereal). Once you squeeze the dough together to form a ball, it holds its shape beautifully.
- Can I Double the Recipe? Yes, this recipe doubles easily. You can brown the butter all at once; just use a large enough pan to prevent burning.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Made these for our annual cookie competition and this won! Delicious! The brown butter takes this over the edge – wow!!
Sally, you never disappoint. Every year I try a different cookie to add to my “regulars” for my Cookie Tins at Christmas. This cookie was, not only easy, but maybe one of my most favorite of all the cookies I have tried. Thanks for giving me the grams to make each cookie alike. They baked exactly 14 minutes and turned out ***chef’s kiss****!
My cookies did not spread at all. I had printed out the recipe. When going back online to look at it, I noticed an added sentence in line 6 that didn’t print on my copy about taping the sheet hard on the counter a few times if the cookies haven’t spread after 10 minutes. Not sure when this was added or if it would have helped. I ended up throwing the cookies, then flattening them with a cup before baking. Still didn’t spread but turned out better than the first couple dozen. They all tasted good, they just didn’t look very pretty.
Made these with gluten free flour and it works great and tastes amazing! thinking about swapping rice krispy for corn flakes next time 🙂 very brown butter forward and has a nice crunch, chew, and soft texture all at once.
This recipe was released just in time for my cookie baking party that I host every year. My friend loves rice krispy treats so this sounded like something he would love and I was correct. I didn’t freeze them long enough because they were the last cookie we had to bake and we were tired and ready to finish. I think we slightly overbaked them because the marshmallow in some of them melted. The melted marshmallow gave a yummy toffee taste, which we loved. If made correctly, I know they would be amazing. We thought they were so good anyway.
These came out perfect! A previous commenter asked about chocolate chips, and we took your teams advice and did a chocolate drizzle on top (with a little peppermint extract mixed in with the chocolate). Highly recommend!! Plus we added some red sugar into the mix to make them festive!
Once these cookies are baked will they freeze well??
Hi Brooke, absolutely. See recipe notes for make ahead and freezing instructions.
These brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies are fantastic! Adding to my Christmas rotation! That brown butter is absolutely amazing!
I think these are okay. In my view, the rice crispy texture detracts. They were not particularly loved by my household. Not bad, but not great. I appreciate the recipe nonetheless and am glad I tried it.
These are delicious! Chewy with crispy edges and they taste just like a rice krispy treat. Something different from the traditional types of cookies! Thank you for this recipe!
Just made these with homemade marshmallow. Some spread out a bunch I think it depends where the marshmallows are but excellent cookie.
Made these tonight! The brown butter gives them such a great toffee flavor and they’re chewy with just a bit of crunch, especially around the edges where some marshmallow peek out. I corrected the shape of the cookies as soon as they came out of the oven with a spoon (as mentioned in the recipe, the outside marshmallows melt a bit and change the shape). Overall they’re a really pleasantly textured cookie!
These are AMAZING!!! Sally never disappoints!
My dough is coming out really crumbly and wont hold it’s shape. Any suggestions?
Hi Shannon, happy to help troubleshoot. What point in the recipe are you having issues with the dough? Is it when you are trying to shape it into balls? The dough does tend to want to fall apart–we found that the best way to get it to hold shape is to squeeze/clump it together between your hands (the warmth of your hands helps). If some marshmallows or rice krispies fall out, just poke them back in. Once they’re frozen, the dough balls should hold together.
I made these cookies (1.5 times recipe) with Cup4Cup gluten free flour (in the blue bag). They had to bake about 3 minutes longer and I had to press them slightly down with a fork. Added semi sweet chocolate chips to 1/3 of mix. Delicious
I want to add chocolate to these, they look so good! If I were to add chocolate chips should I reduce any other mix-ins? Or would a chocolate drizzle be better? 🙂
Love Sally’s recipes. As a baker, they are my go to, so I was very much looking forward to making these. Because after all, you had me at brown butter
But, the texture did not sit right with my family, including my RKT-loving gremlin.
And I sadly agree. Something is just off.
Off to make brown butter Graham thyme shortbread to erase the memory
I knew these were going to be good so doubled the recipe without doing a test run. I’m so glad I did! I had 47 golf ball sized cookies, which were in the freezer 1-2 hours. They baked up nicely. I’m keeping a dozen out and freezing the rest as I make my way thru Sally’s cookiepalooza recipes. Husband did a taste test and I had to make him stop before he ate the whole dozen. Easy and yummy!
I made these and they spread like crazy even w freezing for an hour should I have frozen overnight? Also do they need to be so large your looked like popcorn balls I was using a cookie scoop and only put 9 on a prepared parchment tray and still spread and a puffy middle
Hi Jonna, I’m so sorry to hear that! There are multiple reasons that cookies can end up over-spreading. It might be helpful to review this post on tips to prevent cookies from spreading. You could try adding an extra Tbsp or 2 of flour to your next batch, and/or freeze a bit longer. Are you baking them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat?
Just made these… DELISH. My only question is they puffed up more than what’s in the photo. Could there be a reason why? Also will be more methodical next time about the marshmallows.. some looked awfully funky being on the edge & spreading lol
Hi Casey! Puffy/thick cookies are usually caused by too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. Glad you enjoyed them!
These were very puffy when they came out, had to throw the first batch away. I measure everything via a scale, so it wasn’t the flour…I left the other batch out of the freezer just long enough to squish down prior. Definitely better, but I’m not sure why it’s doing that? Makes me nervous to make them again.
Would it be ok to use Vegan Marshmallows in place of regular?
Hi Nicki, I’m unsure; we have not tested it, so let me know if you try it!
This is a great cookie!! Easy to make and the taste is very craveable!!!
Could I use regular size marshmallows that I cut into small pieces?
This looks delicious!
Is it possible to halve the recipe? If so, how would you handle the egg?
Thank you!
Hi Julie, we haven’t tested halving this recipe, but it should work fine. Our general rule for halving an egg is to crack it open, beat the yolk and white together with a fork, measure the volume (should be a few Tbsp), then use half. OR, you can make a full batch and save extra dough or baked cookies for later – see Notes after the recipe.
I couldn’t get mine off the parchment paper!?!
Does the marshmallow turn the cookie hard?
Hi SueEllen, not at all. The cookies are very chewy with slightly crisp edges.
Yum thank you!
Would it work to use my own homemade marshmallows if I cut them into mini sized cubes?
Hi Terri, I’m sure it would! We actually have not tested it yet.
Can I use 1 to 1 gluten free flour for this recipe?
Hi Pia, I’m unsure. We haven’t tested it. But let me know if you try it!
I have not yet made these but they look so good. If making the cookies 1 tablespoon sized how long would you bake them?
Hi Jan, a minute or so shorter I’d say.
Quick question!
Can you make dough ahead of time and freeze for days (not just an hour)?
If so do you need to let them sit out and defrost for a bit before baking?
Yes, absolutely! For longer storage, unbaked cookie dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months. Keep in mind that the longer they’re frozen, the less they tend to spread in the oven. If you prefer a slightly wider cookie, let the frozen dough balls sit at room temperature for 10–15 minutes before baking. However, don’t thaw them fully because marshmallows soften as they warm up and can begin to dissolve into the dough when it hits the oven.
I will absolutely add these cookies to my list this month! I would like to add chocolate chips or chunks – how much should I add? Thank you!
Hi Marilu! I would add 3/4 to 1 cup (around 180g).
Can the baked cookies be stored in the freezer?
Absolutely! Baked cookies also freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.