Originally published on “Blaise the Baker” February 27th, 2014

I absolutely love warm “Chex Mix” right out of the oven with the smell of herbs and spices floating through the air. I find it hard to limit myself to just a handful or two…or three. It’s addictive! What is even more addictive? What do I love even more!? The chocolate version! Take out the herbs and spices, add chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar…YUM! How bad could that be!?

I grew up calling this mix “Puppy Chow”. Some people grew up calling it “Muddy Buddies”. Whatever you call it – I just call it delicious…

Here is the recipe for “Puppy Chow”. Of course the terms “Muddy Buddies” and “Puppy Chow” are both copyright trademarks. So I will just list this under “Chocolate Puppy Chow”.

Chocolate Puppy Chow

9 cups CHEX cereal (I prefer the rice version. You could use the corn or even chocolate versions as well)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
Large food-storage plastic bags
Wax Paper

Measure out the 9 cups of cereal and place into a large separate bowl.

In a large microwaveable bowl, microwave the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter (uncovered) for about 60 seconds. (This part will be largely determined on the strength of your microwave.) Take out of the microwave and stir. The chocolate, peanut butter and butter mixture will just be beginning to melt. Microwave again, for about 30 seconds and stir again. Do this until the mixture is easy to stir but be careful not to burn the chocolate! Stir the mixture until smooth.

Add the vanilla to the melted chocolate mixture and stir well.

Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the 9 cups of measured cereal. Stir until all the cereal is evenly coated with the melted chocolate, peanut butter and butter. This part can be a little bit of a mess (along with the rest of the recipe) but trust me…it is well worth the mess it might make!

After all the cereal is evenly coated – place about half of the mixture into a large food storage container. Add about a cup of the powdered sugar to the mix and seal up the bag – taking out most of the air before doing so. Gently shake and turn until well coated. Be careful not to crush the cereal.

Lay out a large section of wax paper on your counter. The size of this really depends on how much space you have to roll out the paper. If you have a large area – great…more cooling room. If working in a small area, that’s fine. Just have it cool a little longer.

Pour the powdered sugar covered cereal out on the wax paper to cool completely.

Repeat the process with the rest of the chocolate cereal mixture, the food storage bag, and the powdered sugar.

Once the finished mix has cooled a few minutes on the wax paper, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I find this so addictive – that I hardly have any left to PUT in the refrigerator…but if you have any left, it would be best refrigerated!

Enjoy!