White Chocolate and Cranberry Puppy Chow

It’s getting close to the big day and you probably have so many things to do, other than make elaborate festive sweet treats.

So this recipe is a no-bake, quick and easy one. It is also highly addictive. I recently took some along to our Christmas buffet and folk couldn’t get enough of the stuff – I hadn’t laced it with anything – honest! It was just really that tasty.

I have made puppy chow before and if you remember, IT IS NOT FOR DOGS! It has chocolate, which is not good for our canine friends. But it's called puppy chow, I suppose because of the way it looks. It can also be called muddy buddies or monkey munch too. 

I decided to make a ‘Christmassy’ version for the office ‘do’ as I was short on time and knew this really took no time at all. The flavour combo of cranberries and white chocolate seems quite festive to me and so, this is basically malted wheat cereal, white chocolate and dried cranberries. I added some yuletide sprinkles too, but that is of course, entirely optional. Here’s how I made it…

Ingredients:

300 grams malted wheat cereal (such as mini Shreddies)

200 grams white chocolate, melted

150 grams dried cranberries

100 grams icing sugar

Christmas Sprinkles (optional)

Method:

Melt the white chocolate either in the microwave, or by my preferred method, a bain marie (in a bowl over a pot of simmering water).

Once melted add the cereal to the bowl and stir so the cereal is coated with all of the chocolate. Add the berries and stir these through too.

Transfer the cereal, berry, choc mix to a large plastic container which has it’s own lid. Add the icing sugar (and two to three tablespoons of sprinkles, if you wish) to the top of the mix and place the lid on top, tightly. Now shake the box vigourously – like you are trying to tone up those bingo wings. Let it sit for a minute then remove the lid.

On a baking sheet, lined with greaseproof paper, pour out the contents of the box and place into the fridge for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate has set.

And there you have white chocolate and cranberry puppy chow.  It's crunchy, chocolaty and chewy. I put mine in little treat bowls for people and they kept topping up, until it was gone.

Perfect as a fast and easy Christmas snack everyone will love – enjoy!