Make Ahead

Toffee Chex Party Mix

December  5, 2011
5
2 Ratings
  • Makes 9 - 10 cups (aka: a lot, but never quite enough)
Author Notes

Chex Party Mix was hands down my favorite snack when I was a teenager, but I haven't had it in years. Over the Thanksgiving holidays, a neighbor joined one of our dinner parties and brought a Chex Mix that was a balance of sweet and salty that I could have skipped dinner for and eaten all night. This is my version of it. Warning: This is addictive. —TheWimpyVegetarian

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 4 1/2 cups corn chex cereal
  • 3 cups of popped pop corn
  • 2 cups pretzels (I used gluten-free pretzels to make this a gluten-free snack)
  • 1 cup salted pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
  • 1 cup sunflower kernels
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 250 F and place a baking sheet in the oven to warm it up.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the corn chex, pop corn, pretzels, pepitas and sunflower kernels. Toss gently with your hands, being careful not to break up the popcorn or chex cereal.
  3. In a small, heavy pot, combine the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium heat until the butter and brown sugar melt into a syrup. Simmer for about 1 minute to make sure the brown sugar is completely dissolved into a liquid form. This is your toffee, which will start to solidify very quickly as it cools.
  4. Remove the warmed baking sheet from the oven and pour the toffee onto it. IMMEDIATELY pour the chex-popcorn mix evenly over it and gently toss with a large spatula to coat the chex mix as well as possible. Tip: I recommend a hard spatula similar to what you might use to flip pancakes. Scrape the spatula along the bottom of the baking sheet, under the chex mix and flip it over so that you're flipping the chex mix along with the toffee over dry chex mix, allowing the toffee to drip down to coat the mix.
  5. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, making sure to turn the chex mix over every 15 minutes to continue to coat as much of the mix as possible. It will be impossible to completely coat everything, nor do you want to unless you want a snack that's more sweet than salty, but a little a little of the toffee should be on everything. If you're using unsalted popcorn, sprinkle additional salt on the mixture when you toss it every 15 minutes.
  6. Remove from the oven and break up any large clumps. If you wait until it cools, you won't be able to do this without breaking the chex, pretzels and popcorn.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • EmilyC
    EmilyC
  • hardlikearmour
    hardlikearmour
  • inpatskitchen
    inpatskitchen
  • TheWimpyVegetarian
    TheWimpyVegetarian

8 Reviews

mbzr February 9, 2020
After being chided (in good fun) for bringing a healthy snack for a Super Bowl party, I settled on this Chex Mix for the 2020 Super Bowl. It was a big hit, however, everyone agreed the pepitas were not the right texture for the mix. Perhaps it was the brand I purchased, but next time I make this (and there will be a next time) I will try substituting roasted almonds for the roasted pepitas. Pepitas aside, this is as delicious and addictive as mentioned in other reviews.
 
mbzr December 20, 2020
I have tried this twice since my initial review, once with almonds and once with peanuts (in place of pepitas). Peanuts won, hands down.
 
SharonM. October 31, 2019
Great Chex mix! Made it for work.They always ask for it now.
 
EmilyC June 19, 2013
Wow, this is right up my alley! Sounds addictive!
 
hardlikearmour December 6, 2011
This sounds highly addictive! Gorgeous photo, too!
 
TheWimpyVegetarian December 6, 2011
Thanks HLA!!! Definitely addictive.
 
inpatskitchen December 5, 2011
I love it!! A little sweet a little salty and so "upgraded"! Thanks for sharing...
 
TheWimpyVegetarian December 6, 2011
Thanks IPK!! Perfect little snack to have around the house!