Cookie Monster Puppy Chow

Ingredients You’ll Need

• 9 cups (about 280 g) Rice Chex cereal
• 12 oz (340 g) blue candy melts
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (180 g) powdered sugar
• 1 cup (about 100 g) chocolate sandwich cookie chunks, from about 10 cookies
• 1 cup mini chocolate chip cookies, or 5 to 6 regular chocolate chip cookies broken into chunks
• 1/4 cup candy eyeballs

How to make Cookie Monster puppy chow

1. Step 1.

   Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the cereal into a very large bowl. Break the sandwich cookies into rough chunks.

2. Step 2.

   Place the candy melts and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat at 50% power in 30-second bursts, stirring after each, until smooth, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

3. Step 3.

   Pour the blue coating over the cereal. Fold gently with a large spatula, scraping the bottom of the bowl, until every piece is coated. Avoid stirring hard, which breaks the cereal.

4. Step 4.

   Put half the powdered sugar in a 2-gallon zip-top bag. Add half the coated cereal, seal the bag with plenty of air inside and shake until the pieces are well coated and dry to the touch. Pour onto the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining sugar and cereal.

5. Step 5.

   Let the mix dry for 10 to 15 minutes, until no pieces feel tacky.

6. Step 6.

   Transfer to a serving bowl and toss gently with the cookie chunks and mini cookies. Scatter the candy eyeballs over the top just before serving.

Why this version leaves out the peanut butter

Classic puppy chow is chocolate and peanut butter, melted together and shaken in powdered sugar. That works because the brown base disappears under the sugar. Blue is another matter: peanut butter is yellow-brown and tints blue candy melts toward a duller, greener shade, which is a step away from Cookie Monster blue. Blue candy melts and a little butter coat the cereal on their own, keep the color bright and make the mix safe to serve to guests who avoid peanuts. If you want a peanut butter flavor, stir 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter into the melts and accept a softer, duller blue.

Candy melts, not white chocolate

Blue candy melts are a ready-colored coating with vegetable fat in place of cocoa butter, which is why they melt thinly and set firm without tempering. White chocolate can be tinted blue, but only with oil-based or powder food coloring, since water-based coloring makes it seize into a stiff, grainy mass, and it also melts more thickly and scorches more easily. Candy melts are the simpler path to a color that stays bright after the powdered sugar goes on.

Use 50 percent power and stir often. Overheated candy melts turn thick and clumpy, and adding the butter early thins the coating enough to spread over the cereal in a layer light enough that the pieces stay crisp.

Coating without crushing

Rice Chex are thin and break easily. Fold the cereal with a large spatula rather than a spoon, and use a bowl much bigger than you think you need so you can lift from the bottom without squashing pieces. Work while the coating is still fluid; if it starts to firm up, 10 to 15 seconds in the microwave loosens it.

The bag shake

Shaking in a bag coats each piece evenly and keeps the powdered sugar from flying around the kitchen. Divide the batch in two, since a bag crowded with 9 cups of cereal cannot move. Leave plenty of air in the bag and shake side to side. Spreading the mix out afterward lets the coating firm up; clumps pressed together in a bowl stay sticky inside.

Cookies stay crisp for about a day

The cookie chunks soften as they sit among the cereal and absorb moisture from the air. For the crispest result, mix them in within an hour of serving. If you make the puppy chow a day ahead, keep the cookies and eyeballs separate and stir them in at the end.

Serving and storing

This is a good fit for a party table in a big bowl with a scoop, or packed into small treat bags with a tie. Stored in an airtight container at cool room temperature, the cereal part keeps for up to 5 days. Keep it away from heat, since the coating softens and clumps. Cookies added in will soften within a day.

Variations

Ombre blue: melt half the candy melts in a lighter blue and half in a deeper blue, coating half the cereal with each, for a two-tone mix.

No cookies: skip the cookie pieces and use blue and white sprinkles with the eyeballs for a longer-keeping version.