During elementary school, my mom occasionally picked up an extra girlfriend of mine to drive home. As a teacher at a different grade school in the next town over, her mother often couldn’t arrive right as our final bell rang, but she always beat my mom’s minivan back to her house in the afternoons. As a thank you, she often invited me to stay for a play date, and Mom usually agreed.
With a huge trampoline out back and an oversized play room scattered with Barbies, Legos, and board games, we rushed through our spelling and arithmetic homework before occupying ourselves for hours with tons of toys. All of that bouncing around outside and dressing up dolls in different outfits really worked up our appetites, and her mom supplied a wide variety of fruit gummies, cheddary goldfish, wheat thins, and teddy grahams in their kitchen pantry.
On a random Thursday, she surprised us by whipping up a batch of muddy buddies as we acted out fairy tales with the Barbies. She called us into the dining room, and slightly apprehensive, I warily eyed the bag. Muddy buddies? I thought. Did it involve actual mud??
(Other parts of the world refer to this snack as “puppy chow”… Now that would’ve confused me even more!)
My friend’s mom reassured me it was only cereal, chocolate, and powdered sugar, so I slipped my hand into the zip-topped bag, grabbed a tiny square, and popped it into my mouth. And picked another… And another… And another. Within 30 minutes, my friend, her two sisters, and I had completely polished off all 6 cups!
So when I recently experienced a strong craving for a chocolaty cereal snack, I decided to make a batch for myself. But if you’ve been around my blog for a while, you probably know that I have a habit of lightening up traditionally indulgent recipes. Of course I wanted to do the same thing with these!
The result? These Skinny Dark Chocolate Muddy Buddies! They taste just as sweet and chocolaty as the conventional ones, with the same irresistible soft powdery outside covering the crunchy cereal underneath. But my mix is surprisingly low fat, low calorie and completely guilt-free!
Traditional recipes call for chocolate chips, peanut butter, and regular butter too. They really pack a lot of fat into their snack! Before beginning my recipe testing, I decided to ditch both the regular butter and peanut butter for a nut-free version. (I planned on sharing some with my friends whose son really dislikes peanut butter, and I didn’t want him to feel left out!) With my work cut out for me, it took me multiple tries before I finally mastered my skinny muddy buddies, but I’m so proud of the results!
My healthier recipe differs from the traditional ones in 3 main ways:
1) Milk. I cut back on the amount of chocolate as well, so I needed something else to “bulk up” the mixture to ensure it’d completely coat 6 cups of cereal. With a little extra protein and no strong taste of its own, milk seemed like the perfect option.
You must heat the milk so it mixes completely with the chocolate. But before you begin warming up the milk, melt the chocolate. Chocolate chips contain a stabilizer that prevent them from melting as readily, so this little trick helps speed up the process!
2) Cornstarch. As I learned from my first batch, milk bulks up the melted chocolate a little too well! The milk and chocolate created a really thin liquid, which immediately turned the cereal soggy. To combat that, I added in cornstarch to help thicken the mixture.
However, you can’t add pure cornstarch to the warm milk. Instead, you’ll create a slurry with equal parts cornstarch and cold milk to help prevent lumps. You MUST stir constantly while adding the cornstarch slurry! As I learned with my second batch, if you stop stirring, you end up with a big congealed blog in the middle of your pot. So work those muscles and whisk!
3) Baking. Even with the cornstarch, the cereal was still a little too damp after being coated with the chocolate mixture. At that point, a light bulb went off in my head. When I make granola, the initial cereal mixture is really wet after stirring it with the sugary syrup, but baking the granola turns it crispy and crunchy… So I did that with the muddy buddies too!
Just like granola, you’ll bake the muddy buddies at 300°F and stir every 15 minutes to ensure the cereal crisps evenly and prevent the pieces in the corners from burning. Break up the large clumps as best you can. The larger the clumps, the bigger the chance that the cereal stuck on the inside stays soggy. For the crunchiest results, try to have no more than 2-4 pieces of cereal stuck together by the end of the baking time.
As soon as the muddy buddies are cool enough to touch—about 3-5 minutes after removing the pan from the oven—break up any remaining clumps. Try to make sure none of the cereal pieces are attached to any others!
Finally, the easiest part: the powdered sugar! Add it to a gallon-sized zip-top baggie, and pour in the warm broken-up cereal from the pan. Tightly seal the top and shake shake shake! until powdered sugar coats all of the chocolaty cereal. You should end up with about 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar left over in the bottom of the bag; just toss that out.
Sweet, chocolaty, and crunchy, my Skinny Dark Chocolate Muddy Buddies are just as irresistible as the classic recipe! Each little nibble takes you on a trip down memory lane, bringing back childhood images of munching on powdery handfuls straight out of the big messy zip-topped bag at the kitchen table while Mom scrubbed the melting pot in the sink. But with my healthier version, you can sneak an extra bite—or 10—without derailing your diet or worrying about your waistline!
So… Is it snack time yet?
Also known as Puppy Chow, this chocolate-coated cereal snack covered in powdered sugar is sweet, crunchy & irresistible! Although best if eaten the day it’s made, store any leftovers tightly sealed in an airtight container for up to 3 days. (It’ll keep longer than that, but it’ll start to lose its crunch.)
