Over the weekend, we had a late-night craving for Sunday Bakeshop‘s Chex Mix and set about trying to recreate the Asian American, French-inspired bakery’s compulsively consumable snack at home. For those who are not familiar, furikake is the dry Japanese seasoning used for sprinkling on plain rice — and on so many other things.
There’s no shortage of recipes online for umami-rich, sweet and salty furikake Chex mix, and this one from Food 52 (slightly amended below) hit the spot. Make sure to completely dissolve the sugar in the warm dressing.
And while Chex Mix is a must, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with similar-ish substitutions for the other dry ingredients. We had no Bugles, so used Honey Nut Cheerios and salted kettlecorn. We also subbed about 4 oz pistachios for the pound of peanuts, and switched out the specified Goldfish for Mega Goldfish. Aji nori and a big dash of shiso fumi furikake were on hand and stood in for the nori komi furikake. If you find you don’t have the full volume of mix ingredients, adjust the volume of syrup accordingly — it should thoroughly coat the mix but not puddle in the bottom of the mixing bowl or baking tray.
INGREDIENTS:
Syrup:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Dry Snack Mix:
- 1 (16-ounce) jar Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts, Lightly Salted
- 1 (14.5-ounce) bag Bugles
- 1/2 (12-ounce) box Rice Chex cereal
- 1/2 (12-ounce) box Corn Chex cereal
- 1 (6.6-ounce) bag Pepperidge Farm Goldfish of your choice
- 3 to 4 cups cups mini pretzels
- 1 (1.7-ounce) bottle Nori Komi Furikake
DIRECTIONS:
- Heat the oven to 250°F.
- Make the syrup: In a medium pot over medium heat, heat the butter, syrup, sugar, oil, soy sauce, and salt, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat to cool while you prepare the dry ingredients.
- Make the snack mix: In a very large bowl (you might need two), combine the peanuts, Bugles, cereals, Goldfish, and pretzels, mixing bottom to top with your hands. Carefully add the butter mixture to the bowl. Using gloved hands (optional), give everything a good mix, bottom to top. Once the mixture is sufficiently coated with the sauce, sprinkle half of the furikake over and toss until evenly coated. Sprinkle the remaining furikake over and toss again.
- Divide the cereal mixture between two half-sheet pans covered in baking paper. Bake, removing the pans every 15 to 20 minutes to toss, for about 1 hour, until the mixture is dry. The cooking time will depend on the humidity as well as how crispy you like your mix. (It has taken me up to 1½ hours on humid days.)
- Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container or zip-top bags, or enjoy immediately and watch them disappear!