Think about that again: Muddy Buddies!
Yeah, that’s a happy thought.
I remember having these in school when I was a kid at birthday parties and every once in a while when I was over at a friend’s house, but never realizing they were a thing you could just make. I thought they were some secretive, highly guarded snack/dessert hybrid of the gods that we got only when we were on our best behavior — like an off-season Santa Claus kind of deal. (I don’t know why I thought this.)
I was in my twenties when I figured out that wasn’t true (which is a long time to live life under that false impression, but for a good chunk of that time — I’d wager about half? — I had totally forgotten that they existed, so it’s not like I was constantly plotting to get my hands on some and wound up stymied at every turn).
So once every few years, when I remember they exist again, I make Muddy Buddies. Because even though they’re not something I’d want to have regularly, they’re still delicious and the snack-slash-dessert category is my third favorite food category.
The recipe is available at chex.com (for some reason, there are several of them, depending on your Chex flavor preference, I guess. I just like Muddy Buddies that are Muddy Buddy flavored). I made them earlier today and took notes:
- Super simple: don’t measure anything. I don’t know how many cups of Chex are in a box, especially after I accidentally ate a bowl (with milk and a spoon, you know, the way adults eat cereal), but life is short, you don’t have time to measure cereal that you can just pour from the box into the mixing bowl. The recipe calls for 9 cups of cereal, which is an odd — unusual — number, so I assume that’s exactly one box. A cup of chips, some peanut butter, then a bit of vanilla. Really, it’s not rocket science, eyeball it. How much peanut butter do you think you’d like to eat? Then, add powdered sugar until it looks like the ones you used to get in elementary school, then add a little more because who’s gonna stop you, and you’re done!
- I forgot butter. Crap! It wasn’t until I was listing all the ingredients I used above (from memory) that I realized that when I was combining the ingredients in the bowl (from memory), I skipped the butter. It was only a quarter cup, so I doubt I’ll miss it? Plus, I think I can now say I made a healthy version of these. Win-win.
- For the mixing bowl, use one with high edges (like the PC Stainless Steel Mixing bowls — I used the largest one, just to be sure!). These little suckers fly when you’re stirring them.
- Melting the chocolate and peanut butter (and regular butter, I supposed, if I had remembered it): 2:00 in the microwave first, but it still seemed like it needed a bit more, so I put it in for 45 seconds. I didn’t think that was too long, but it did start to burn a little, so next time, I’d say 2:00, then like 15 second increments after that if it needs it. Maybe including the butter will help liquify everything, too, and 2:00 will be plenty.