Holiday Mix in the Making: It’s Chex Party Mix Time

Who doesn’t love a great holiday cookie?  According to the survey of 1,000 Americans, sugar cookies are the favorite holiday cookie (45%), followed by peanut butter blossoms (25%), ginger cookies (20%), pecan sandies (18%) and pumpkin cookies (10%).

My personal favorite holiday is the sugar cookie because it has sentimental value.  The sugar cookie was the first cookie recipe I learned to make completely on my own as a child.  I still make them to this day and have made it a tradition to decorate them with my boys.

Imagine my interest when I learned Chex® had developed five new delicious Chex Party Mix holiday cookie-inspired recipes (sugar cookie, gingerbread, etc.) that take just 15 minutes to make in the microwave (no baking required!).

“The holidays can be hectic with all of the parties, entertaining and baking, and we wanted to offer a fun, new way to enjoy the season with the same festive flavors and aromas,” said Liz Abate Mascolo, marketing associate director for Chex®. “These Chec Party Mix recipes are a fresh take on your favorite holiday cookies, and you only need 15 minutes from start to finish. It’s a lot faster than baking and decorating batches of cookies, and your family and friends will love how delicious they taste.”

 

 

I’m super busy these days and while I love holiday baking, I don’t always have the time to accomplish all that I want to do.   Each year I like to mix it up a bit and throw in something new, so when I was approached to learn more about these new holiday cookie-inspired Chex Party Mix recipes and even try to make some on my own, I jumped at the opportunity.

This past weekend I attended a special tasting event at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania.  The Chex® team took over a section of the mall on the lower level and set up a tasting station and distributed free samples to busy holiday shoppers.

The friendly Chex® product team kept up with the crowds by making batches and batches of fresh Chex Party mix to share.

They offered samples of Chocolate Mint Chex®, Sugar Cookie Chex® and Caramel-Chocolate Drizzle Chex®.

In speaking with the shoppers who sampled the varieties, many raved about the Chocolate Mint Chex® while the children enjoyed the Sugar Cookie Chex® the most.

Surveys show that Americans are eating, baking and gifting homemade treats around the holidays. More than two-thirds of women surveyed (69%) make homemade treats, and 43% plan to share their homemade holiday goodies with others, such as family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and teachers.  More than a third of respondents (35%) said they will host an in-home party to celebrate the holiday season this year.

How about instead of hosting a traditional holiday cookie exchange, why not host a Chex Party Mix Change?

For the Chex Party Mix Change you can use some of these cookie-inspired recipes or check out the more than 70 Chex Party Mix recipes that can be made in the microwave in just 15 minutes.  Twenty are gluten-free Chex Party Mix recipes.  Chex® has made it part of their mission to make some of their cereals and recipes gluten-free which is growing in importance more and more everyday.  Six of the Chex® cereals are gluten-free, and consumers should look for the words “Gluten-Free” near the ingredient declaration on the package side panel.

Hosting a Chex Party Mix-Change is simple and is made even simpler by the Chex®team.  Visit ChexPartyMixChange.com for a complete online party toolkit, including recipes, invitations, shopping lists and packaging ideas.  Here’s a snapshot of how the Chex® Product Team packaged the Chex Party Mix at the King of Prussia Mall tasting event.  There are some great and fun ideas on how to package your favorite Chex® mix.

After the event I had a chance to recreate some of the cookie-inspired recipes myself at home.  I used this handy tool-kit provided to me by Chex®.

 Of course you don’t need  a fancy toolkit to make these recipes.  They can all be made with a few simple tools:  a microwave, a large microwave safe mixing bowl, a small mixing cup, measuring cups and spoons and a rubber spatula for mixing.  The recipes were so simple!  I was mixing up batches of Chex Party mix with ease and some even took LESS than 15 minutes (BONUS!).  Here’s how my batches turned out.

The picture above includes (from top to bottom):  Peanut Butter Blossoms Chex®, Sweet Pecan Chex®,  Gingerbread Chex® and Iced Pumpkin Chex®.   The Sugar Cookie Chex® is featured below for close-up detail.

    

Here are my thoughts on the five featured recipes from the cookie-inspired collection:

 

• Peanut Butter Blossoms Chex®: – My husband’s favorite.  This was a nice mix of chocolate and peanut butter which is a win-win in my book.  Definitely let the mix cool before adding the finishing chips.

 

• Sweet Pecan Chex® – By far the easiest to make.  This one took less than 15 minutes and tasted like Pecan Pie!

 

• Gingerbread Chex® – I am a gingerbread fan and this tasted just like gingerbread cookies.  This one was so fragrant, my house smelled like a gingerbread house when I was done.  Thumbs up, for sure!

 

• Iced Pumpkin Chex® – This was the “hardest” to make and I say that lightly because none of these recipes are incredibly hard.  I did struggle a little bit with the white chocolate drizzle but I am not the best at this.

 

 

• Sugar Cookie Chex® – Hands down the house favorite. I loved this one and so did my boys.  I also liked how festive it looked.  It is a keeper, for sure.

I so enjoyed sampling the many different Chex® recipes and encourage you to do the same.  Chex® has an entire catalogue of Chex Party Mix recipes which you can access by clicking here.  Go ahead, try them for yourself!

The Chex Party Mix tasting team is headed to Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta for their final stop in a multi-state tour.  If you are in the Atlanta area stop by the Lenox Square Mall and grab a little Chex® mix for yourself.  In the meantime, head out to your favorite store and pick up some Chex® and try some of these recipes out for yourself.  Get to mixing! xoxo

 Disclaimer: The purpose of this review is to offer GGG readers an objective opinion so they can make an informed decision on these recipes and product. This review was based on quality, flavor and overall taste.  GGG will always deliver an honest and unbiased opinion.  Chex Party Mix provided samples for this review.   Samples did not influence the result of this review.