Game Day Treats!- Nuts and Bolts - 2 varieties

Nuts and bolts are a great treat and an easy, inexpensive crowd pleaser. There are lots of store bought varieties out there, but they are expensive and full of salt. The best thing about making your own nuts and bolts is that you can put in all of your favorite ingredients, whatever they are. They key to success is to have a good balance between flavours in the base mix. We mixed pretzels with Shreddies peanuts, sesame sticks, Cheese Nips and corn nuts, but you can add whatever you like.


We did a bunch of test runs to determine the best seasoning mix to add before baking them, and we just couldn't make up our minds. We just had to give you more than one option, a sweet and a spicy version!

Makes 20 servings.

Ingredients:

For the Base:

1 cup Shreddies

1 cup Cheese Bits (we used the ones by Kraft)

1 cup sesame sticks

1 cup corn nuts, plain

1 1/2 cup pretzels

1 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts

Sweet and Salty Topping:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary

Spicy Masala Topping:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon ground garam masala

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a large bowl mix all the base ingredients. You can adjust the proportions of the ingredients based on your preference, but it must total approximately 7 cups.

3. In a small saucepan, combine all the topping ingredients and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn off heat immediately.
4. Pour the topping over the base mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon. (topping is hot, do not use your hands to mix)
5. Spread the mixture onto a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, mixing every 10 minutes.
7. When done, let cool before putting mix in a bowl.  Store in an airtight container.