"The delicious taste of fluffernutter (peanut butter + marshmallow) wrapped around crunchy Chex cereal. It's the perfect snack food in just 15 minutes!"
Have you ever heard of fluffernutter cookies, fluffernutter brownies, fluffernutter muffins, or any other type of finger-food dessert that’s secure enough in its masculinity to go by the name fluffernutter?
I’d never heard of it up until two days ago because, you see, I made a huge batch of homemade marshmallow fluff last week with the intention of making a really elaborate cake. And oh, I put everything I had into making this cake, because it was going to be The Next Big Thing for this blog. We’re talking huge. It was going to be my hall of fame cake for months and months to come.
But it wasn’t until I was decoratively flicking on the last bit of chocolate ganache topping on this cake that I accepted the cold, hard truth: this cake was awful.
And why was that, you may ask? Plenty of reasons. The cake baked too moist and flat, the filling was so slippery that it caused the top layer of the cake to constantly slide, my caramel frosting was tinted with a thousand chocolate cake crumbs that were flaking off the too-moist cake – just to name a few. In short, I tried to achieve a Pinterest win and ended up with a leaning tower of sugary Pinterest fail on my dining room table.
Because, yes, the cake also slid off my cake stand and splattered onto the table.
The whole event was a huge waste of time, and if I’m being honest, the only good thing that came from it was that homemade marshmallow fluff.
But despite the cake fiasco, I was still determined to find a way to write a post that included marshmallow fluff this week. Primarily because I said I was going to, secondly because I am as stubborn as my red hair would lead you to believe (and refuse to admit defeat), and thirdly because I have six cups of the fluff I need to get rid of. Well, actually, I guess it’s 5 cups now if you count all of my “taste testing.”
Seriously though, you guys, this stuff is delicious. Sometimes I wonder if desserts just get in my way.
I could just dive right in this and be happy.
However, I still wanted to actually make something, and when faced with this dilemma, I did what I always do in when I’m in need inspiration: I did a quick search on Pinterest to see what would come up.
And sure enough, one of the first results was for fluffernutter cookies. After I giggled like a 12-year-old for a few minutes (because, that name…) I read a few recipes to get a feel for the ingredients and I immediately thought one thing: this would be perfect. Only I wasn’t actually thinking about making cookies, or brownies, or anything else I saw come up in the Pinterest search results.
I was going to make puppy chow!
You see, last week I also made mock Baby Ruth bars, and in that post I talked about how I had butterscotch on hand because I originally planned to use it for another recipe. That other recipe (that I still hope to make one day) was for scotcheroos, and scotcheroos use Chex cereal, so I already had some on hand. When last weeks’ recipe for Baby Ruth bars was made, I burned through my stockpile of butterscotch, so I no longer had an immediate use for the Chex… until I started to bridge the gaps and realized I could make something totally different instead. Like, say, fluffernutter puppy chow.
YES. That’s pretty much all I can think when I look at that picture.
Fluffernutter Puppy Chow hits all the bases for the perfect snack food: it’s crunchy, sweet, a little salty, peanut-buttery, and marshmallowy. The batter works out to be very thick, and while that means that not every piece of puppy chow will be a perfect chex-sized snack, it also means that the “ugly” pieces have an extra chunk of fluffernutter goodness attached. Which is totally fine with me.
You only see the “pretty” pieces in these photos because I had already eaten all the ugly ones behind the scenes.
And another, final perk? When I was finished with this recipe there were a lot of small crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, like pieces of fluffernutter batter that had crumbled off and balled up in the powdered sugar. I saved them and plan on using them for cookie or cupcake topping – that is, if I actually bake any more this week. My house is already overflowing with sweets thanks to my last few recipes for this blog. We’ll have to see how The Boyfriend and I are faring against “too much of a good thing” by the end of the week. I may just have to go crazy and make a salad to to spice things up.
Fluffernutter Puppy Chow
Ingredients
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup peanut butter creamy
- 1 cup marshmallow fluff such as this homemade recipe
- 3 cup Chex Cereal
- 4 cup powdered sugar plus more to taste
Instructions
- In a medium microwave safe bowl, heat white chocolate chips and butter for 1 minute. Remove from microwave, stir, and heat for another 30 seconds. Stir ingredients again until chips have melted and butter is absorbed into the melted white chocolate. Mixture will be a little thick - this is okay.
- Add creamy peanut butter and marshmallow fluff to the bowl with white chocolate, then mix thoroughly. Fluffernutter batter will be thick and oily but should stir freely. If needed, heat bowl in the microwave for another 15-30 seconds to loosen up the batter.
- In a large mixing bowl, pour in fluffernutter batter and Chex Mix ceral. Using a spatula, gently fold the cereal into the batter, pulling the batter from the bottom and sides up and over top of the cereal. Continue to stir until pieces of cereal begin to break off on their own (be patient, it will happen!)
- Pour powdered sugar in the mixing bowl and use a spatula to stir and coat cereal. Use the thin edge of the spatula to separate any large clumps of cereal that are not breaking apart on their own. If desired, add more powdered sugar for a sweeter taste.
- Allow fluffernutter puppy chow to cool for 1 hour, then store in an airtight container. Note: There will likely be small fluffernutter crumbles in the bottom of the bowl when finished. You can save these and use them as a candy topping for cakes, cupcakes, popcorn, etc. Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to two weeks.