Caramel Christmas Treat Mix!

Before Thanksgiving, our PTA put on a big ‘Ladies Night Bingo’ event. Tables and tables of moms came with snacks and drinks to play lots of rounds of bingo and win fun prizes. The grand prize for the last game of blackout bingo was $250! I have never won bingo in my life (and that streak still stands!) but I had a great time catching up with other moms at my table in Eli’s preschool class. One of the mamas brought this amazing Caramel Cinnamon Chex mix which really might have been the best part of the night. I had to consciously keep stopping myself from grabbing more.

I begged her for the recipe for the chex mix and decided to make it a little more festive for the this time of year with caramel holiday m&ms and chocolate dipped ‘Santa hats’. This is the perfect treat to bring to holiday get togethers or to make for your family to enjoy with a cozy Christmas movie! I made this for my Advent small group study last week and went home with a completely empty bowl. 😉

It’s easy enough to make on a weeknight and my kids loved helping mix the Chex mix together and dipping the Santa hats!

Make this soon! It’s seriously yummy.

For the Chex mix – adapted from Six Sister’s Stuff

You need:

9 cups of Chex cereal

1 cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup light corn syrup (spray the measuring cup with cooking spray before you put in the corn syrup so it doesn’t get stuck!)

1 cup of sugar

3 tsp. of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Measure cereal into a large bowl.  Over medium heat, heat brown sugar, butter and corn syrup until the mixture comes to a boil. Let it boil for one minute while stirring constantly, then remove from heat.  Add to the bowl of cereal and gently mix well until the cereal is coated.

Combine sugar and cinnamon. Pour half of it over the cereal and mix well.

Pour the cereal onto a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle the rest of the sugar/cinnamon on top. Bake for 5 mins then flip and bake for another 3.  Remove from the oven and let cool. Then break apart and mix with the rest of the ingredients!

For the Santa Hats

You need:

Bugels

Wilton red candy melts (OR White chocolate + red GEL food coloring)

mini marshmallows

Melt the candy/chocolate. Dip 25-30 bugels with a fork into your chocolate and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper or parchment paper. (It would not be a problem if more bugels than this were made. 😉 This was everyone’s favorite part of the mix!)

Place bugels in the fridge for 10 mins to let set. Once set, remelt the chocolate if necessary and dip just the tops of the bugels into the chocolate. Place a mini marshmallow on the end.  Let dry!

Mix together Caramel Cinnamon Chex Mix, a 10 oz bag of holiday caramel m&ms and your Santa hats! Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

You better pull some out for your family because if you take this anywhere, I bet you come home with an empty bowl too!