Two months ago, when Ashley and I met for the first time at Panera, I convinced her to come to the annual BlogHer Conference, explaining that at least four other ladies from our area planned on going too, so there’d be lots of friendly faces to hang out with. She agreed, and shortly after, we decided to be roommates. (Even with BlogHer’s discount, California hotels can be expensive!)
Early Thursday afternoon last week, Ashley and Karen knocked on my door, and we loaded my bags into the trunk of Karen’s car. As I settled into the backseat and Ashley offered us gum, it almost felt like the “girlfriends college road trip” I never took, even though I barely knew these two ladies in real life!
When our two-hour drive ended in the parking garage, we checked in at the front desk and maneuvered our bags into the elevator to ride up to the ninth floor. After dropping off our lugging and taking a selfie (always required at a blogging conference!), we set off to meet the other Northern California ladies for dinner and wandering around the Expo.
When we flopped onto our beds after our long evening out, Ashley and I started chatting about the free samples, blog post brainstorms, Pinterest, photography, and almost every other blogging topic that came to mind. Although not exactly the cute clothes and boy crush topics of our teenage years, it still felt like a slumber party, just without the nagging mothers and sugary snacks!
To fix that, I made a batch of this Skinny Peanut Butter Muddy Buddies as soon as I got home. Also called “Puppy Chow,” this sweet snack mix is perfect for sleepovers or after school munchies! With its lightly nutty taste and soft powdered sugar coating, these crunchy cereal squares are practically irresistible. Thank goodness they’re naturally gluten-free and contain almost 50% less fat than regular muddy buddy recipes!
Compared to the typical muddy buddy recipe, mine differs in 3 ways…
Milk. To cut down on fat and calories, I reduced the amount of chocolate and peanut butter, but I still needed more liquid to fully coat the rice chex cereal. I opted for skim milk because it’s fat-free, low-calorie, and snuck in extra protein too!
Cornstarch. Now let’s think about this… Adding milk to cereal and letting it sit results in a rather soggy breakfast. The same thing would happen to our muddy buddies unless we thickened the milk, and that’s where the cornstarch comes in! It helps create an almost pudding-like consistency, which coats the cereal a little better and doesn’t soak in as much.
Baking. Even with the cornstarch in the milk, the cereal still gets a little too moist. If we popped the coated cereal straight into the bag of powdered sugar, it’d be about as chewy as a soft granola bar—not the crunchy texture muddy buddies are known for!
So for these healthier ones, we’ll bake the muddy buddies low and slow to get rid of that soggy texture. It’s the same concept as granola: you put the pan of syrup-coated oats into the oven, stir every once in a while, and end up with crunchy clusters. By baking our muddy buddies, they get that totally addictive crisp texture too!
I used half white chocolate and half peanut butter since chocolate helps a little bit more with the crunchiness. The resulting peanut butter flavor is slightly more subtle, not quite so in-your-face. I haven’t tried it, but you could probably skip the white chocolate and replace it with peanut butter instead for a more pronounced flavor. Just remember that the Nutrition Information will change!
Sweet and crunchy, these Skinny Peanut Butter Muddy Buddies won’t stand a chance in your kitchen! With their familiar nutty flavor and soft sugary coating, they’ll practically disappear right before your eyes as your kids dart in and out during their play dates and slumber parties. Unless you don’t have any little ones running around, in which case…
Better give half of it away to avoid going through the entire bag in one sitting!
If you like this recipe, then be sure to follow my Healthy Baking board on Pinterest!
Also known as Puppy Chow, this peanut butter-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, stir together the melted chocolate and peanut butter. In a separate 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 peanut butter mixture. Stir until the peanut butter 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 50-60 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.
Try to break up large clumps of cereal after each baking interval. If there are more than 3 pieces of cereal stuck together, the cereal pieces will stay chewy instead of turning crunchy.
You’ll have about 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar that’s left over, which is accounted for in the Nutrition Information.
Seriously, I’d eat the whole bag!!
Please do — it’d save me from eating it all in one sitting! 😉
Too fun! Someone was asking me the best way to promote your blog and after fumbling through FB and Pinterest and social media, I realized, it is all about community and making friends … no amount of good posts will make up for not “meeting” other people 🙂 You gals rocked that selfie (I was impressed with your set up!) and you rocked these muddy buddies! The only thing that makes chocolate better is peanut butter … and the only thing that makes muddy buddies better is skinny! I love me some mint gum, but I may have to try carrying this around in my purse! 😉
It’s true Mary Frances — good content will go far on social media, but that’s just fleeting fame. It’s those friendships we make with each other that stick around, and it’s just an awesome side effect that they help us promote our blogs. 🙂 Ohmygosh, will you take this off my hands to carry in your purse?? It’s dangerous for me to keep around… My guy hates PB, so I’m the only one eating it!
Blog Her sounds like so much fun! One of these days I would LOVE to meet all you lovely ladies! I’m only a few hours away. I hope to go to Blog Her one day too! I’ve made these before but never this way. Thanks for the great idea!! Making them healthier is probably a good idea since they are so easy to eat SO much of.
So true Julia, muddy buddies are one of those magically disappearing snacks. I swear I didn’t eat the whole bag — where did they go? 😉 What part of the country are you in? I’d love to meet someday!
I live in central California! Merced to be exact. You’re in the Sacramento area, right?
Yes I am! Originally from the Bay Area, but currently near Sacramento. Let me know if you ever travel up north so we can meet up! 🙂
Yes, definitely! 🙂
🙂