The next time you are getting ready to watch a big game, or entertaining a group of children, you may want to consider making this simple, yet delicious, Sweet and Salty Snack Mix!
There is something incredibly moreish about the combination of salty and sweet, and I know I am not along. It is this delicious mix of salty and sweet which inspires such goodies as chocolate dipped pretzels or potato chips, amongst other things.
A number of years back I was in Ketchum Idaho, while my oldest daughter was competing in the Special Olympics International Winter Games in Sun Valley. (On a side note my daughter did very well, bring back to Canada two gold medals and a bronze! Go Team Canada!)
One day while we were there, my friend Lura and I popped into one of the local shops to have a boo around and they were selling these Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods. These were the epitome of the ultimate sweet and salty combination!
I had of course heard of Pretzel Rods, but had never actually seen one, much less had the opportunity to buy or taste one.
King sized pretzels are not exactly a British thing. Even finding plain salted mini pretzels can be hard over here. Mostly they have them coated in salty powders and flavours. Like sour cream and onion, or salt and vinegar, cheese, etc.
The pretzel rods in this shop were HUGE. The pretzel rods themselves were at least nine inches long or more, wth each one being about one inch in diameter.
They had been dipped in things like salted caramel and rolled in salted nuts and then dipped in chocolate and then decorated with more goodies. I had never seen anything like it.
They were the size of chicken drumsticks! Seriously! I did what any sweet and salty loving foodie would do.
I bought a couple to bring home and share with my husband. I knew he would be totally fascinated with not only the idea but also the size.
I am quite sure each one of them weighed a good half pound. I was a bit concerned about getting them home safely without having them confiscated. (In Canada they have food sniffing dogs in the baggage area.) Not here in the UK. Any food sniffing out must be done incognito, or not at all.
In all truth the British just do not understand our North American love for all things sweet and salty. They most definitely don't understand our love of Peanut Butter and Jam. My husband akins it to someone eating fish and custard together. (How positively revolting!!!)
He was totally fascinated with the jars of Smuckers Goober mix, which has the grape jelly and peanut butter swirled together in a jar that he saw on one of our trips together to North America. They mix it up so you don't have to!
I have to say that my personal preference is for Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam however, and that is perhaps because my mother never bought Grape Jelly.
She used to make her own jam and it was always strawberry. She only ever very rarely purchased ready made jam. And yes, once again, always strawberry. It was our father's favourite.
So yes, we North Americans really do love our sweet and salty combinations. This quick and easy snack mix is a great representation of this!
Its also very adaptable to whatever you have available to you to combine together. The only real criteria being that you don't totally over do the sweet. There should be more savoury/salty in the mix than sweet.
Today I combined some new frito style cheese tortilla crisp strips that I recently discovered, along with some other bits. (These are as close to fritos as you are going to get here in the UK.)
When I was a child I actually did not like corn chips or fritos. I had a habit of getting car sick all the time, on any journey of any length. You guessed it. It only takes something like that to turn you off of any given food for a very long time.
I conbined these tortilla crisps with an equal quantity of plain salted mini pretzels. I wasn't able to get them in a full bag. I had to buy a big bag of fun sized ones. Whatever gives you the result you want. That's my motto.
I also used some small mini cheese crackers. Jacobson's mini cheddars. In North American I would use the cheese flavoured gold fish crackers. They have been very difficult to come by over here in recent months.
I blame the darned virus because I never had any problem before! I also meant to add some bugle cracker snacks, but could not find any, at least not in any flavour I felt like combining with the others!
I added a quantity of plain M & M's for a bit of sweet. I realised only after I had taken all of my photographs and was downloading them, that I forgot to add the dried cranberries. You could also use raisins.
Or even yogurt covered dried cranberries or raisins. Chocolate covered raisins. Chocolate covered peanuts. Peanut M & M's.
Its also really nice to add some honey roasted nuts if you have them. I did not on this day. Another great addition would be toffee popcorn.
The important thing is to have fun with it all. To create something your family is going to enjoy and that is filled with flavour, colour and sweet crunch. Almost any combination will give you something that is moreishly snackilicious!
Yes, very much a once in a blue moon treat but always received well when I trot it out. Despite the British poo-pooing the whole idea they have a habit of gobbling it all up! That makes me happy. Possibly even more than it should do.
Oh but I am longing for a time when we can safely gather together again. Aren't you? It would appear that the whole of 2020 has been the year that never quite came to fruition.
Sweet & Salty Snack Mix
Yield: Makes 8 1/2 cups
prep time: 5 Mintotal time: 5 Min
Snack mixes like this are a once in a blue moon treat. They are the perfect mix of salty, sweet and lots of crunch. They are also quite adaptable to your own family's tastes. Perfect for game nights and children's parties!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (120g) mini salted pretzels
- 2 cups (120g) mini cheese crackers
- 2 cups (120g) frito style corn chips
- 1 cup (200g) M & M's candy
- 1 cup (150g) raisins, or dried cranberries
Instructions:
- Combine everything in a large zip lock baggie and give it all a good shake to mix together.
notes:
These were going to someone who is allergic to nuts on this day, but it is quite delicious to also add 1 1/2 cups (230g) of honey roasted mixed nuts.
Of course any leftovers will keep very well stores in an airtight container or a large zip lock baggie.
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