Gourmet Haystacks
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Set Up Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes | Serves: 16
Does anyone else have childhood memories of making haystacks? Did you use chocolate and peanut butter chips or maybe chocolate and butterscotch chips? I love these crunchy-sweet-salty-chocolatey treats. This version is a little more gourmet than what you may have had before. Honestly, “gourmet” may be a little exaggerated. Maybe they should just be called “Grown-Up Haystacks.”
These have dried cranberries for a little tartness, 3 kinds of chocolate, salty macadamia nuts for nuttiness and crunch. (I wanted something other than your ordinary peanuts.) And they cannot be called haystacks without the traditional, iconic, crunchy Chow Mein noodles that are just so good eaten from the canister.
This is such a quick and easy dessert, especially if you let the chocolate set in a refrigerator instead of on your counter at room temperature. It’s kid-friendly as there’s no stovetop or oven cooking. Haystacks are a great party finger food. You don’t need a fork, but definitely a napkin.
You can certainly change up the chocolate chips (nuts, too). I found pumpkin-flavored morsels around Thanksgiving. I may give that a shot sometime. I liked the combo of the semi-sweet and the dark chocolate chips. You can usually find candy cane or peppermint flavored chips around Christmas. That could be fun, too!
You could use “almond bark” for these, but I like the taste of real chocolate, but I know the bark sets up a lot quicker which is appealing, but the flavor is much more satisfying using real chocoalte.
Enjoy!
Gourmet Haystacks
Ingredients
- 1 12-ounce pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 12-ounce pkg. dark chocolate chips
- 4 ounces dry roasted and salted Macadamia nuts, chopped
- 1 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
- 1 5-ounce canister Chow Mein Noodles
- 2 cups white chocolate chips, miniature chips if you can find them
Instructions
- Pour the semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips into a medium microwave-safe bowl, (I like glass bowls) and heat the chocolate chips in 30-second intervals until the chocolate is melted, stirring after each heating. (I know this is tedious, but it sure beats burning your chocolate that ends up in the trash.)
- Once melted, allow the chocolate to cool for about 2 or 3 minutes. Add the chopped nuts, cranberries and noodles to the melted chocolate.
- Using a silicone spatula, gently fold these ingredients together to thoroughly combine.
- Lay out about a two-foot long sheet of wax paper on your counter or tabletop to place the haystacks, giving them time to cool and set up.
- Using a spoon (I used a regular soup spoon), scoop out about a golfball-size amount of the haystack mixture and using your finger, slide it off the spoon and onto the wax paper. You may need to use your fingers or your spoon to gather the haystacks together if they’re falling apart. You want to have a mound shape.
- While the chocolate is still “wet,” sprinkle a pinch of white chocolate chips on top of each stack.
- Scoop the rest of the mixture onto the wax paper, following steps 5 and 6, spacing about an inch apart. (You just want a little space so they’re not touching and attaching to each other when they cool.) Continue sprinkling white chocolate chips as you lay each of them out.
- Allow the haystacks to cool at room temperature for about 2 hours, or you can pop them in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
- Once the chocolate is set, you can serve them or place in an air-tight container. They are fine at room temperature or kept refrigerated.
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