Saturday, February 13, 2010

No Bake Haystacks - A Trio of Goodness

No Bake Haystacks - A Trio of Goodness
I hadn’t heard of haystacks until I moved to the West coast. I first had them at a potluck and after trying them I immediately asked for the recipe. They are delicious and fantastic especially on the days that when you want a treat but don’t want to turn on the oven. Really, all you have to do is melt some chocolate and stir! Super easy and kid friendly!
From Haystacks

The kids and I spent the afternoon inventing (well, new to us) versions based on our original chocolate recipe.

The first version is the original recipe of peanut butter goodness but with added marshmallows. The 2nd is my son’s Chocolate “Chip” Haystack – hickory sticks (match stick potato chips), milk chocolate and butterscotch chips. The 3rd is my daughter’s “Snow” Stacks of pretzels, white chocolate and cranberries. The kids have many, many other ideas that we will save another day in the kitchen.

I highly recommend trying these or creating your own – in fact, I would love to know what you come up with! All recipes below make about 20 haystacks per recipe. These can be easily doubled if desired.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Haystacks
From Haystacks

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
2 cups chow mein noodles
1 cup mini-marshmallows

Melt chocolate chips in large sauce pan over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in chow mein noodles. Add and stir in marshmallows. Drop by large spoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

Refrigerate until set. Once set, you can place them in a large Ziploc and freeze (yes, they do taste great right out of freezer!). Makes 20 stacks.

Chocolate “Chip” Haystacks
From Haystacks

Ok, there is no way I can even attempt to say these are in any way healthy or diet friendly but dang they are good! The sweetness of the chocolate and the saltiness of the chips make for a march made in heaven! My 3 year old also threw in some butterscotch flavoured chips for added flavour!

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch flavoured chips
3 cups hickory sticks or other match stick potato chip

Melt chips in large sauce pan over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sticks. Drop by large spoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

Refrigerate until set. Once set, you can place them in a large Ziploc and freeze… if they last that long. Makes 20 stacks.

Snow Stacks
From Haystacks

My daughter does not like chow mein noodles and will not eat a potato of any kind (including the chip variety) so she chose pretzels as the base for her version. So really, between the low fat pretzels and cranberries she’s created a rather guilt free treat (yes the chocolate remains but I’m willing to forget those fat calories if you are!)

2 cups white chocolate chips
¾ cup craisins
2 cups thin pretzel sticks

I find white chocolate burns more easily than regular chocolate chips so I recommend using the microwave or double boiler method.

Using a microwave-safe container, place white chocolate chips in microwave at medium power (50 percent) for 1 minutes. Remove and stir. If chocolate is not melted, return to microwave and repeat heating step, stirring every 10 seconds to avoid burning When small lumps remain, remove and continue to stir to complete melting. If needed, transfer melted chocolate to bigger bowl to accommodate pretzels.

Stir in pretzels. If pretzels seem too long break them up as you stir. Drop by large spoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

Refrigerate until set. Freeze if desired. Makes 20 stacks.
From Haystacks

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