Sunday 4 November 2012

How to make Shred's Mix

This recipe is based on an American recipe, called Chex Mix, which keeps popping up all over my Pinterest feed, so I thought I ought to investigate.  Chex is a cereal, which apparently is pretty similar to our Shreddies.  Hence the name, although if someone can think of another, more suitable one, I'm happy to adopt it.  Just thought it rolled off the tongue better than Malty-wheaty-crunchy-chocolatey-marshmallowy-syrupy-salty-mix. 

I was making this recipe with my daughters, so decided we'd go for melted chocolate rather than the hot caramel sauce I'd seen in a few Chex Mix recipes.  However, this option does sound rather yummy, so I'm sure I'll revisit that recipe to try it too in time.  Shall we get on with the recipe now??

Ingredients:
400g cereal (Shreddies, or similar- we used a supermarket own brand Malt Wheats)
100g light brown sugar
100g baking margarine or butter
100g golden syrup
80g mini marshmallows
200g milk chocolate
80g milk chocolate chips
80g white chocolate chips
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

What to do:
1. Put the cereal in a large bowl.

Shreddies- in case anyone wasn't sure......
 
2. Put the light brown sugar, margarine (or butter), golden syrup and milk chocolate into a saucepan and heat gently until it has melted and thoroughly mixed together.
 
3. Pour this mixture over the cereal and mix until the cereal is coated.
 
4. Straight away add the mini marshmallows.  If you leave it too long, the mixture will have started to set and the marshmallows won't stick.
 
5. Spread the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.  We actually used two and spread them out, but you could manage with one, and just have the mixture set thicker than we did.
 
6. Melt the milk chocolate chips and the white chocolate chips in separate bowls or tea cups, by giving them a 30 second blast in the microwave, and stirring, then popping in for another 30 seconds.  **And here is my top tip** If the chocolate seems too thick to drizzle, add a touch of vegetable oil and mix it in.  Keep adding a tiny bit until the chocolate runs off the spoon.
Then drizzle the milk choclate and white chocolate over the top of the mixture.  I did have a photograph of my little ones demonstrating this, but the camera appears not to have played the game.  New camera this weekend- what can I say, I'm not too great with technology but I'll keep trying.....
 
I know- doesn't look very pretty, but it does taste pretty good...
 
 
7. Sprinkle the coarse sea salt over the top.  Now, this will be trial and error for you, depending on what you like.  I think the addition of the salt really adds to the taste, my other half thinks it would be better without.  I think if you were going to use a caramel recipe rather than the chocolate one it would be even better.  Let me know what you think.
 
8. Leave it to set or, if you can't wait like we couldn't, pop it in the fridge, then break it up into pieces, and have a taste.  It would be best stored in an airtight container, but I shouldn't think you'll have to store it for very long, if you catch my drift ;0)