This is one of the most delicious if not the greatest chocolate dessert of all time. Really.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer knocked on Santa’s front door.
Santa: “Who’s there?”
Rudolph: “It’s me, Rudolph.”
Santa: “What do you want, Rudolph?”
Freezing in the cold Rudolph replies: “Ch-ch-ch…”
Santa: “You want WHAT?”
Rudolph: “Chunky Chocolate Cheerios!”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don’t normally tell any jokes because they tend to be terribly lame!
It all started rather innocently on a day that I had this whacky idea to add some Cheerios to the White & Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunks recipe of mine. Two year old Gabriel loved “helping” me at the time as the photographic evidence suggests.
I posted the recipe along with this by now familiar photo and that was that.
Not quite.
Always a bit stumped when it comes to gifts I wondered whether gifting these delightful nibbles would work. Can you guess what happened?
People went bonkers for it!
Chunky Chocolate Cheerios sold out week after week when I ran a stall at the local farm shop. Family raved about it and after these few years it’s become my go-to Christmas gift to all those I know. Heck, I even give out slabs to say thank you, on birthdays and other special occasions too.
Meanwhile, little did I know what a hit it would on the internet – this post has been pinned on Pinterest boards over 3000 times! Even though this recipe has been plagiarised ad infinitum, I’m flattered.
So it only made sense for me to redo this recipe with step-by-step photos. I’ll give you some handy tips as we go along.
Can I substitute Cheerios with another cereal?
I honestly am not familiar with cereal but there are three advantages to using Cheerios:
- Adds crunch.
- Doesn’t go soggy.
- Bulks out the chocolate.
If you can find another cereal that can do that, go ahead!
What type of chocolate should I use?
People tend to bang on about using quality ingredients in recipes and in this case I’ll be shouting the loudest. If you’re going to buy some low-priced chocolate produced in Timbuktu at the pound shop it’s going to taste cheap and nasty. Say the latter with a heavy nasal American accent – naaaaahsteeee. Buy the best you can afford. Depending on availability I like to use Continental Plain Chocolate from Waitrose and Lindt.
Storage
At the very least keep the chocolate in a cool, dark place. It’s best kept in the fridge until you fancy a nibble. In the freezer it lasts extra long. (I put a few lollies in the bathroom as treats for potty training. After a few days, and a few hot baths, the lollipops’ sheen has gone and the texture all crumbly. Bleh.) So….keep it cool for best results!
Wine Pairing
When matching chocolate to wine there is only one thing that comes to my mind, Maury. Maury is an appellation in the Roussillon region of south-west France that makes sweet red wine from the Grenache grape.
The style is known as Vin Doux Naturel and is made by beginning the fermentation of grapes as usual but before all the sugar is ‘eaten’ by the yeast, alcohol in the form of grape spirit is added. This addition of alcohol kills the yeast leaving lots of sugar in the wine. The result is a sweet, sticky glass of deliciousness with notes of mocha, licorice and intensely concentrated black and red fruit. The finish is still fresh and clean and when paired with chocolate everything simply melts into one luscious mouthful. Buy it here.
Originally I melted the chocolate on the hob in a double boiler and it took ages. Since I started making big quantities I’ve looked for alternatives. Chocolate can be melted in the microwave. Just use the right type of bowls.
One thing I noticed it that plain chocolate takes longer to melt than its white counterpart.
Add the Cheerios to the melted plain chocolate.
Stir until all Cheerios are completely covered in chocolate.
It’s up to you how much Cheerios you put it. Use more or less, do whatever you please!
Chop the white chocolate and melt it in the microwave.
Everyone’s microwave oven is different. Melt with caution. What I mean is that it’s safer to use shorter times to cook the chocolate because you run a lower risk of overcooking chocolate. So use short stints and check on the chocolate’s progress. After a while you’ll know how long it will take. Of course, the more chocolate you use the longer it will all take to melt.
