Scarecrow Crunch - funny girl food

Scarecrow Crunch with Pumpkin Spice -Peanut Caramel Corn & Cookie Butter Muddy Buddies

Ladies and gents, I present to you the ultimate Autumn party mix! It’s sweet, it’s salty. It’s nostalgic and festive! It’s got candy corn, cute little pumpkins, chocolatey rolos, salty pretzels, and two very special homemade ingredients: Pumpkin Spice-Peanut Caramel Corn and Cookie Butter Muddy Buddies. Both are crazy good! The best thing about mixes like this is you can really make it your own. Add as little or as much of one of the ingredients as you’d like.

The recipe for the caramel corn was adapted from Bunny’s Warm Oven. Making your own caramel corn might sound kinda daunting, but I promise it’s very straightforward and actually quite simple. I’ve made it so many times! The muddy buddies are as fun to make as they are to eat! I add just a touch of ground ginger to warm them up and give you all the fall feels.

The popcorn and the muddy buddies also make great homemade presents. I like to portion them out into cellophane bags and tie them with pretty ribbon.

Ingredients:

Cookie Butter Muddy Buddies:

6 + 1/3 cup rice Chex cereal

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup white chocolate chip

1/2 Teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coating:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 gallon size Ziploc bags

Pumpkin Spice-Peanut Caramel Corn:

4 quarts popped salted popcorn

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maple extract (you can just add extra vanilla if you don’t have it, or can’t find it)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter, unsalted

1/2 cup light corn syrup

Waxed paper

Add ins:

Candy Corn

Candy Pumpkins

Pretzels (gf or regular)

Rolos

Instructions:

Muddy Buddies:

1. Place the Chex into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2. Mix the ingredients for the coating together in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Over a double boiler melt the butter, cookie butter, and white chocolate. When melted and combined stir in the ginger and cinnamon.

4. Pour the melted cookie butter mixture a little at a time over the Chex mix. It will be thick. Very gently mix the Chex mix, adding more cookie butter until all is used and the Chex mix is coated evenly. I like to very lightly massage handfuls of the Chex in between my hands so each gets covered.

5. Pour about two tablespoons of the coating mixture into the bottom of each Ziploc bag. Divide the coated Chex between the two Ziploc bags and cover with the rest of the powdered sugar. Gently shake and turn the bag until all the Chex mix are thoroughly coated.

6. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper and lay the muddy buddies out in each. Allow to air dry for a few hours. Store in airtight container in a cool, dry place for 2-3 days.

Pumpkin Spice-Caramel Corn:

1. Divide the peanuts and popped popcorn on to 2 greased sheet pans (I used butter). Set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring enough to combine. Once the mixture begins to boil, boil it for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.

3. After 5 minutes, remove from the heat, and stir in the baking soda, pumpkin spice the extracts until thoroughly combined. The mixture will get light and foamy. Immediately, and as evenly as you can, pour over the popcorn and peanuts and stir to coat.

4. Place the pans in the oven and cook for a total of 45 minutes, stirring and mixing the popcorn and peanuts about every 15 minutes until they’re are coated in the caramel evenly. Line the counter top with waxed paper.

5. Remove the caramel corn from the oven and dump it corn out onto the waxed paper. Separate the larger pieces. Allow to cool completely, then store in airtight containers or resealable bags.

Assembling the mix:

Combine all the ingredients for the mix together except the muddy buddies. I like to pour the mix into a bowl in layers and disperse the muddy buddies in-between layers of the crunch mix. It just helps to keep the powdered sugar a little more contained and the presentation neater.

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