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat a 9”x13” baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the cereal to a large bowl, and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of milk until a slurry forms. Add the remaining milk to a small pot, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it begins to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, and slowly pour in the cornstarch slurry in a thin stream while stirring constantly. Continue to stir for 1 more minute until the mixture begins to thicken.
- Remove the pot from the heat, and add in the melted chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is mostly incorporated, then return to low heat and continue stirring for another 2 minutes until it reaches the consistency of thin pudding.
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal, and gently toss with a spatula until the cereal is coated. Pour into the prepared pan, and bake at 300°F for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until mostly crunchy. Cool for 3 minutes before breaking apart any clumps.
- While the cereal mixture bakes, add the powdered sugar to a large zip-topped bag. After breaking apart the cereal, immediately pour into the bag with the powdered sugar. Seal the top, and shake until all of the cereal is coated. Discard any remaining powdered sugar.
Notes: It’s REALLY important to constantly stir while adding the cornstarch slurry! If you stop stirring at all, you’ll end up with big congealed clumps in your milk and will need to start over.
You’ll have about 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar that’s left over, which is accounted for in the Nutrition Information.
You are brilliant! I love Muddy Buddies, but haven’t indulged in years because of the incredible calorie and fat count for such a small portion (who can stop at that small portion size anyway?). I feel like I might miss some of the peanut butter flavor, though. Do you think substituting PB2 for some of the powdered sugar would work?
Thanks Kelly! I’ve barely had any since eating my first batch as a 7-year-old for the same reason. If only I still had the metabolism I did back then! 😉 I think that’s a brilliant idea about using PB2 to replace some of the powdered sugar! Just make sure you mix them really well before adding the cereal since they both tend to clump. And don’t worry — I have a peanut butter version coming soon too!
That sounds like the perfect movie-watching snack. 🙂 I bet it would be even better with dark chocolate
Thanks! I could definitely get behind this instead of popcorn at movie theaters. 😉
Love this recipe, Amy! I am addicted to muddy buddies, so much so that I will make it just to give away and only eat a sample of it because it’s just that good. But with your skinny version, I think I can keep this all to myself! Beautiful pictures, too! Pinned!
Aww thank you so much Gayle! You should’ve seen my behind-the-scenes shoot… I got powdered sugar everywhere! Note to self: don’t wear black! 😉 Thanks for the pin too!
Amy, you are a genius! Leave it to you to find a devious way of healthify-ing Muddy Buddies! This is briliant! Pinning quick-quick so lots of other trampoline-jumping, Barbie-dressing kiddos out there can enjoy this snack, too! 😀
Thank you so much Shelley! If only I could still bounce around on a trampoline and eat muddy buddies all day instead of working… 😉
I don’t think I’ve ever had peanut butter free muddy buddies! I wouldn’t notice, not with all that chocolate and powdered sugar 🙂 And a whole cup of milk? This is practically breakfast food! Love that you baked it to give it that granola crunch. With any other recipe, I would think you’d be sick of it after three batches … but you can never have too many muddy buddies!
Thank you so much Mary Frances! That’s what I remembered about muddy buddies: the PB flavor gets buried beneath the other flavors. So… I want to give PB a chance to shine in a future batch! 😉 Oh, breakfast food… If only I still had the fast metabolism of my childhood; I wish I could do that!!
Ooh I love your recipe idea! I’m definitely going to try that. I also have tried making these using sugar free pudding mix as a sub for the powdered sugar!
Thanks Erin; I really hope you like it! 🙂 I actually tried the sugar-free pudding mix substitution for one of the batches too, but it tasted a little too vanilla-y for me. (I love my chocolate too much!) Great minds must think alike!
Ahh I know what you mean!! You should check out Swerve! They actually make a powdered sugar using erythritol! It’s kind of pricey but great fo use every now and then 🙂 I have to get it online but some Whoke Foods carries it!
Thanks so much for the tip Erin! I’ll definitely take a look at the Whole Foods we have in town. Their price tags usually make me do double-takes, but the goodies I’ve found are almost always worth it. 😉
It is most certainly snack time! I love this recipe and all your notes about the reasons. LOVE!
Thank you so much Dorothy! I couldn’t have done it without you. 🙂
These look delicious Amy – I love snacking on cereal and these look like the perfect solution to my cereal cravings without all the added sugar of most store bought cereals!! Pinned 😀
Thanks for the pin Ceara! I’m a big cereal snacker too. I go through phases, but I usually save the “sugary” cereals as a semi-dessert. On a good day, at least! 😉
Love this Amy! I can throw down muddy buddies like nobody’s business. I always just clench my eyes shut and pretend that peanut butter and chocolate are calorie free. Good idea with the baking, I will have to experiment with that idea. You’re a genius!
Thanks Karen! If chocolate and PB were calorie free, that would be heaven. I love them both so much — it’s basically impossible to practice moderation! 😉 I’d love to hear how the baking goes for you if you try them!
I love this skinny version of chocolate muddy buddies!! The perfect excuse to eat all of it myself! Hehe! 😉 And such gorgeous pics! Pinned!
Thank you so much Jocelyn; you’re the sweetest! 🙂 (And even more so for commenting on blogs during the conference — I’m so impressed! And I really hope I bump into you tomorrow!!)