White Trash / Christmas Crunch - AKA Jeff's Crack

Monday is Jeff's birthday and for every year since we've been married I have made him his favorite treat.  The woman who gave me the recipe said it's referred to by some as "Christmas Crunch" and others call it "White Trash" (I like this one) but here we just refer to it as Jeff's Crack.

I have the recipe saved on an old email (hotmail) that I stopped using four years ago after it was hacked and I thought instead of every year having to go find it in that email where spam goes to die (because now that's the address I give for companies when I don't want their email) I would just share it here with you all.  I can always remember what goes in it, just never remember how much of what.  Our friend's wife used to bring it every year to the fest.  So our first year living together I asked Jeff if he wanted a cake, pie, or brownies on his birthday he said "none of it" and I surprised him with this and he told me I had committed myself to a tradition.  Thank goodness it's easy!  It's super simple but oh-so-good.

Recipe:  3 Cups Rice Chex, 3 Cups Corn Chex, 2 Cups Cheerios, 2 cups small pretzel twists, 2x 12oz bags of white chocolate chips, one 16 oz bag of milk chocolate M&Ms.  **You'll also need wax paper**.

I have a hug bowl that I use for halloween candy.  It's the perfect size.  First mix the Chex, Cheerios, and Pretzels.  (I'll admit after the first year since I used both kinds of Chex - it took us forever to finish the two boxes...so now I cheat and just use rice chex).

Next - Melt the white chocolate one bag at a time in a glass bowl.

I know many bakers are all about the double boiler but I confess I'm lazy...I use the microwave.  A friend said she burned chocolate doing it this way so let me tell you how I do it.  Glass bowl...70% power 1min 15 sec - stir and repeat once.  It makes a 12oz bag gooey goodness very frickin quick.

I stir in the melted white chocolate and half the bag of M&M's while the second bag of white chocolate is melting.  Yes, to make it not so high in calories you can only use one bag of White Chocolate and 12oz of M&Ms but we agree with who gave us the recipe - just not as good.

 Once you've stirred in the two bags of melted white chocolate and the entire bag of M&Ms just lay it out on wax or parchment paper to harden.  Be sure you have a table or four feet of counter top space as this takes up room unless you want large chunks.

Admittedly, it makes a lot.  We usually fill a gallon bag and throw it in the freezer.  Makes a good party snack.  And the great thing about M&Ms is they make many color varieties for holidays so during Christmas you can buy the red and green.  I seriously thought of buying the pumpkin spice M&Ms that are all orange and brown to see how it tastes but decided I didn't want to mess with tradition on his birthday.   One year I did make him another batch at Valentine's day with the red and pink and it looked cute.

Warning, this is only half of it, so you can see what I mean by needing counter space.  Good news is took me only 10 minutes to make.  And clean up is super easy as you just have the two bowls with white chocolate...just start very hot water running and boom - clean in a minute.