And now for the secret ingredient – peanut butter! I haven’t experimented with other nut butters yet but I’m sure they’ll work too.
Stir the white chocolate and peanut butter until the mixture is smooth.
Let the fun and games begin. Kids will love being involved. One plonks white chocolate into the mould while the other one is in charge of the plain chocolate bowl. Watch them like a hawk though. They’ll run away with the chocolate if they could!
Finished. There you have a very messy dessert that will now be heading to the fridge for a few hours to set.
As you can see you can use different sized silicone moulds to make slabs of chocolate.
The square one is my favourite shape. Wrapping it is easy and elegant. This is a great gift to give to a family.
Let’s take the round slab out…
…and onto the chopping board.
Use a bread knife to slice through the thick chocolate. It could get messy…
Chop the chocolate into bite-sized pieces. Chunks of heaven if you ask me!
Inevitably there will be crumbs. Save them to sprinkle on top of ice cream.
For those of you who are allergic to peanut butter, you can omit the stuff – the recipe works without it too. Silicone muffin moulds make great portion sizes.
You can easily cheer up your gifts with some Merry Christmas ribbons and Red Polka Dot ribbons.
For your friends and other people such as work colleagues you can chop up a slab and place a few chunks in each presentation bag.
You can have a lot of fun with silicone moulds too. Check out the hearts and cute animals. Just buy some lollipop sticks and you’re good to go.
Lastly, if you’re using small moulds, omit the Cheerios. Pour the dark chocolate in first because it has a thinner consistency that will capture more detail than the white chocolate. After you’ve filled the moulds, give it a shake to get rid of air bubbles.
Right now there are six batches of the goodies in the freezer and two batches cooling in the fridge. I’m going to make some more. It definitely is Christmas!
- Serves: 10
- Serving size: 55g
- Calories: 270
- Fat: 18.8g
- Saturated fat: 0.6g
- Unsaturated fat: 0
- Trans fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 22.9g
- Sugar: 0.9g
- Sodium: 89mg
- Fiber: 3.8g
- Protein: 5.6g
- Cholesterol: 0
- butter to grease
- 200g (7 oz) white chocolate
- 200g (7 oz) plain chocolate
- 75g (2½ oz) crunchy peanut butter
- 75g (2½ oz / 2¼ cups) Cheerios
- Line a shallow tin with greased baking parchment.
- Melt the plain chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir until smooth and remove the bowl from the pan.
- Melt the white chocolate in the same way and remove from the heat. Add the peanut butter to the white chocolate and stir well until smooth.
- Add 33g (1 cup) of Cheerios to the melted dark chocolate and stir thoroughly until all the hoops are covered with chocolate. Add the remaining Cheerios to the melted white chocolate and do the same.
- Drop alternate spoonfuls of each chocolate mix into the prepared tin, then tap the tin to level the mixture. Chill for 2-3 hours until firm.
- Turn out on to a board and break the chocolate into manageable chunks for people to nibble on. Store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Try and buy good quality chocolate, it can make all the difference in taste.
You can double up on the ingredients if you like to serve more people.
These sound tasty. I love the pic of Gabriel. How adorable.
What a fun recipe!
That is awesome! Great pics.
TOO cute of Gabriel!!! What a wonderful recipe, the kid in me surely would love these
Just for the record, I would NEVUH feed this junk to my kid. This snack is just too unhealthy. All those trans fats from the peanut butter… its loaded with sugar, did you even think to use organic 70% chocolate? Oh my god- you did not use butter instead of margarine! This is the stuff that’s killing our children and making them obese. That said, I am a food blogger, thus obligated to at least make these in the interest of my craft. BUT just so you understand I will be hiding these away from my kids. My husband and I will eat these late at night when the kids are asleep, only because we …uhhhm ….care about our children. LOL.
