Life
12 Ways To Eat Puppy Chow, AKA The World's Most Perfect Snack
Call it puppy chow or muddy buddies, sweet minglers or delicious mix — I simply call it perfection. Passing around a bowl full of Chex Mix has become something of a holiday tradition over the years (or at least, so the commercials would have us believe), but there's something even more enchanting about a bowl full of cereal pieces that have been given the all-star treatment and doused in melted chocolate. Bring on the gooey peanut butter and the generous sprinkling of powdered sugar — we know exactly what we're thankful for this year.
But wait, there's more. Add in lemon zest or pumpkin spice, switch out your regular chocolate for decadent mocha, or keep things simple with just a dash of cinnamon. These 12 puppy chow recipes aren't exactly what you remember from when you were a kid, but that's OK, because they're even better.
Classic Muddy Buddies
First up, we have the tried-and-true classic. Brown Eyed Baker doesn’t mess with perfection as she whips up this timeless recipe, mixing in chocolate and peanut butter for a snack that takes less than 15 minutes to make. But while it’s important to master the basics, I say it’s time we had a little more fun…
Image: Brown Eyed Baker
S'mores Snack Mix
Cookies and Cups mixes one childhood favorite with another for a killer combo that will leave you feeling positively giddy. Melted chocolate chips and marshmallow bits are all you need to give your puppy chow the s’mores treatment. And if you want to swap out Chex for Teddy Grahams, we won’t tell.
Image: Cookies and Cups
White Chocolate Vanilla Peanut Butter
Forget chocolate chips. You know what else pairs beautifully with peanut butter? White chocolate. Averie Cooks lightens up her recipe just enough to pique our interest, and then blows us away with this incredible mixture of flavors. A hint of vanilla pulls it all together.
Image: Averie Cooks
Thin Mint
Girl Scout cookie season comes early thanks to Your Cup of Cake. The best part? You don’t even need to have Thin Mints on hand to make this recipe work (though it certainly doesn’t hurt). Mint melts or minty M&Ms make an astonishingly satisfactory substitution.
Image: Your Cup of Cake
Chocolate Caramel Apple
Your eyes don’t deceive you — those are actual pieces of Milky Way bars and caramel cubes peeking out from a mountain of Apple Cinnamon Chex coated in chocolate brownie mix. Need a minute to take it all in? Yeah, us too. Your Cup of Cake nails it with this recipe.
Image: Your Cup of Cake
Cinnamon
It may not look as flashy as, say, a certain chocolate caramel apple monstrosity we just encountered, but this cinnamon puppy chow by Damn Delicious can definitely play in the big leagues. Melted cinnamon chips and a few tablespoons of confectioners sugar do just the trick.
Image: Damn Delicious
Peppermint Oreo
How is this different than Thin Mint puppy chow, you ask? I’ll counter that with a question of my own: who cares? Deliciously Yum has the perfect recipe, AKA your new favorite holiday snack.
Image: Deliciously Yum
Pumpkin Spice
We live in a world where pumpkin spice anything is possible — and this puppy chow mix by Radical Possibility is something you definitely don’t want to miss. Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter takes the place of chocolate, and, well, let’s just say there are no words to describe the magic that comes next…
Image: Radical Possibility
Pumpkin Spice with Chocolate
Your Cup of Cake makes her pumpkin spice puppy chow with pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses, and then throws in handfuls of M&Ms and Reese’s Pieces for good measure. Nice move.
Image: Your Cup of Cake
Mocha Cappuccino
Inside BruCrew Life’s mocha cappuccino puppy chow is sure to give you an extra sweet boost no matter what time of day it is. It kind of makes your morning latte look like child’s play, am I right?
Image: Inside BruCrew Life
Lemon
Lemon buddies? Yes, they’re a thing, and they taste just as good as they sound. Simply Scratch adds fresh lemon zest and lemon juice to white chocolate chips to create this seriously good snack.
Image: Simply Scratch
Popcorn Puppy Chow
What do you do if you don’t have any Chex at home? You take a deep breath, and then you get creative. What Katie’s Baking tried popcorn as an alternative, and it’s one kitchen experiment that definitely paid off.
Image: Katie/Flickr
