Puppy chow is iconic. I believe it has a place at every party in every season but I do see a lot more of it in the Christmas season. This may be due to the excess of get-togethers or the joy of holiday baking, either way I am not mad about it. Let me back up for anyone that doesn’t know what Puppy Chow is. It is a dessert made with chex cereal, covered in a melted mixture of chocolate and peanut butter and then before it can solidify, the covered cereal is placed in a bag or a bowl of powdered sugar and thoroughly coated. If you haven’t tried it, it is an absolute must and so easy to make.
I got excited when this recipe from ‘Cookies for days’ was suggested for me called Puppy Chow Fudge. It sounds like an amazing combination of two loved desserts and should absolutely be made for a holiday get together. I have had this recipe set aside waiting for the perfect time and I am excited to finally make this recipe and see if it’s worth the hype!
This recipe is super simple, which is my favorite kind. It has four ingredients and only uses the microwave and the fridge. In a bowl, combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and sweetened condensed milk. Then place it in the microwave for 30 second intervals, and stirring between each interval, until it is completely melted. For me this was between 3-4 increments, so about 2 minutes total in the microwave. The mixture came together nicely and started thickening up once fully combined. The next step is to place this recipe in a square 8×8 pan and refrigerate it for an hour.
However, I can’t believe this recipe doesn’t incorporate mixing in rice cereal. For me, pure fudge is alot and I think it is far better when it has a mix in such as nuts or cereal in this case. Puppy Chow is only four ingredients so to leave one of those ingredients out feels like this recipe isn’t complete. To make up for this tragedy, I separated my completed fudge mixture into two batches and mixed in crushed up chex cereal into half of it. I put the chex filled fudge in one 6×6 square pan and the original recipe fudge in another 6×6 square pan. We have to find out if the cereal is better or if there is a reason that the original recipe author left them out.
After an hour, the fudge was solid enough to cut. I pulled both squares of fudge out of the pans and cut them into 30 pieces. They cut really nicely and hardly stuck to the knife. Now, the final step is to put the fudge in a ziploc bag of powdered sugar and shake it until every piece of fudge is fully coated. They recommended doing a few pieces at a time but I put the full 30 pieces in at a time and I had no problems. The fudge looked great and each piece was thoroughly coated. Now it is time to taste test.
The Puppy Chow Fudge recipe was decent. I felt like the peanut butter flavor was too subtle and the powdered sugar added nothing. I felt like I was eating plain fudge, nothing wrong with that, I just expected more. Like regular fudge, it was so sweet and just too much, not something I find myself eating much of. The recipe with the chex mixed in was far superior. Imagine you’re eating puppy chow and you get a piece that has a huge clump of chocolate on it, that is basically this fudge. I eyeballed the amount of Chex I included and unfortunately it wasn’t enough. If you are wanting to try this recipe, definitely add more than you think it needs.
Just as I suspected, fudge with a mix in is better than plain fudge. However, if you want a plain fudge, omit the chocolate and check out this peanut butter fudge recipe, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Unfortunately, I do have to report on a sad fact. The next day, I found that the chex inside the fudge was soggy and no longer provided that same crunch. This was disappointing and it was less good without the crunch but still better than plain. If you plan to make this fudge recipe, make it on the day you plan to eat it.
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