Sometimes you need a break from the craziness of this modern age, which is why we're celebrating nostalgic foods this week at BonAppetit.com.
This is not a dog food recipe, so if you came for homemade kibble, we're sorry. This is the snack mix that fueled the school day sugar benders of your childhood. This is the only Halloween treat you were happy about getting in a Ziploc bag. This is an excuse to eat powdered sugar and peanut butter at the same time. This is puppy chow, the snack mix where, for once, M&M's aren't the most sought-after ingredient.
Whoever invented puppy chow was clearly a visionary. Some might even say a genius. Not just anyone could unlock the true potential of Rice Chex and peanut butter. It took a real innovator to melt chocolate, butter, salt, and peanut butter together, dump it on some cereal, cover every square inch, and throw it in the fridge. The result was a mind-blowing version of what Chex could be. Nutty, sweet, salty, and creamy, these nuggets of pure indulgence are paramount to all other flavor combinations. The inventor was probably a well-intentioned mother who would never sell the purity of puppy chow for personal gain, but it could have just as easily been invented in a government lab. Neither would be a surprise.
Photo by Heidi's Bridge, styling by Anna Billingskog
And the powdered sugar? There's a reason it looks so delicately applied and pristinely white. It's all about technique. After you sprinkle the first few hits of powdered sugar in the bowl, you spread your coated Rice Chex on a baking tray to avoid big soggy clumps of cereal. If we were to stop here, the sugar would look muddy and gray. We don't want that. The last two coats of sugar are key: a sprinkling over the baking tray and a final coat when pulled from the fridge and served.
Besides making it look magical, the powdered sugar is the true adrenaline booster. Professional athletes shouldn't be messing around with steroids, they should just be eating puppy chow. It brings back the sound and the fury of heated games of recess freeze tag, which had no real reason for being as fun as it was.
But we decided to take puppy chow a step further. Excess chocolate? More peanuts? Pretzels? Why the hell not? It's the American way. This snack mix was built to inspire piñata carnage and sack race rivalries in a time before "healthy snacks" were even a thing. We're going to continue the tradition. Carrots and hummus don't come with M&M's.
Looking back, it now seems obvious why that one kid Ryan, who was a bit quicker than everyone else, always won in freeze tag. He was smuggling a bag of performance-enhancing puppy chow in his pocket the entire time. And if we could find Ryan today, powdered sugar residue would still be found on his fingers because he never gave up puppy chow. He's still winning.
Get your sneakers tied tight. Here's the recipe:
Sifting the powdered sugar may seem a bit fussy, but it’s the key to getting an even, not clumpy coating of sugar on each and every piece.
