New Year’s Munch Mix (White Trash Chex Snack Mix)

Who doesn’t love a delicious snack mix? Salty and sweet are the best kind. This year I wanted to make a fun festive munch mix for new years eve. This New Years Munch Mix is super easy to make… and it’s fun. Your kids will love to help you make it … and eat it too I’m sure!

The best part of this recipe is you can follow it exactly as I have it, or you can add or takeaway things to match your preferences. If you don’t like Cheerios, just double up on the Chex cereal or vice versa.. If you want a little more saltiness add some salted peanuts or peanut M&ms.. yum!

New Year’s Munch Mix Ingredients:

Cereal: For this recipe I used Cheerios and Chex cereal, I personally love Corn chex, but you can also use Rice Chex, and if you do not have or want to add Cheerios just double up on the Chex cereal!

Salty Snack: Pretzels add the perfect balance to this snack mix with enough crunch and saltiness to offset the sweetness from the candies and the melted white chocolate. 

Candies: I added Toffee Peanut M&ms to this mix, feel free to also add some peanut M&m’s if you love those, I have seen a bunch of recipes with those in them! These also add a lot of color and make it even more festive.

Chocolate: This recipe uses white chocolate, and white chocolate is more difficult to melt than milk chocolate for some reason that I do not know…I used white chocolate morsels in this recipe but you can also give white chocolate wafers a try as they seem to melt better. Make sure to read my melting tips below.

Chocolate Melting Tips: 

There are a few ways you can melt the chocolate, in my opinion creating a double boiler is the easiest even though it does require more dishes than just popping it in the microwave.

1. Double Boiler: In a pot, fill about halfway with water, and bring to a boil. Add your white chocolate to a glass bowl, and place the bowl over the pot. The steam from the water will melt the chocolate. Keep a close eye on the chocolate and stir it with a rubber spatula until it is fully melted.
2. Microwave: The microwave is much more difficult and I burn the white chocolate more often than not. A good tactic is turning down the power of the microwave to around 50% and melting the chocolate in 20-30 second intervals for the first minute. Then 15 second increments stirring it between each. You may have to add some vegetable oil to it if it is super dry, that is why I like to use the double boiler method!

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do you store munch mix?

In an airtight container! The longer it sits the more it will lose it’s crunch, but it is delicious so I can’t see it lasting more than a few days in the house!

Is this also called white trash mix?

Yes it is, but when I put the name together as New Year’s White Trash it did not sound so good. But it’s similar to the kitchen sink notion where you are throwing together a lot of different things (as you would with trash) and making a delicious dessert!

Will the New Year’s munch mix get soggy?

The best advice I can provide for this is that you spread it out as much as possible on the baking sheets so you do not have large clumps. If you do this it should not get very soggy if at all 🙂

How long does the munch mix need to dry?

Allow the mix to dry for at least an hour if not more, this will ensure the chocolate is set and you have the best crunchy snack mix ever! If you need to expedite the process you can place it in the freezer.

Do you have to use these exact ingredients?

No definitely not, I have seen so many different variations, the founding fathers seem to be Chex cereal, M&m’s and pretzels.. You can also add popcorn, pretzels, peanut M&m’s, pretzel M&m’s, toffee pieces.. The list can go on and on!

How do you make New Year’s Munch Mix?

1. Begin by lining 2 baking sheets with wax paper. Get as much surface area as you can!
2. Add Corn Chex, Cheerios, pretzels, C&ms to a large bowl and stir to combine. It is easiest if you use your hands, just make sure they are clean obviously!
3. Now is the time to melt your chocolate. I use the double boiler method, but refer to the blog to read how to microwave the chocolate above. 
4. Once the chocolate is melted pour it over the ingredients in the bowl and use a rubber spatula to gently stir everything until all of the ingredients are coated in chocolate. 
5. Spread out on the lined baking sheets and allow it to sit for at least an hour so it is hard. You can also freeze it to speed up the process.
6. Break up into pieces and enjoy!

If you like this recipe you will also like our Cookies & Cream Scotcheroos