Pretzel & Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Snack Mix
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When it came to pretzels, while I had a mix of choices, the ones that worked best were my husband’s favorite Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels and a new favorite sweet snack I found recently, Snack Factory Dark Chocolate Drizzlers. These tasty pretzel crisps are drizzled with dark chocolate, and with their peanut butter counterparts, were the perfect touch of saltiness to this dense chocolate mix.
Along with pretzels, I added more volume and flavors to the mix with an assortment of all sorts of mini cookies; namely Nutter Butters, Chocolate Teddy Grahams, and Chips Ahoy. The Nutter Butters added another dash of peanut butter to the mix, with the other cookies adding the chocolate, leading to a great base for any peanut butter and chocolate fan!
When I was creating snack mixes for my Hangover Bags for my Zodiac Summer’s Eve Party, I knew that one of the snack mixes would be peanut butter cup themed, so with that inspiration I went to the store and came back not only with peanut butter and chocolate candies, but a variety of mini cookies and pretzels to try with it too! If it had chocolate, peanut butter, or pretzels in it and was in the candy or cookie aisles, it went into the cart for testing. After some tiny portioned test batches to taste, this sweet snack mix was born!
In the end it turned into a mix of peanut butter, pretzels, mini cookies and chocolate, all complemented by a sweet cereal snack base, Muddy Buddies! Muddy Buddies are a staple treat you can make with Chex cereal, peanut butter, chocolate chips and powdered sugar, making it a delicious base for lots of sweet snack mixes. I was introduced to it when I was young and they've always been a favorite snack for me, so they turned into the perfect base for this recipe. I use the recipe available on the Chex website, as well as on the back of the cereal box, for this snack mix, but you can also often find it pre-made in grocery stores too!
Finally, I had to add some chocolate in candy form because no peanut butter cup mix would be complete without actual peanut butter cups! Instead of the standard sized cups, I found these Mini Reese Cups that were perfect for the mix, with the added bonus of being unwrapped for easy use as well as being tiny and adorable! To go with my peanut butter cups, I wanted some straight milik chocolate candy choices which took the form of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Drops and M&M’s, but while looking for the latter I learned that there's a Peanut Butter and Chocolate M&M’s Pack now that has not only standard M&M’s, but peanut butter and peanut flavored M&M’s too! The mix of these three along with our bigger drops and cups gave the perfect candy combo for this snack mix, along with including a bunch of my personal favorites!
I loved this combination of Muddy Buddies, cookies, pretzels and candies; but even more so it was so fun to Create my own Sweet Snack Mixes based on my favorite treats, and I’d highly encourage you to try inventing your own too! As I invent more Sweet and Savory Snack Mixes for my parties, I will keep experimenting with my own favorite flavor combinations so, until you create your own, you’ll have plenty to choose from!
INGREDIENTS
BASE INGREDIENTS:
9 cups Muddy Buddies
COOKIES & OTHER MIX INS:
3 cups Chocolate Teddy Grahams
2 cups Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels
2 cups Mini Chips Ahoy
2 cups Mini Nutter Butters
3 cups Dark Chocolate Pretzel Drizzlers
CANDY MIX INS:
2 cups mixed Peanut, Peanut Butter and Regular M&Ms
2 cups Mini Reeses
1 cup Hershey Drops
PREPARATION
1. Prepare your Muddy Buddies according to the package directions, then add the Chocolate Teddy Grahams, Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels, Mini Chips Ahoy, Mini Nutter Butters, and Dark Chocolate Pretzel Drizzlers, tossing together in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, add the M&M’s, Mini Reeses, and Hershey Drops, mixing to combine. I divide the ingredients I’m using in my snack mixes based on size, generally into the base with its larger mix ins and the candy with its smaller mix-ins.
I always find the smaller candies and denser objects end up at the bottom of party bowls, making it difficult to distribute between favor bags or to be equally incorporated in a party bowl. If you are serving in a bowl, I recommend layering the mixes together but if you are planning on dividing it among favor bags, add each of the two mixes separately, so each guest gets all the parts of the mix.
IF SERVING IN A BOWL - Add ⅓ of the Muddy Buddy mixture to the bowl, then sprinkle ⅓ of the candy mixture over it. Repeat layering the Muddy Buddy and Candy layers twice more, then serve. Makes aprx. 21 cups
IF SERVING IN BAGS - For every favor bag (assuming your bag holds aprx. one cup of mix), add 3/4 cup of the muddy buddy mixture, then top with a scant ⅛ cup of the candy mixin mixture, shaking the bag to distribute it throughout, then close with a twist tie. Makes apex. 24 favor bags per recipe.
There are many ways you can package snack mixes, but for this set I love to use these Cellophane Bags from Wilton, with their size being just perfect for just under a cup of mix that can both give a good sized snack mix to each guest, but also easily make a couple dozen favors for each recipe. Other great packaging options for this mix include:
Cone Shaped Cellophane Bags: These don’t limit you to the amount of mix you want to give and can still be used with our cute Vellum Overlay Snack Mix Tags.
Kraft Tin Tie Window Bags: These rustic cuties come in a variety of sizes depending on how much mix you want to give each guest, being easily labelled with cute stickers like the ones from Evermine.
There are so many different packaging options out there, I encourage you to explore and find a unique one that works for you!.