If you love all things pumpkin spice in the fall, our allergy friendly Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddies are for you! Our fall-inspired puppy chow recipe is made with white chocolate and pumpkin spice, and it’s completely dairy free, peanut free, gluten free, and vegan.
Are you team apple spice or pumpkin spice? I personally love all of it, I don’t have a favorite between them. If you love any and all spiced treats in the fall, we made our Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddy recipe for you!
We took the original Chex muddy buddies recipe and made allergy friendly ingredient swaps and added our own fall twist to make them white chocolate pumpkin spice flavored.
Just in case the food police come knocking, there is no actual pumpkin in this recipe, just pumpkin pie spice mix. It still tastes amazing without actual pumpkin and it’s just as easy to make as the original puppy chow recipe.
This recipe also makes great gifts or party snacks for school since it’s peanut free, tree nut free, and school safe when made with our suggested ingredients.
Our muddy buddies are:
- Dairy free
- Vegan
- Gluten Free
- Peanut free
- Tree nut free (depending on the dairy free butter you use)
- Soy free (depending on the dairy free butter you use)
How to make pumpkin spice muddy buddies
This recipe for muddy buddies (or puppy chow) is just as easy to make as the original recipe, we just made a few swaps so making this pumpkin spice flavored doesn’t add any additional work!
Here are the steps for making this recipe (this is just an overview, the full recipe card is at the end of the pot):
- In a large bowl with a tight fitting lid, measure out your Rice Chex cereal (or Corn Chex). Make sure the lid is tight fitting or you’ll get powdered sugar everywhere (speaking from experience). Set aside.
- In a small microwaveable bowl, add the dairy free white chocolate chips, dairy free butter, and Sunbutter.
- Microwave for about 45 to 60 seconds until the butter and white chocolate is melted.
- Stir together until combined and mixed well.
- Add the vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon to the white chocolate mixture and stir again.
- Pour this mixture over the rice cereal and stir until everything is well coated, making sure not to crush the cereal too much.
- Add the powdered sugar to your coated cereal, cover with the tight fitting lid, and shake it around until everything is well coated with the powdered sugar.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container or in a ziploc bag for up to 3 to 4 days.
Can I add food coloring to make this recipe orange?
If you want to make these orange to look more like pumpkin spice in color, you can add some food coloring to the chocolate chip/Sunbutter mixture with the vanilla in step 5.
I tried using the natural McCormick color powders to make these a bit more orange, but I didn’t have enough color powder to make this noticeably orange and I worried that adding too much would change the texture of this recipe, so I didn’t add enough to really change the color to orange.
A concentrated liquid food coloring would work best for making this recipe orange if you want to do that. Of course adding coloring to this is completely optional of course, we didn’t add any to the ones in the photos. They still look and taste amazing without an “orange” pumpkin color!
Ingredient notes for our pumpkin spice puppy chow
There are a few ingredient swaps you can make in this recipe if you need to for other food allergies or if you need to swap for things you have on hand. Here are some substitutions you can make.
Dairy free white chocolate
Our first batch I made with the rest of our Great Value allergy friendly white chocolate chips, then the second batches I made with the Enjoy Life mini white chocolate chips. Both brands worked perfectly in this recipe!
I really like the Great Value allergy friendly white chocolate chips, but for some reason our local Walmart stopped carrying this item recently, so I have to order the Enjoy Life allergy friendly white chocolate online since no one has it in stores in my smallish town.
You can check out our post on replacing dairy in cooking and baking for recommendations for other white chocolate brands!
Sunbutter or nut butter
Sunbutter tastes great in this recipe, but you can also use other mild tasting nut butters if you can have tree nuts, such as almond butter or cashew butter.
Cashew butter would also taste great in this recipe since it’s mild tasting, just make sure that if you’re using cashew butter, use one that is creamy, well blended, and isn’t very runny or separated or you may have wet/oily cereal and have to add extra powdered sugar.
Check out our other gluten free pumpkin spice recipes!
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- 60+ Gluten Free and Dairy Free Pumpkin Recipes
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes
Peanut Free Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddies
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups Rice Chex cereal (or Corn Chex)
- ½ cup dairy free white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup Sunbutter
- 2 Tablespoon dairy free butter (we used the Country Crock avocado oil plant butter sticks that don't use soybean oil)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl with a tight fitting lid, add the Rice Chex cereal and set aside.
- In a small microwaveable bowl, add the dairy free white chocolate chips, the Sunbutter, and the dairy free butter.
- Microwave this for 45 to 60 seconds until the white chocolate and dairy free butter is melted. Stir everything together until smooth.
- Add the vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon to the white chocolate mixture and stir again until mixed in and smooth.
- Pour the white chocolate mixture over the Chex cereal and stir to combine, until everything is evenly coated. Make sure to try not to crush too much of the cereal as you stir.
- Add the powdered sugar to the coated cereal and cover with the tight fitting lid, and shake it around until the cereal is evenly coated with powdered sugar.
- Store at room temperature in a an airtight container or ziploc bag for up to 3 to 4 days.
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist