I <3 Muddy Buddies

In my Relay for Life recap, I mentioned that my new favourite treat in the whole wide world is Chex Cookies & Cream Muddy Buddies.

And when I get my heart set on something, I can’t think about much else. Last week, all I did was think about those delicious, mouth-watering little sugary treats… And wondered if I could make my own at home.

Internet to the rescue! Google led me to a recipe on the Betty Crocker website, and it sounded easy enough for this kid to try out. And while it wasn’t the Cookies & Cream version, it did involve both chocolate AND peanut butter, so I wasn’t exactly disappointed… (PB + Chocolate = Jill’s new biggest weakness. I sometimes still daydream about all those Easter Eggs I had in my life for a glorious week back in April.)

I already had almost all of the ingredients I needed in my cupboards at home – all I needed was to pick up a box of Chex cereal during my weekly grocery run. I decided to whip them up on Saturday afternoon, to bring to our church picnic on Sunday. Let’s just say, it’s kind of a miracle I managed to save some to take to the picnic! These little buggers are lethal.

And by ‘lethal’, I actually mean irresistible.

Seriously. Coulda eaten the whole lot all by myself. In one shot.

But I did manage to reserve a container to bring to the picnic, and they seemed to be a hit with quite a few people. One of the ladies told me she’s not a chip person, she’d far rather have a sweet munchie snack like these. I told her I’m one of those extra-special people that can’t seem to keep my paws out of either kind of snack when it’s under my nose. I was always a salty-snack girl, but in recent years, I’ve developed quite a sweet tooth.

For that reason, Muddy Buddies will have to become a once-in-a-blue-moon-special-occasion-treat. Or else I’ll be in really big trouble.

Anyways, without further ado… here’s how I made my PB & Chocolate Muddy Buddies:

Ingredients

9 cups of Chex cereal (any kind, I used the only variety available at the grocery store I shop at, and they were Honey Nut flavoured)

1 cup of chocolate chips (recipe called for semi-sweet, I only had milk chocolate – didn’t seem to matter!)

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1/4 cup of butter or margarine

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

Directions

Measure out cereal into a very large bowl. (The box I bought was exactly 9 cups worth of Chex). In a 1 qt. microwavable bowl, add the butter, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. Microwave for 1 minute, and stir well. Return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir until mixture is smooth. (I didn’t need to give it any more time in the microwave, but if yours is still lumpy, just keep adding it back in for 30 seconds at a time until it’s smooth.) Stire in the vanilla.  Pour over the cereal and stir carefully until well-coated. Then pour the coated cereal into a large Ziploc bag. Add icing sugar and shake until well-coated. (I had to do this in two installments – my large Ziploc bags weren’t big enough to hold the whole go.) Pour out onto a large baking sheet lined with wax paper to cool. I put mine in the fridge, and discovered I love cold Muddy Buddies even MORE than I love regular Muddy Buddies!

This was seriously way too easy to make. And it’s way too addictive. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

Let me tell you the best part about homemade Muddy Buddies (or, at least, my homemade Muddy Buddies): the clumps. The peanutbutterychocolatey CLUMPS! See, I guess I wasn’t so crash-hot at stirring carefully to evenly coat the cereal. My bowl wasn’t really big enough, so it was a little tricky, and eventually I gave up stirring carefully. That resulted in some of the pieces of cereal not having much coating on them… and other pieces of cereal clumping together. Toss that shizz in icing sugar, and you end up with big delicious Muddy Buddy CLUMPS.

ohmyheavens.

I think next time I would purposely do the same thing, just to get the clumps.

I’ve googled more Muddy Buddy recipes, and next time I think I’m going to get more adventurous. There are literally a million different combinations of things to try. Candy bar pieces and pretzels and candy melts and canned icing and cookies and cake mixes…

Drooling. I’m drooling.

Now I just need to find an excuse for a special occasion to try them…  ;)