Monster Mash Treats

Take your favorite MONSTER cereal (or any other favorite cereal) and make these cute little monsters with it. Delicious and such a fun treat for Halloween!

Have you ever tried the fun “Monster” cereals from General Mills? As a kid, these were available all year long, but I only see them at Halloween now (so if you want to try this recipe with these cereals, you’ll need to get them in September and October- sorry friends in other countries!). I’m certain that this same recipe will work with a variety of other cereals. I was thinking that Reese’s Puffs might be fun and super yummy.

These are a simple recipe with a couple of techniques to make it easier to handle all the stickiness. I tried several methods and proportions until I got it just right, but feel free to tweak this recipe to fit with the cereal you are using. I did all four flavors, and each batch made about 9-10 monsters. You only can scoop the treats out for a short time before the marshmallow hardens up- so you probably won’t want to make a larger batch than this. I just repeated this 4 times with a different cereal each time.

Here’s the recipe: (printable version):

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 marshmallows
• 3 T butter
• 3 cups of cereal
• 1/4 c. chocolate chips (use semisweet for Count Chocula and white for all the rest)
• Sprinkles
• Candy eyes

DIRECTIONS:

• Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside.
• Put 3 cups of cereal into a large mixing bowl.
• Measure 1/4 cup of chocolate or white chocolate chips and add to top of cereal. Set aside.
• Place 10 marshmallows and 3 T butter in a microwave-safe dish and melt in 20-second increments, stirring until smooth. 
• Pour melted marshmallows over cereal and use a spoon to stir until well combined. Chocolate chips will melt a little and help to hold things together. 
• Use a large cookie scoop to spoon out a heaping spoonful of mixture and gently shape with fingers (use cooking spray on fingers if needed). 
• Scoop into a muffin tin and add sprinkles if desired. Allow these to cool and harden up. 

• To add eyes, melt a bit of the chocolate/ white chocolate chips and use a toothpick to spread a little on the back of two eyes. Place them on the monster, and don’t worry about getting them on straight! Monsters are supposed to look crazy!
• Enjoy!!

I’d love to say that these are a kid-friendly recipe, but honestly, they are a sticky, hot mess when you are making them. I tried several recipes and made a lot of these, and there’s no way around the sticky, but if you use a scoop (not your hands) to form the ball, and you place them in a greased muffin tin to harden, that will make this recipe much easier for you.

Also- those chocolate/white chocolate chips. Don’t skip them- they are delicious! Also- don’t add them after you mix in the marshmallow. One of the recipes I tried had me do that, and the butter in the marshmallows coated the chocolate chips and they just sat in the bottom of the bowl completely unmixed in. By adding them on top of the cereal ahead of time, and then pouring warm marshmallow over the top, they melt a little and simply help to bind these little monster treats together.

My thoughts: My husband would say I have a Count Chocula addiction, and these treats take that addiction to a whole new level! 🙂 Good thing these cereals are only available for a couple of months each year! The other flavors are wonderful too. We shared these with friends, and I think everyone had a different “favorite”. I kept them loosely covered at room temperature, and they were still delicious several days after making them. I hope you get a chance to try them, or one of our other fun Halloween recipes!!!

Other fun Halloween ideas! Just click on a photo to see the recipe.