Homemade Autumn Harvest Chex Mix Recipe

When the leaves start to turn and cooler weather hits, there's just something about turning on the oven for some fall baking. While pumpkin anything is certainly an excellent choice, this homemade "autumn harvest" Chex mix recipe serves up fall flavor plus a dose of childhood nostalgia. The mix of Chex cereal, pretzels, and pecans coated in a sweet and salty pumpkin spice glaze is enough to get your taste buds ready for fall, and the apple chips and candy corn are an extra nod to the flavors of autumn. 

Recipe developer Kate Shungu says, "Fall brings a sense of coziness in the Midwest where I live, so when it's sweater weather, I love to make a batch of Chex mix to warm up the house (bonus: it also makes the house smell amazing)." This version has that irresistible sweet and salty combination, and lots of texture — it's crispy, crunchy, and chewy — excellent for game day food, a treat for a class party, or a fun snack for after school.

A trio of Chex cereal (wheat, rice, and corn) make the base of this recipe, along with pretzels and pecans. Those are tossed with a mixture of butter, corn syrup, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda, then baked until golden. Candy corn and apple chips add even more fall flavor. 

Preheat the oven to 250 F.

Pour the corn Chex, wheat Chex, rice Chex, pretzels, and pecan halves onto a large baking sheet. Mix gently to combine.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup.

Heat over medium heat until the brown sugar is dissolved, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt.

Pour the sugar mixture over the Chex mixture, and stir gently to combine.

Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and transfer the mixture to wax paper to cool completely, breaking it up gently as needed.

Stir in the dried apple chips and candy corn, and serve.

The beauty of Chex mix is that its endlessly adaptable. Add lots of mix-ins for a fun and festive mix, or keep it simple with just a few. Minimalists can swap the pumpkin pie spice for cinnamon, and stick with just apple chips and pecans for the mix-ins. Maximalists can go all out with peanut butter flavored candies (such as Reese's Pieces), candy corn pumpkins, mini marshmallows, Bugles, Cheez-Itz, M&Ms in Halloween colors, and circus peanuts for an extra loaded Chex mix. You can even switch up the cereal to Cheerios or Kix. Just be sure to add anything that can melt after the Chex mix has already cooked and cooled. Bugles and Cheez-Itz are fine to add to the mix before baking, however. They'll get even more toasted and delicious. 

For Halloween, make the mix extra spooky with some gummy fangs, gummy eyeballs, gummy worms, or gummy ghosts (you'll definitely want to add those after baking). Lastly, fans of pumpkin pie spice can double the seasoning for an extra kick of warm spices and fall flavor. 

Traditional Chex mix is seasoned with a mixture of butter and spices, which helps the Chex get toasted in the oven. But sweet Chex mix has an added element of brown sugar and corn syrup, which creates a caramel like glaze on the cereal. 

In order for the glaze to not get too hard, two elements are needed. First, removing the sugar from the heat before it gets too hot, and second, baking soda. When making caramel, sugar is cooked to a specific temperature so that the candy holds its shape. We do not want a hard, brittle coating on the Chex, however. So we'll remove the sugar from the heat just after it dissolves. 

The second element is baking soda. When baking soda is added to the sugar mixture, it'll bubble and fizz (just a little!). This is a chemical reaction caused by the baking soda releasing carbon dioxide. The end result is a lighter and airier texture to the caramel glaze, which helps it coat more pieces and not weigh them down.