hey WIZZY, i sure hope that was all sarcasm up there because “FOR THE RECORD” butter IS NOT bad for you. it is milk. butter in moderation is perfectly fine in a diet. AND PEANUT BUTTER IS EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD FOR YOU. It’s called “peanuts” and you blend them up. Peanut butter doesn’t automatically equal added sugar and oils. YOU HAVE NO IDEA what kind of chocolate she used. Feel free to use whatever chocolate YOU please. Oh and…uhhhmm.. please please eat all of these treats. Better you than your children, right? (Get Fat and have a heart attack)
My goodness only just coming back to this post months after I had no idea people misinterpreted my tongue in cheek response. Really no offense meant. It was TOTALLY meant to be sarcastic:-/ As in its too delicious that I might not want to share with my children hence all the made up silly reasons of why it might not be good for them.
Hey Wizzy, it’s best not to take anything said on the web too seriously. Written words can easily be misinterpreted and hence misunderstood. I never took offence!
OMG~WIZZY, have you not ever read the margarine container and seen all the CHEMICALS it is made with….DUH~!
Love it! What a creative idea!
I am eight months pregnant. And you are my savior.
Oh my! This looks AMAZING! I cant wait to try this!
These are seriously cute, and I bet seriously good.
Michelle, I love them!
I will send you email soon…
Thank you for your message, I think it is a great idea
Margot
Cool recipe…could I use milk choco instead of plain?
Love this! Great idea and the photos are wonderful, especially the second one!
What a great idea!!! I love it.
Thank you for posting this beautiful recipe, I liked it so much I’ve included it in my Top funkiest Chocolate recipes on the Web >> http://bit.ly/13bx7w
Congratulations!! and looking forward to many more fab recipes.
Love,
Bridge.
Really cute picture of Gabriel! They must be…delicious
Wow…looks amazing! I was just wondering on FaceBook what on earth I’m going to do with the 11 boxes of random cereals I have…this is going to use some of them thank goodness!
What a fantastic recipe! My grandkids would just love these.
Almost daily, I ponder making a treat with the Cheerios my children love to nibble. Finally I’ve stumbled upon someone else’s creation, and it sounds fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
I’m allergic to peanut butter… could this work without peanut butter in the white chocolate? (And no… I have yet to find a sunflower butter, etc… that I like)… These looks so good!
This looks amazing! Also I love the picture with chocolate everywhere. So cute!
These were sooo yummy and very easy and fun to make!! I’ll definately be making these again!
So glad to hear you enjoyed these. Want to know a little secret? I make batches of these and give them away as Christmas presents!
your photos are absolutely gorgeous!
and this recipe is so yummy. way to turn an ordinary breakfast food into a decadent dessert!
Thanks, Katie!
Hi! FYI General Mills makes Cheerios, not Nestle. Anyway I just pinned your recipe. Totally love it!
Zoikes, I didn’t know that. Thanks for pointing it out!
Nestle does make Cheerios…fyi!… In the UK anyway….google it!
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=nestle+cheerios&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=NmT4ULveKeyM0wWcm4HQCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=624
oh and this recipe is delicious!!!
Thanks for helping out, Erin! Glad you enjoyed it.
I can indeed voucher that these taste WONDERFUL. I am tempted to plagiarise myself!!
Go on, I dare ya!
I saw these touted on Twitter as the best chocolate recipe ever and had to come and have a look. I’ve never tried Cheerios in chocolate krispie cakes – now I must. Maybe even this evening. Yum!
Did you make them? Are they the BEST or what???
Oh thanks for the update and instuctions. I rember the taste of this treat like yesterday eventhough its a good year and a half ago then you suprised me with this gift. It was so gorgeous i dont remember sharing it with the rest of the family though hihihi.
What brands did you use? and do your prefer to use chunky peanutbutter?
I am sure i am going to make this soon. Worth the effort and waiting time!
lots f love Miriam
I’m glad you enjoyed the chocolate. I used Waitrose’s continental belgian plain and white chocolate respectively. You can use smooth peanut butter if you like but I prefer crunchy. Happy chocolate making!