Leprechaun Bait: If you’re looking for fun snacks for St. Patrick’s Day for your little leprechauns, this leprechaun bait (aka leprechaun chow) is it! Your whole family will love this mix of white chocolate, cereal, sprinkles, and M&Ms!
Quick Overview: Cover the dry cereal with melted chocolate chips, stir in the sprinkles and let it dry on a baking sheet. Break up the snack mix, stir in the M&Ms, and your leprechaun bait is ready to snack on (or add to your leprechaun trap)!
Why you’ll love this recipe
I’m not sure about your house, but in our house, we make “leprechaun traps” in March. It’s a fun craft activity and the kids get really excited about it.
As we all know, the only thing leprechauns love more than shiny gold coins is tasty treats! (Especially when those shiny gold coins are on a St. Patrick’s Day charcuterie board!)
So of course we had to come up with a fun treat; leprechaun bait (or in other words, a St. Patrick’s Day snack mix!) It’s similar to our other snack mix recipes, like our Bunny Bait and our Christmas Chex Mix!
Whether you use this leprechaun bait for your craft or as St. Patrick’s Day party food, it’s sure to be a hit with everyone! The crunchy cereal and the sweet chocolate mixture are a little bit addictive and such a great treat (just like our white chocolate lemon puppy chow, oh gosh). You’ve been warned!
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Ingredients for leprechaun bait
You can get everything you’ll need to make this leprechaun bait at your local grocery store. You know us, we like recipes with simple ingredients that can be made quickly and easily (because it doesn’t have to be difficult to be delicious)!
- 1½ cups white chocolate chips – we prefer Ghirardelli (see substitutions for other suggestions)
- 3 cups rice Chex cereal – can use corn Chex, but rice is preferred
- 1 cup Kashi honey toasted oat cereal – can use cheerios, too
- 1 cup green M&Ms
- ¼ cup green & white sprinkles
- green cookie icing if desired
Substitutions
I know that sometimes it can be hard to find the exact type of ingredients used in a recipe. Just know that you can mix things up to fit what you have on hand or to match the flavors you prefer!
This leprechaun mix recipe is very forgiving, so feel free to substitute items to make it your own! For instance:
- Corn Chex instead of Rice Chex
- Cheerios instead of Kashi cereal
- Different green candies
- White baking discs or almond bark instead of Ghirardelli white chocolate chips
- Add in Lucky Charms marshmallows
- You can use wax paper instead of parchment paper
Variations
If you love the look and sound of this mix but want to change it up to fit the holiday you’re making it for, head to the store and see if you can find candies/cookies/snacks in the color you’re aiming for. For instance, pink candies for Valentine’s Day, red and green for Christmas, etc.
How to Make this Quick & Easy Leprechaun Bait
- First, thinking ahead, grab a large baking sheet and cover it completely with parchment paper.
- Next, melt the chocolate baking chips in a large bowl (large enough that the cereal will fit in it after the chocolate is melted) following the package directions for melting. (Most will be to melt on half-power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Do NOT overcook.)
- Once the chocolate is completely melted, pour your dry cereal in to the bowl of white chocolate and carefully stir to mix, trying to make sure all of the cereal becomes covered.
- Next, pour in half of the sprinkles, and stir.
- Once mixed, pour out your chocolate covered cereal on to the parchment paper and spread it out so most of it is in a single layer. (It’s ok if some of it’s still touching – you’ll be breaking it up in to small pieces anyway once it’s hardened.)
- Sprinkle the reamaining sprinkles on the top of the cereal before the chocolate hardens and then drizzle it with as much green cookie icing as you’d like.
- Allow cereal/icing to “dry” (about 20 minutes – the icing is what takes longer to dry) and then break up the cereal in to small bite-size pieces. (Remember, this is a snack mix so it’s ok if some of cereal is stuck together but large pieces are harder to eat when snacking.)
- Next, it’s time to add in the M&M’s and mix all together! You can either mix it all together in the large bowl or you can pour the M&M’s on top of the broken pieces of cereal and mix it with your hands.
- Serve and enjoy!
Storage
Store this leprechaun bait recipe in an airtight container or bag at room temperature and it should stay good for up to a week (unless the sneaky leprechauns get it first).
Or, if you want to bag some up in cellophane bags for fun St. Patrick’s day gifts, and share some yummy treats with classmates or neighbors, that would be an amazing idea too!
Expert tips and FAQs
For St. Patrick’s Day, green party food is always a hit!
Think green punch (by mixing green Kool aid with ginger ale), green vegetables, green pinwheels (using spinach wraps), Lucky Charms Rice Krispie Treats, Lucky Charms blondies, mint brownies…
Typically the menu at St. Patrick’s Day is “Irish” (or some variation of it). This usually means serving things like corned beef and cabbage, Irish potato candy, potato soup (we’ve got a really easy potato soup recipe you could use), and for the grown ups maybe a green Guinness!
Related Recipes
Are you looking for more recipes and ideas to make your St. Patrick’s Day extra special? Why not start your day off with these Lucky Charms pancakes, or these chocolate mint cupcakes, and maybe whip up some Lucky Charms blondies for an afternoon snack?
📖 Recipe
Leprechaun Bait
Ingredients
- 1½ cups white chocolate chips we prefer Ghirardelli (see substitutions for other suggestions)
- 3 cups rice Chex cereal can use corn Chex, but rice is preferred
- 1 cup Kashi honey toasted oat cereal can use cheerios too
- 1 cup green M&Ms
- ¼ cup green & white sprinkles
- green cookie icing if desired
Instructions
- First, thinking ahead, grab a large baking sheet and cover it completely with parchment paper.
- Next, melt the chocolate baking chips in a large bowl (large enough that the cereal will fit in it after the chocolate is melted) following the package directions for melting. (Most will be to melt on half-power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Do NOT overcook.)
- Once the chocolate is completely melted, pour your dry cereal in to the bowl of white chocolate and carefully stir to mix, trying to make sure all of the cereal becomes covered.
- Next, pour in half of the sprinkles, and stir.
- Once mixed, pour out your chocolate covered cereal on to the parchment paper and spread it out so most of it is in a single layer. (It's ok if some of it's still touching – you'll be breaking it up in to small pieces anyway once it's hardened.)
- Sprinkle the reamaining sprinkles on the top of the cereal before the chocolate hardens and then drizzle it with as much green cookie icing as you'd like.
- Allow cereal/icing to "dry" (about 20 minutes – the icing is what takes longer to dry) and then break up the cereal in to small bite-size pieces. (Remember, this is a snack mix so it's ok if some of cereal is stuck together but large pieces are harder to eat when snacking.)
- Next, it's time to add in the M&M's and mix all together! You can either mix it all together in the large bowl or you can pour the M&M's on top of the broken pieces of cereal and mix it with your hands.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Kristyn says
My kids love everything about this treat!! We leave town this week & this would be a great one to make & take with us!!
Jessica says
Oh that’s a great idea to have this mix as a road trip snack!
Gina Ceraso says
SO much fun! My kids loved this!
Jessica says
Hi Gina! That’s wonderful! So glad the kids liked this St. Patrick’s Day mix too!
Melissa says
YUM – Great way to make something special on St. Patty’s Day!
Jessica says
We think so too, thank you!!
Jess says
Made this tonight but with rainbow sprinkles not green and lucky charms instead of the kashi cereal. The kids loved it (and I “taste tested” my fair share, too 😂).
Jessica says
Haha! Yay!! I’m so glad you were able to make it. I love the idea of using rainbow sprinkles!! Thank you for sharing!