Muddy Buddy (Puppy Chow) Marshmallow Cereal Treats
Do teenagers still write notes, or exchange notes during school? Or has texting and social media totally replaced that? This has nothing to do with the recipe, but we were on our way home from the grocery store over the weekend when a John Cougar Mellencamp song came on the radio. His music (among countless others) always reminds us of high school, and suddenly we found myself down a rabbit hole thinking about high school… and we thought about passing notes. Sometimes our girlfriends and we sneakily passed them during class, but more often than not, one of us would write something, then pass it off between periods… during the next class we would respond, then pass it back, etc. And being 14 and getting a handwritten note from a guy? The absolute ultimate, am we right?
Enough about our high school note-writing days… let’s talk about this outrageous recipe!
If you have teenagers, or kids of any age, we think they’d go bananas for this recipe (whether they write notes or not). We think you’ll like it, too :) we actually went into our pantry last week with the intention of making a knock-off of some Girl Scout cookies, and came out with all of the ingredients to make Muddy Buddies, plus some marshmallows. When we made our first batch of Muddy Buddies last fall, we polished off the entire thing myself in an embarrassingly short amount of time. We love Rice Krispie treats, and had made a s’mores version with Golden Grahams before, so we decided that a Muddy Buddy version with Rice Chex should be equally fabulous.
Fabulous, it was! These bars taste like ooey, soft-centered, marshmallow-y Muddy Buddy snacks. Chocolate, peanut butter, Rice Chex, marshmallows, and even a dusting of powdered sugar on top for good measure.
Whip up a batch of these and share them with your kid, and tell them about the good ol’ days when no one had cell phones and we had to handwrite notes to each other to communicate during the day. Bonding time!
One year ago: Blueberry Cheesecake Pie
Two years ago: From-scratch Choco-Bliss Snack Cakes
Three years ago: Oil and Vinegar Coleslaw and From-scratch Primanti Bros. Sandwich
- Yield: 24 treats
- Prep: 15 minutes
- Total: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup ( 180 g ) semisweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup ( 129 g ) creamy peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons salted butter
- 9½ cups ( 712.5 g ) miniature marshmallows
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 7 cups ( 189 g ) Rice Chex cereal
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Method
- Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish and set aside.
- Combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until completely melted and smooth.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the marshmallows. Continue stirring until the marshmallows are all melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and cereal, stirring to evenly coat. Immediately turn the mixture into the prepared pan, pressing it into an even layer.
- Dust the top with powdered sugar and allow to set at room temperature, at least 30 minutes. Cut into bars and serve. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
