Have fun this holiday season by making a big batch of Holiday Puppy Chow! This colorful Christmas treat is easy to make with white chocolate and rice cereal.
Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow? The name is up to you. Try this Peppermint Puppy Chow for your holiday festivities next!
Why this Recipe is Best
The kids will enjoy making this recipe almost as much as they love eating it. This recipe gives Classic Puppy Chow a festive holiday twist!
- White chocolate puppy chow with only 4 ingredients!
- Festive and east no-bake holiday treat
- An easy recipe the kids can make!
Ingredient Notes
- Rice Cereal. Chex squares are the traditional choice, but any rice squares you like will do.
- White Chocolate Chips. I use Ghirardelli white chocolate melting wafers for this recipe. Vanilla almond bark or your other favorite white melting wafers are a great choice too.
- Powdered sugar. Also called confectioner’s sugar, this extra fine sugar helps the chocolate and food coloring adhere to the rice cereal squares.
- Food coloring. Red and green gel coloring works best for treats with fun seasonal colors!
Tips and Tricks
- Divide the melted white chocolate. Add red food coloring to one half. Stir the green food gel coloring into the other half.
- Best colors for holiday puppy chow. Mix half the cereal into the red white chocolate and the remaining half into the green chocolate. Once coated, toss the two colors of cereal together for best mixture of colors!
- Storing: Store holiday puppy chow in a sealed container at room temperature. Enjoy within 5 days.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, muddy buddies and puppy chow are names for the same deliciously easy treat! This homemade Christmas candies goes by many names, each as sweet and delicious as the next.
This recipe simply outlines my very method for making colorful Christmas puppy chow for the holidays!
Holiday Puppy Chow is a perfect make ahead treat to freeze. Thaw it at room temperature or eat it straight from the freezer for an extra crunchy Christmas snack.
You can use white chocolate chips but the texture on the finished puppy chow won’t be as smooth. I much prefer the consistency and flavor of vanilla or white chocolate melting wafers.
Store puppy chow (muddy buddies) in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
More Holiday Desserts
- Candy Cane Fudge
- Grinch Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Crock Pot Candy
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Peppermint Cheesecakes
Holiday Snacks
See all Appetizers recipes
Holiday Puppy Chow
Ingredients
- 12 cup rice squares cereal
- 16 ounce white chocolate melted (I use Ghirardelli melting wafers)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- Red and Green gel food coloring
Instructions
- In two large bowls, add 6 cups of the cereal. Set aside.
- In a glass, microwave safe bowl, melt vanilla wafers (or almond bark) according to package directions.
- Pour half into a separate bowl. Add red gel food coloring to one and green gel food coloring to the other. Pour one color over each bowl of cereal, mixing until combined.
- In a large plastic resealable bag, add powdered sugar. Add contents of bowl to bag. Seal and shake until powdered sugar covers all the cereal.
- Store puppy chow in airtight container for up to 5 days. ENJOY!
Notes
- Divide the melted white chocolate. Add red food coloring to one half. Stir the green food gel coloring into the other half.
- Best colors for holiday puppy chow. Mix half the cereal into the red white chocolate and the remaining half into the green chocolate. Once coated, toss the two colors of cereal together for best mixture of colors!
- Storing: Store holiday puppy chow in a sealed container at room temperature. Enjoy within 5 days.
Nutrition
Bring extra cheer to the party with a batch of homemade Holiday Puppy Chow. Everyone loves this easy Christmas candy, especially when it’s red, green and full of festive cheer!
Same here. Put in zip lock bag. Good first day. After that soft. Not good. Not sure what else to do to keep it crunchy
Same problem! Great right after I made it, but too soft/soggy the next day. Had to throw it all out.
I tried this holiday puppy chow, and it was good right after I made it, but now even a couple of hours later, it is soggy. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
I’m sorry for the confusion, it’s 1/4 cup of each color for 12oz vanilla bark!
Okay. I tried making these. Epic fail. I went to the grocery store and they were out of almond bark. The clerk said Wilton candy melts would work the same so I used them. I don’t know if that is why this didn’t work or what but everything globbed onto the rice chex and did not look at all like the picture. They were not pretty like in the picture and were so sweet you couldn’t even eat them and I like things sweet. This was a big waste of good money on ingredients. Luckily I made a small amount as a trial and so was able to use the rest of the frosting on sugar cookies.
I personally don’t think Wilton Candy Melts taste good (they are quite waxy). Sorry you had troubles and couldn’t find the almond bark!
I ruined a whole batch of the Holiday PuppyChow ingredients” Do NOT use the frosting. Only use the melted white chocolate chips with food coloring. If you use the frosting, it won’t melt right. Not sure how the frosting got included in the recipe.
I’m not sure what I did wrong here. But this did not work out for me at all. In fact it basically looked curdled and a layer of oil rose to the top after heating was done. I tried it twice just to make sure and I got the same result. Anyone else have this happen?
Yes the same daft thing just happened to me!! I was hoping someone else in the comments would have had the same problem and someone else would know the answer!! I was making the. For my kids classes tomorrow but I don’t guess it’ll happen!
Not sure how the word daft got into my comment, oops!!
Wow making these TODAY!
What a great idea! These will work perfect for adding to decorated mason jars for Christmas gifts.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe! I was sure that the red & green color was just coming from food coloring, what a neat surprise to see that it’s yummy Pilsbury Frosting! You have a lovely page here, I look forward to digging in and discovering more 🙂
Oh, my favorite holiday treat would probably be a peppermint martini…drinks counts as treats, right?!
Drink’s definitely count as dessert 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Kim!
homefudge and peppermint bark! can’t decide!
Peppermint bark.
I love cookies, but the only time of year I make gingerbread cookies is at Christmas, so I’d say they’re my favorite holiday treat.
Monkey bread on Christmas morning!
My favorite is homemade fudge.
Spritz cookies shaped like wreaths. They are pretty and delicious. Also, my mom’s pizzelles.
My favorite holiday treat is Meringue cookies, especially ones with chocolate chips in them.
Chocolate Pizza is favorite family treat at Christmas (or any time they can convince me to make it).
Chocolate candy base-with rice krispies, nuts, mini marshmallows, red and green cherries, coconut and white chocolate
we’re making chow for a fundraise, this would be a great addition!
I do love a big bowl of Puppy Chow!!! This is so fun with the red and green!!!