Sweet and Salty Munch

Perfect Pairing: Games and gatherings

 

This Sweet and Salty Munch has evolved from a recipe my mom received from a friend two decades ago.  It is the perfect combination of salty, sweet, savory and crunchy.  It makes a huge batch, travels easily and is a crowd favorite.  You can adapt it to include a variety of ingredients.

The basic idea is to combine about 30 to 40 cups of dry ingredients from the cereal and snack aisles.  We like a combination of Wheat Chex, pretzels, Fritos, dry roasted peanuts, almonds, Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Nut Chex, and popcorn.  The key is to use the honey nut versions of Cheerios and Chex.  That was not part of the original recipe but the sweetness is a great combination with the salty items.  We have also learned that self-popped popcorn does not hold up well, you want to use the pre-popped variety.  It is in a bag in the chip aisle.

It is a simple process to make the munch.  You combine all the dry ingredients into two roasting pans.  You can use the cheap foil pans from the grocery store if you don’t have an official roasting pan.  Combine the melted butter and seasonings and divide evenly over the pans.  The recipe calls for salt but we found that you do not need to add any salt if using pretzels, they make it salty enough.  Then you just bake it in a low oven, stir it a couple of times and you are all done!

 

The Perfect Pairings for this recipe are games and gatherings.  My family is a big game-playing group.  We love card games, some of us more than others.  I think our number one favorite game is Catch Phrase, the electronic version.  This game is the best because everyone can relax on the couch, there are no extra pieces and we ALWAYS laugh…. A lot.  We usually play guys against girls which results in a lot of trash talk.  We bring it on vacation since it does not take up much space.  Word of advice if you do this, remove the batteries.  The beeping can cause some awkward questions at airport security.

I think this recipe would be a hit at your next gathering.  I would love to hear how you make it your own!

Sweet and Salty Munch

Lindsay at Perfecting the Pairing

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Sauce:

·         ¾ lb butter

·         1 tsp garlic salt

·         1 tsp salt (optional if you are using salted pretzels)

·         2 tsp curry powder

·         10 to 20 drops hot sauce

·         2 Tb. Worcestershire sauce

Munch Mix:

·         30 cups of dry cereal and snacks (Wheat Chex, pretzels, Fritos, dry roasted peanuts, almonds, Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Nut Chex, and popcorn)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.  Combine the dry ingredients in 2 large roasting pans.  Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl and stir in the seasonings.  Pour the mixture evenly over the two pans and stir until dry ingredients are coated.   Bake the mix in the oven for one hour, stirring occasionally.  Allow to cool before storing.

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