Malted Milk Crunch

This has to be one of the best party mixes ever. Trust me, I didn’t originate the idea of using malted milk in a party mix—I first saw it on the Epicurious website. Christina Tosi, of Momofuku Milk Bar fame, first made something like this to the best of my knowledge. Here’s a link to that recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pretzel-crunch-368430

Whether you use the original recipe or my tweaked version with much more malt and some malty flavored cereal added, you can’t go wrong. Unless you don’t make enough.

Ingredients:

5 cups mini pretzels

2 cups multi-grain cereal (like Life®)

¼ cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons white granulated sugar

½ cup malted milk powder (like Carnation® Original Flavor)

¼ cup powdered milk

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Toss the pretzels and cereal together in a large bowl (you can break up the pretzels a bit, if you like).

In a small bowl, combine the sugars and milk powders. Toss this with the pretzels/cereal in the large bowl. Pour the melted butter over all and combine thoroughly. The butter acts like a glue to help the dry ingredients stick to the pretzels and cereal.

Divide the mixture between the two baking sheets and bake for 20-25 minutes or until they are toasty and fragrant. Let cool completely before breaking up into clusters and serving.