Chocolate Chip Cookies Nutella Puppy Chow Recipe

Whether Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow, these Chex cereal sweet treats just got a lot better.

easy cookie recipes, desserts, and baking fun things

Joanne Adirim

Founder & Executive Pastry Chef

APR 25, 2022

For 25 years, Joanne has served as the Founder and Executive Pastry Chef at Hannahmax Baking. Known for her best in class reputation, Joanne and her baking company have crafted gourmet desserts for fine dining establishments, coffee cafes, hotels, & grocery companies across North America. In 2022, she launched the Cookie Chips® Baking Mix, a cookie mix that's shaking up home baking with its bakery quality results. In From The Pastry Kitchen, she shares her industry earned expertise with the home baking community.

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Some call them Puppy Chow, others call them Muddy Buddies, Monkey Munch, or Reindeer Chow. Whatever you call them, the puppy chow recipe has been around since easy cookie recipes were a thing.

We’ve read that it’s been made by the home baker since the 1960’s, but the folks at General Mills who own Chex cereal say it was officially developed in 2002. Who knows. There’s not even a lot written on the Wikipedia page other than the ingredients that traditionally go into this delicious snack mix recipe.

I dug into it a bit and discovered that Puppy Chow traces its roots to the Midwest, first becoming a staple at local parties. As a Floridian growing up in Miami (East Coast), and later living many years in Los Angeles (West Coast), I was never introduced to this traditional Midwest treat. It just wasn’t something people were making at parties, or offering in any foodie circle I was exposed to.

Muddy Buddies without peanut butter. We made these sweet treats as a Nutella recipe. See the post on Instagram.

If you don't already know, "Muddy Buddies" is the name of the Puppy Chow recipe from the Chex cereal company. The traditional recipe calls for peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar. Here at the Cookie Chips® test kitchen, we wanted to put the concept to the test with our crunchy chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are made from our Cookie Chips® baking mix. Will our puppy chow recipe be just as crunchy and yummy as the Chex cereal recipe? It's actually better. So let’s just say we improved upon these sweet treats. This is a dessert recipe worth the recipe file. It’s really fun to make. A bit messy, but worth the finger licking.

Puppy Chow Muddies Buddies with a light sprinkling of cocoa and powdered sugar.

Our recipe is a bit less traditional than the original. We're making muddy buddies without peanut butter, substituting with Nutella. Even though this is a Nutella recipe through in through, we still added extra cocoa powder with the powdered sugar to kick up the chocolatey flavor. This combination is out of this world, so delicious.

Make your puppy chow recipe (or Muddy Buddies) with any of our cookie mix flavors. We made ours with the crunchy chocolate chip cookies. Keep your Muddy Buddies Cookie Chips® in a resealable bag on the counter. We love to keep them in the refrigerator. It gives an extra crunch appeal.

Nutella Puppy Chow Recipe with Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, we're adding MORE chocolate to the Nutella coating.

Blend your chocolate chip cookies (or whatever flavor you're using) with the chocolatey Nutella spread.

The final step is to cover your muddy buddies cookies with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Puppy Chow Recipe Ingredients

• Cocoa powder, sifted - ½ cup.

• Powdered sugar, sifted - ½ cup, + more for dusting over.

• Semi-sweet or dark chocolate , chopped - 1 cup.

• Nutella® - ½ cup.

• Unsalted butter - 2 tbsp or 1 oz.

• Kosher salt - ½ tsp.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Ingredients

• Cookie Chips® Baking Mix, any flavor - 1 bag or 5 cups baked. (Make the cookies very small.)

To Make

1. Place Cookie Chips® in a large bowl. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. Add a gallon size Ziploc bag.

3. Place chopped chocolate, butter, and Nutella® in a microwave safe bowl. Heat 30 sec at a time until chocolate and butter are melted. Blend well.

4. Pour mixture over Cookie Chips® and blend well until all cookies are fully coated. It’s okay if some of the cookies break up. The small pieces are yummy.

5. Transfer coated cookies to a Ziploc bag with cocoa/powdered sugar and seal well. Shake well until cookies are fully coated.

6. Spread cookies on a lined baking sheet and dust over with more powdered sugar. Allow to sit at room temperature or refrigerate to fully set up.

Keep stored in an airtight container or Ziploc bag at room temperature for up to 3 days or refrigerate for longer. These are best the day they are made.

This is a puppy chow recipe like no other. If you've tried chex mix muddy buddies, you'll absolutely love these. Gooey, chocolatey, and topped with powdered sugar. YUM!

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