Saturday, December 19, 2009

Christmas Crack

Edit from Dec. 2012:
Hey to everyone who is here from Pinterest! The flurry of activity is overwhelming!! Trust me when I tell you that this easy snack is a favorite, always requested at gatherings, and teachers get excited when they get my kids because they know they are guaranteed a bag. If you try something new/different from the "recipe" I shared here, won't you please post it in the comments? That way we can all find great flavor combos we love!! Thanks so much - Megan M.

I've been Tweeting it.

I've been Facebooking it.

I've been craving it.

The Christmas Crack.



Now, you all will have to forgive my pictures, because I haven't yet won MckMama's giveaway, and I don't have a fabulous DSLR camera (Although, I really love my Point and Shoot.) so you are getting what I've got. K?

So, Christmas Crack. We tried to call it Christmas Crunch as the kids were getting older, and repeated things more regularly, and I could just hear it now. Trying to explain to someone at the school that, no we weren't really making crack in the kitchen, and yes, we put it into little baggies and shared it with our friends and family, but it was just a snack mix! But it's super addictive, and try as we might, the Christmas Crack name has just stuck. So, I'm just rolling with it. It'll be alright. And maybe I can use it as evidence when we go to trial.

We make a TON of this stuff every year, it becomes part of our teacher gifts, and shows up at meetings at work, and goes to every holiday celebration, and sits around the house (usually for 24 hours or less.) Here's how it goes!

Ingredients:
(All measurements are approximate. I encourage you to double, triple or even quadruple this recipe. And get creative! I've used craisins, white chocolate chips, etc in this. It's pretty hard to mess it up!)

1 c "Toasted Oat Cereal" - you know. Cheerios.
3 c Chex cereals, any combination. (I use one each of Rice, Corn and Wheat, but you can totally mix it up. I was out of Wheat when mixing this batch up, so I used 2 Rice and 1 Corn.)
1 c Peanuts
1 c Pretzel Sticks
16 oz Vanilla/White Candy Bark
1 c Candy Coated Chocolate - you know. M & M's. (I like both plain and peanut.)
1 c Chocolate Chips

Put your chocolate chips in the freezer.

In a large mixing bowl, add the cereals,



The peanuts and pretzels,



And toss gently to combine.

Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl (or double-boiler, if that's how you roll, but I nuke it.) melt the candy coating. In my microwave, I do this one minute at a time until soft and smooth. Usually just takes two.


Now, I tend to use another bowl, and split my cereal mix in half - I think it helps to more evenly coat when I can do it in smaller bunches. Gently fold the candy coating into the cereal mix (try not to crush the cereal!) until  well coated.
  

See- I just keep adding cereal mix and candy coating until all of both are in there.

Next, I stir in the M & M's and the (now chilled) chocolate chips. If you forgot to chill the chips, let the candy bark cool just a bit before you stir them in. Otherwise, they melt and smear all through your pretty white Christmas Crack.
 

Pour the whole mess out onto a foil, waxed paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheet (or just on the cookie sheet is fine, too, I just like not having to clean up that one more thing!)




Let it cool and then, share the love. If you want to. Sometimes, I don't.



Let me know what variations you try! We LOVE this stuff (Literally going through dozens of boxes of cereal each season making it!) and love mixing it up. Peanut butter chips? Butterscotch chips? Mmmm....

22 comments:

  1. I have seen this year after year at holiday parties, but I've never seen the recipe! Woo hoo! I think I should become a "crack" addict :)

    ~Elizabeth
    http://confessionsfromaworkingmom.blogspot.com

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  2. That would be good with butterscotch chips. I think the kids would love this stuff. I may have to try it out.

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  3. Yum!! I think I might have to try this but I am a little worried I might eat it all!

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  4. Thanks for sharing this recipe! This looks great! Yummy!

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  5. That looks gooood! Thanks for sharing. Maybe we can fit this in between making cookies and hot cocoa.

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  6. Okay, had to post again - I showed your post to my kids. Aaron about went wild! He is my food lover (sweets, especially) and he is this big 14 yr. old that is so excited about Christmas every year - it's so fun! This may be a new Bixler tradition - Christmas Crack! :)

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  7. Wow! That's a lot of crack! LOL

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  8. This looks like something my boys would love to make and eat :o) Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!!

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  9. The pretzel death grip was a nice shot. :)

    I am totally giving up my coffee meth and going for crack!

    Thanks for sharing~

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  10. yes I made it and loved it thanks for the recipe. My grand kids loved making it and then the best eating it. I also loved the picture or your little ones at the top. Boy are they growing. Tell them all Helen sends them my love and miss them.

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  11. Great idea! I love the name;) We'll be making it this weekend I think- my husband's family tradition is homemade Chex mix, and we have eaten enormous amounts of that since Thanksgiving...so something sweeter will be a nice change;)

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  12. One word: YUM! I've heard of this, but never made it. Guess I should try it before I start my crack-down!

    Tamara
    www.theunexperiencedmom.com

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  13. Try it with some Cocoa Puff cereal added in... you will have to adjust the other cereal quantities. :)

    Happy Holidays!

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  14. We make a variation of this every year too! I use golden grahams for the cereal, dry roasted peanuts, chocolate chips, some kind of pretzel (tried ritz pretzel rounds last year and it was great), and mini marshmallows all drenched in white candy bark. YUM!!

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  15. rice krispies work well instead or in addition to cherrio's. Want to try it with some crushed candy canes, but wasn't sure if it might be too many flavors. Any thoughts?

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  16. I think it could carry the flavor of candy cane fine, if you avoid the peanuts! I would probably do the candy cane in a very fine crush, almost to a dust, just to avoid any large pieces. This is a good "munchie" sort of sweet, so hard candies could impede that. Let me know how it goes if you try it out!!

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  17. Hi Megan! This sounds great! I have had this with lightly crushed "Bugles" chips also...it turned out so good. I am going to try your recipe this season!

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  18. I love this recipe and all variations of it! My favorite included popcorn as a base (including the chex cereal) and small pieces of pretzels. So good!

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  19. I just made some with blueberry craisins, coconut, reeses chips, mini m&ms, omit the pretzels and everything else was the same. Its really yummy!!!

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  20. Gonna do mine with what I have in the house, although I did make a trip to the store for almond bark.. lol. Gonna use craisins, coconut, whatever I have for chocolate/cinammon/butterscotch chips, and m&m's. Maybe I'll put some popcorn in too....but we'll see. I can't wait to make this!

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  21. Love the fact I never have done drug's... But once I try to make this should I look into a cerial crack killer? Your picture look great too.

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  22. I am going to try this today, I have become addicted to the cranberry granola mixes so I am going to try adding some of that in my mix and used the pretzel m&m's.....hope I do not mess it up.

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