Peppermint Puppy Chow

I have a confession to make. I've been slacking on posting in December because I keep making the same things over and over again. I bookmark new, exciting holiday recipes...and then I remember how easy some of my favorites are, and I opt to make those instead (ahem, saltine toffee). I'm not sure where everyone else finds the time to bake so much in December. It's a crazy month between work and holiday festivities. Thankfully I'll be taking all next week off to return back to NC, and I will therefore be baking up a storm for all of the holiday events back home. The challenge will be posting every red and green, holiday-themed recipe in the limited time before Christmas. Then we will all switch back to disliking the red and green color combination until November 2014.

Thankfully, my baking tendencies have rubbed off on Brooke (my roommate), who, for better or for worse, now bakes a good amount as well. She even introduced me to the peanut butter fudge I've been obsessed with this past month. I like to think it's a positive thing that she bakes now, but I'm sure she has mixed feelings about finding herself scanning baking blogs and coming home from the grocery store with bags of chocolate chips and butter instead of normal items.

Because I've been stuck in my rut of remaking all of my favorites this past month, I took some pictures of this delicious peppermint puppy chow Brooke made last night. She also made two batches of the saltine toffee. So, I guess I have no excuse not to make saltine toffee and something new. I love puppy chow, and it's a very easy thing to make a large batch to put in bowls at holiday parties and such. It's also incredibly addictive, but diets don't start until January, right? (Forewarning: I don't make New Year's resolutions, so I apologize in advance for ignoring all common courtesies around not posting unhealthy things in January.) The candy canes give the puppy chow an added crunch, and she used the red and green striped ones to jazz them up a bit---a perfect holiday dessert!

Enjoy!

Peppermint Puppy Chow

Ingredients

6 cups Rice Chex cereal

2 cups white chocolate melts or white chocolate chips melted

1 1/2 cup crushed candy canes

1 cup powdered sugar

*Use something that is meant to be melted and used for candy, most white chocolate chips don't melt down thin enough.

Directions

1. Place Chex in a large bowl

2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (if in microwave, do it in 30 second intervals - white chocolate burns easily).

3. Once chocolate is melted, pour over cereal and carefully stir to blend.

4. Put chocolate covered Chex in a large plastic bag (I use a clean trash bag...if this doesn't bother you it works like a charm.)

5. Add confectioners sugar and crushed candy canes.

6. Shake bag, making sure to focus on breaking up any clumps you can feel. As you do this, the powered sugar will help pull the white chocolate away from the sides of the bag. The end goal is to have all pieces thoroughly covered.

7. Let cool and enjoy!