Puppy Chow Haystacks are sweet and salty mounds of crunchy Chex, salted peanuts and Heath toffee bits held together by the most delicious peanut butter white chocolate coating and topped with flaky sea salt. If puppy chow and the white chocolate Reese’s Easter eggs had a baby, it would be this no-bake dessert. They come together in ten minutes and are easy enough for kids to help out with.
These Puppy Chow Haystacks came about when I was looking at the list of all the recipes that have won the Pillsbury Bake Off contest since 1949. For the year 2014 a picture of what looked to be a haystack caught my eye. The recipe was called “Peanut Pie Crust Clusters.” I was intrigued and pulled up the recipe. The clusters were made of tiny pieces of baked Pillsbury pie crust, peanuts and Heath toffee bits. That all got coated in melted peanut butter and white chocolate and formed into mounds, just like haystacks.
The more I looked at the pie crust pieces the more I thought, “well those just look like Chex.” That’s when it hit me that rice Chex could easily replace the pie crust! I also took it upon myself to add more peanut butter to the white chocolate chips and melt all that down with coconut oil instead of margarine. The final product was an insanely crunchy, sweet and salty no-bake treat that is absolutely addictive. Almost as addictive as my Pretzel Crisp Christmas Crack!
Puppy Chow Haystacks
Ingredients
- 11 oz white chocolate chips Ghirardelli
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 3 c Rice Chex cereal
- 1 1/2 c salted peanuts
- 2/3 c Heath toffee bits
- flaky salt
Instructions
- To a microwave safe bowl add white chocolate chips, peanut butter and coconut oil. Microwave for two minutes, stir and micrwave for thirty more seconds until everything is smooth and fully incorporated.
- To the melted chocolate and peanut butter add Chex, salted peanuts and Heath toffee bits. Fold everything together until evenly coated.
- Create 1/4-1/3 cup size mounds on parchment paper.
- Sprinkle with flaky salt and allow to harden for thirty minutes.