Caramel Apple Puppy Chow

Memory works in mysterious ways. I have always been a person who associates a specific event or person or book with a food. While some of this might make sense, let's say associating waffles with Parks & Recreation. I mean it's not possible to watch more than two or three episodes of Parks & Rec without craving a waffle, am I right?! However, some of these associations are a little more ambiguous. For example, I associate Gilmore Girls with puppy chow. Puppy chow, muddy buddies, sweet minglers, whatever you call it. I don't make this link because Lorelai or Rory ever ate puppy chow or mentioned puppy chow ever in seven years of the show, but solely because I ate a whole batch of it while I watched the last episode of Gilmore Girls at the end of my freshman year of college. So when Gilmore Girls got added to Netflix, I started craving puppy chow. I restrained myself for a few weeks or maybe even a few months, but I finally caved and fell back in love with the crunchy, sickeningly sweet, totally addictive snack. If you haven't ever made it, you need to because it's simply & satisfying & combines three of my favorite things: chocolate, peanut butter, & breakfast cereal. Here's the Chex official recipe for basic puppy chow.


Once I knew that I was heading to the store solely to stock up on boxes of Chex cereal and towards that slippery snack slope, I started stumbling around the internet looking for variations on puppy chow. I found this recipe for caramel apple puppy chow from The Smart Kitchen Blog. I knew I had vegan butterscotch chips tucked away in my baking supplies and decided it was time to pull it out. If you haven't ever had the need for butterscotch chips before, the King David brand is vegan & can be found here. I modified her recipe a bit. Leaving out the coconut oil and adding peanut butter like classic puppy chow. This made the coating really thick and helped cut the cinnamon flavor on the cereal a tiny bit more. I am not entirely sure that this puppy chow is caramel apple flavored. But it's great, so don't question it and just go with it. I mean just look at the picture below. That bowl was all that was left in the morning after a movie spree. And I had to turn a few of those leaves over because I got powdered sugar on them picking pieces that "didn't look right" out of the bowl while I was snapping the pictures.



Caramel Apple Puppy Chow

1 box Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal
10 oz butterscotch chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar to coat

Pour your cereal into a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, melt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Add this mixture to the cereal and fold until covered. Allow cereal to cool for a few minutes. In a larger tupperware container or in gallon ziplock bags, combine the cereal and powdered sugar. Shake really well. Let totally cool and then try to not eat the whole batch in one sitting. It's easier if you aren't watching Gilmore Girls.