Santa Hat Party Mix Twist Up

It’s always great to make a holiday mix, both for entertaining and for giving as gifts. I came across a really cute one on the boards recently that included little Santa hats and decided to give it a try. The photo on Pinterest looks like this:

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I changed up a few things. Instead of Rice Chex, I used Golden Grahams cereal, and instead of using dry roasted peanuts, I substituted peanut M&Ms.

I wasn’t sure how many Bugles or candy melts to begin with, so I got two bags of red candy melts and put them into the microwave with two tablespoons of shortening, but I think one and a half bags would have sufficed, because I ended up with a bit leftover.

Next, I took two cups of Bugles and dipped them individually into the melted chocolate. This was a bit time-consuming and messy. You have to be careful not to break any Bugles. I used two forks to maneuver and remove them. Cookies and Cups used the caramel-flavored Bugles, which would have been awesome, but I couldn’t find any of those. The regular ones worked fine though.

Then I laid the Bugles out on a piece of waxed paper to set. I used Wilton candy melts, and they harden very quickly.

Next, I dipped the ends back into the melted chocolate, and then into the nonpareils.

And once they had hardened, I added the marshmallows to the tops.

In a large bowl, I put two cups of Golden Grahams and three cups of Christmas-shaped pretzels. The white chocolate was mixed separately and drizzled over the top of the pretzels and cereal, along with 1/3 cup of confectioners sugar.

I stirred this around until everything was lightly covered with chocolate, and then laid the whole mix out on wax paper to harden.

 

 

 

After it was set, I put it back into the bowl and mixed in the craisins, M&M’s and Peanut M&M’s.

The result was delicious and really cute. We ate a little here, and then packed up the rest to give away!