Picking a treat to make this time around was a no-brainer because we are right in the middle of October--the month of all things pumpkin!
Now that I am a senior at The University of Georgia, I wanted to share with y'all something sentimental that really shows how my time here has come full circle.
Throughout my time at Georgia, I've gotten the chance to experience the deliciousness of what many of you know as "Muddy Buddies," or "White Trash," but what us dawgs call Puppy Chow!
I remember my orientation like it was yesterday. It was one of my first times on UGA's campus and my nerves were through the roof--I'm certain that if you stacked all my nerves and anxiety up, they would be as large as the campus itself! Once I met a few people my nerves quickly subsided and the excitement of actually being at college kicked in. I set up my class schedule and toured campus. I also took a spanish placement test, which ended up being a breeze because even though you weren't supposed to write on the test, the person before me did and did not do a great job of erasing their circled answers, so I used that as a personal guide. That may or may not be the reason I got placed in an extremely basic spanish class my first semester.
Anyway, next we were off to eat in one of the dining halls. I wasn't so much interested in the actual meals as I was in their dessert selection (obviously). So I ate whatever it is I ate and chatted with some new peeps until I decided to make my way over to the dessert station. There were the usual cookies, brownies, and various cake slices but aside from the typical spread, there was a larger than life sized bowl of what looked to me like sugar-coated chex mix. I quickly learned that it was "Puppy Chow" and it was DELICIOUS. It turned out to be some kind of chex cereal coated in melted milk chocolate with just enough peanut butter to complement the chocolate perfectly. It was then topped with powdered sugar to make this unique treat super messy but also super yummy. It was amazing to me how something so simple could be so amazing!
Luckily, they had baggies that I could fill up and take with me (phew!). I knew my dad would also have a field day with it so I made sure to pack more than enough for both of us. I was staying in the dorms that night, but when I went back I found that I did not have a roommate for orientation, and things got pretty boring, pretty fast--which is probably why I ended up eating the remainder of mine and my dad's Puppy Chow…poor guy.
Since then I've eaten Puppy Chow more times than I can count, and not once have I gotten tired of it. Between having it in the dining halls freshman year, enjoying Ms. Ada's for dessert when living in my sorority house sophomore year, having a handful or five after chapter dinners, and just making it here and there at home, it has become a normal part of my Athens life.
I've never really veered from the normal chocolate recipe, but I figured since it is October I should try something festive! That's why I chose to make a batch of Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow! Over the past month or so I have seen a fair amount of pictures of similar recipes, but didn't know exactly how I would go about making my own. Earlier this week I went to Target to get the basics for Puppy Chow and just so happened to find Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses! If you're mouth hasn't dropped to the ground yet, then you must not be human. I thought not only would I use this as the chocolate part of the recipe but it will work as the pumpkin flavor along with a little help from the pumpkin pie spices I picked up, too. The toughest task was actually figuring out which kind of cereal I wanted to use. Usually I go with the original Chex, but I wanted to try using a cinnamon flavored cereal with this particular recipe, so I chose Life cereal! Life's cinnamon cereal has the perfect amount of flavor and sweetness making it a long-time favorite of mine.
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| This kiss lost its BUMkin! |
Once I purchased all of my ingredients I headed back to my apartment where I made plenty of Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow for all of downtown Athens and made a mess of my kitchen along the way. This recipe was a hit among my roommates and friends…I could tell by their number of servings and the size of their eyeballs after just one bite!
As I was making my Puppy Chow, I took a stroll down memory lane--a lane that truly deserves a real life street sign here in Georgia. The summer before my freshman year, I can remember having a really hard time with the concept of going off to college, especially one that was four hours away from home. If you were around me that summer, then you can probably recall me either crying or having small panic attacks (or both) at the mention or thought of the word "college." And if you ask any of my friends, then they would probably tell you that none of us thought I'd make it much farther past first semester and we always laugh about that now! But here I am 4 years later, so close to graduating (fingers crossed…just kidding Mom and Dad!), and finding myself having small cryfests and minor panic attacks over the thought of leaving this place that I now call home.
I don't know exactly where I'm headed after graduation, but I do know that I'll always carry the recipes I've acquired, the memories I've made here and the happiness that accompanies them everywhere I go.
So, cheers to these past four years, Puppy Chow, and to always being a Dawg.
You'll find the rest of the ingredients and recipe below!
Happy baking and GO DAWGS!!
Ingredients for one batch of Puppy Chow:
2 10-ounce bags of Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses (you'll need a bag and a half for the recipe and the other half is for you to snack on!)
1 13-ounce box of original Life cereal (or Life's cinnamon flavor)
1 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar
Pumpkin pie spice (to taste and for topping)
- Fill a pot halfway full of water and set on stove over medium heat.
- Place sugar in a gallon size bag and set aside.
- While water is warming, unwrap the Hershey's kisses and place in large bowl (I used a metal one but a glass one would work great, too!)
- Set bowl on top of the pot. Stir with rubber spatula or large spoon until just melted.
- Remove from stove. Add half of the cereal and stir (be gentle as to not break the cereal too much). Add rest of the cereal and stir until cereal is well coated in chocolate.
- Pour mixture into the bag with sugar. Pour a couple teaspoons (or as much or as little as you would like) of pumpkin pie spices into bag, as well.
- Zip the plastic bag up without letting out too much air. Toss the bag around in efforts to evenly coat the cereal mixture in confectioners sugar and spices. Add more sugar if needed or wanted.
- Once you've mixed to your liking serve in a dish or out of the bag and enjoy!!
