Curious, I googled a bit. I thought that Rice Krispies were grains of rice that were flattened in a press, then puffed. (“Puffed”) But apparently, Rice Krispies is actually rice flour mixed with various other ingredients into a batter, then formed into the kernel shapes, and finally toasted. The toasting causes the “kernels” to rise, but not technically to “puff.”
So what you need is a recipe for that batter. Obviously, the exact recipe is a trade secret, but there may be some close approximation out there somewhere. Where to find it, however, is beyond me.
Yeah, puffed rice is something to behold when it is being made. I went on a tour of the Quaker factory when such things were permitted (picture the old Hershey tour, where you walked around the vats of mixing chocolate instead of sitting on a ride that takes you through a bogus version of the factory floor.)
Anyway, it reminded me of something out of Willy Wonka. A huge copper kettle-like machine is used to make the puffed rice. It’s very similar in concept to popcorn. The rice is heated under pressure until a bit of water inside the rice grain pops, turning it inside out. The rice blows out of the machine, all over the room, where it is funneled through a hole in the floor for continued processing. Pretty cool stuff for a kid to see.
It was the coolest thing I saw on my tour. I even tried to eat puffed rice after that, but I couldn’t do it. Styrofoam in milk is not for me.
I say you drop some cooked white rice in a deep fryer and see what you get.
At the Kellogg’s museum in Battle Creek, there’s a display of what each cereal looks like before its cooked (Froot Loops looks like Play-Doh) and I remember distinctly that Rice Krispies looked like rice, kinda brownish from some sort of malt syrup they apply.
I visited a village in Vietnam where they popped rice by stirring it in a huge wok with very hot sand (I guess to get the temp up on all sides as opposed to just the bottom). The sand was sifted out afterwards. But as others have said, puffed rice is not the same as rice crispies.