I was looking for some interesting snacks to have at a happy hour with folks. Somehow Betty Crocker knew. At the time i didn’t have banana chips in the house, but i put it in the back of my head. Finally i remembered to bring home banana chips and we were in business.
The task breakup in the house includes all things chex mix are in the hubby’s domain. aka – stirring on a sheet pan is not something I enjoy and I definitely make a giant mess!
I asked him to do me the favor of the heavy lifting for this recipe!
I randomly didn’t actually have all the ingredients for the recipe – go figure.
- I swapped out a cardamom pod for ground cardamom (i figured if i let it sit in the butter and honey it would infuse…)
- I don’t like almonds in sweet snacks… so i skipped it and decided to add a cup of cashews i had in the house instead.
- I didnt have ground orange peel.. i wan’t sure what that might add, but as i haven’t needed or used it in my many years of cooking i decided i didn’t need to go buy some either.
- We have only plain cheerios in the house, so we used those.
Basically this is Wilker version! We use margarine for butter as butter seems to separate and margarine stays together a bit better for chex mix things. We use the microwave for the melting portion.
If you want to follow the original recipe, check it out here!
Chai Crunch (sweet chex mix)
Ingredients
- 3 cups Corn Chex™ cereal
- 3 cups Wheat Chex™ cereal
- 3 cups Cheerios™ cereal
- 1 cups cashews
- 1 1/2 cup dried banana chips (broken)
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon instant nonfat dry milk or original-flavor nondairy creamer,
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- (Optional) 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- (Optional) 1/2 teaspoon dried orange peel
Instructions
- Heat oven to 300°F. In ungreased large roasting pan, mix cereals, cashews and banana chips.
- In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, melt the margarine in the microwave (the melt function works great!)
- Stir in honey, dry milk, cardamom (if using), ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orange peel (if using) and vanilla until well mixed.
- Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly coated.
- Bake 45 to 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until golden brown.
- Spread on waxed paper a silpat;
- cool about 15 minutes.
- Store in airtight container.
Verdict:
I love this snack. Probably a little too much.
I upped the banana chip amount when i posted here, just needed more and definitely break them up so you get more of that spread around.
If you make this, let me know what you think, what ingredients you change or keep the same !
