Easter butterscotch peanut butter haystacks with cute chocolate mini eggs are perfect for Easter. Combining sweet butterscotch with tasty peanut butter and more, these chow mein noodle nests are quick, easy and a lot of fun to make. So if you’re wondering how to make creamy peanut butter chow mein haystacks, you will definitely love the simplicity of these no bake treats.
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With just 5 ingredients you can make these gorgeous Easter nest treats. This is a traditional haystack recipe for Easter, combining different textures and ingredients for an amazing flavour experience. Butterscotch haystacks are so cute and so tasty too.
Why You’ll Love These
- Easy: All you need are 5 ingredients and these sweet haystacks with peanut butter and butterscotch chips are so quick and straightforward to prepare.
- Colourful: If you’re making sweet treats for Easter, you will want to use colourful ingredients such as mini chocolate eggs. These chow mein noodle snacks are certainly eye-catching.
- No baking involved: You do have to melt some of the ingredients but you don’t need to put the oven on to make these simple yet wonderful Easter Sunday treats.
Chow Mein Noodle Nests Ingredients
These Easter butterscotch peanut butter haystacks only call for 5 different ingredients. You will need butter, butterscotch chips, peanut butter, chow mein noodles, and candy-coated chocolate eggs.
Use salted butter or sub unsalted butter with a small pinch of salt. Any kind of peanut butter would work so whether your preference is smooth or crunchy, just go ahead and use that.
As for the chow mein noodles, you might be thinking that is a strange ingredient to use in sweet no-bake treats. But they’re perfect. The noodles offer crunch as well as a neutral flavour. They also resemble bird nests so your traditional haystack recipe will look very much like little nests.
How to Make Haystacks for Easter
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.)
Melt the butter and butterscotch chips: The first step in this Easter butterscotch peanut butter haystacks recipe is to melt the butter in a pan. Mix in the butterscotch chips and let those melt too.
Add the peanut butter: Take the pan off the heat and mix in the peanut butter. Let the mixture cool a little then stir in the noodles. You probably won’t need all of them so just add some at a time.
Assemble the chow mein noodle haystacks and let them set: Now spoon this mixture on to wax paper-lined baking sheets and add a few chocolate mini eggs on top of each one. These Easter nest treats then need about half an hour in the refrigerator to set and then you can serve them.
Easter Haystacks with Chow Mein Noodles: Tweaks and Variations
These mini haystacks can be adapted however you like. You might like to swap some of the butterscotch chips for milk or white chocolate chips or use your favourite crunchy breakfast cereal instead of chow mein noodles.
Mini Wheats or All-Bran would work for chocolate peanut butter haystacks, but they wouldn’t look as much like a real birds nest than if you were to make chow mein noodle nests.
Another idea would be broken pretzels since they would also have a nest-like look. Or you could use some noodles and some pretzels to get both flavours and textures in there.
Another idea could be adding some mini marshmallows in there taking inspiration from confetti squares. You can have fun and make these chow mein noodle cookies with peanut butter your own.
Traditional Haystack Recipe FAQs
If you want to make this traditional haystack recipe ahead of time, you absolutely can. They will stay fresh for a couple of weeks in an airtight container, either in the refrigerator or at room temperature. The outside will soften a bit if the temperature is warm, so I recommend keeping them refrigerated unless you keep your kitchen cold.
Now you know how to make haystacks with noodles, you might be wondering whether they’re safe to eat raw. The answer is yes, they are absolutely safe. Actually, ‘raw’ ramen or chow mein noodles aren’t raw at all. They are cooked before they’re dried. If you still don’t want to use them, just sub pretzels, All-Bran cereal or something like that instead.
This means they are perfectly safe to eat, and they add a beautiful crunch to these Easter butterscotch peanut butter haystacks without adding a savoury flavour. They’re neutral-tasting, which means they will work in both sweet and savoury recipes.
There are a few tricks here. First of all, if you don’t want to use the noodles, choose a breakfast cereal that resembles bird nests. Also, the shape should be rounded, so you have the choice of using parchment paper-lined baking sheets or you can use a muffin tin and put each of the Easter nest treats in a muffin cup.
Also, one you add the chocolate mini eggs you can push them down a bit so they look like real eggs inside a nest. You don’t just want them balanced on top.
Easter Butterscotch Peanut Butter Haystacks Recipe
Easter Butterscotch Peanut Butter Haystacks – No Bake Treats
Ingredients
- ¼ Cup salted butter or unsalted with a pinch of salt
- 11 Ounces butterscotch chips 1 bag
- 1 Cup peanut butter any kind
- 14 Ounces chow mein noodles 1 bag
- Candy-coated chocolate eggs I used 3 per nest
Instructions
- Line baking sheets with wax paper.
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Stir in butterscotch chips until fully melted, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Allow to cool slightly (about 3 to 5 minutes).
- Remove about 2 tablespoons of the peanut butter and butterscotch mixture and set aside.
- Carefully stir in chow mein noodles into the remaining mixture. Add half a bag to start and then add a little at a time, until evenly coated. (You might not need the entire bag)
- Using a ¼-cup measuring cup, spoon chow mein mixture onto prepared baking sheets.
- Use the set aside peanut butter and butterscotch mixture to help adhere candy coated chocolate eggs securely by dipping them into mixture and pushing them into the centre of the nests (2 to 3 per nest).
- Finally, refrigerate them for half an hour or until set.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Easter haystacks are so cute and absolutely perfect for Easter. They are no-bake treats that you can make a week or so ahead of time if you like.
This peanut butter haystack recipe with chocolate mini eggs and crunchy chow main noodles is a real winner. And you can add more ingredients like dark chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and extra butterscotch morsels. The chow mein noodle nests are quick, easy, cute, and delicious!
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a storyteller, food lover, dog mom and adventure seeker living on the Pacific coast. She shares her passion for food, dogs, fitness, adventures, travel and philanthropy, in hopes of encouraging followers to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places and stand for a cause. Bella lives with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease.
These are adorable and so even easy enough for me ha ha