puppy chow

I think I may have waxed poetic on the greatness that is puppy chow before, but seeing as how it has come up again, I figured now was a good time for a refresher course.

My office is having a potluck tomorrow and when it came time to think of something that I could a) make a lot of and b) carry to work quite easily and c) appeal to a large group of people, the first thing that came to mind was puppy chow. So I wrote my name down and shortly thereafter, had quite a few questions along the lines of "what are you bringing? What is that?"

Sadly...puppy chow does not appear to be widely known. And I say that because the last time I made puppy chow for a different office in a different building...only one other person knew what puppy chow was beforehand. Though...everyone who tried it will definitely remember it.

I was a little nervous making it this time around because I'd only made it one other time and it's messy. Not to mention that my grocery store didn't have regular Jif. Well, they did, but in a large jar and I haven't really been in a real peanut buttery kind of mood. So I got the low sugar. And then to add to that, there were no regular Nestle chocolate chips. They had semi-sweet, but I was already getting reduced sugar peanut butter.

So...I grabbed a bag of Ghiradelli chocolate chips. Already two things were different than the last time, and the other times my sister has made this (and let me tell you, she makes a mean batch of puppy chow).

I won't get into the whole recipe here, just Google puppy chow and you'll get quite a few variations. Most match what I use, but I saw another one that called for vanilla extract. So it's up to you.

One warning...it doesn't really look appetizing when you make it. The first time I mixed the chocolate and peanut butter together (see picture) I almost called my sister to see if I was making it right. It really didn't look like it would turn into the sweet goodness that it does turn into. But everything turned out ok.

I now have two good-sized containers full of puppy chow to take to work and hopefully will get the same response I got the last time I made it. And for my sake, I also hope that response turns into no puppy chow remaining. It's so hard to stop munching on it.

So if you choose to make it...enjoy! I'll let you know how the office response goes. Wish me luck!