Chinese New Year Chocolate Candy

You can make a nice treat for Easter with this recipe. I omit the peanuts when I do this, but that's just my preference. Make them drop style and make an indent in the centre with your thumb to form a nest. Chill, and when they've set, fill the indent with a few Jelly Beans or Cadbury mini-eggies. Kids love them!

Tastes great, and so easy to make. I found the squares hard to cut, and about 1/4 of it ended up as crumbs. Next time, I will make individual cookies, as mentioned previously. I will also use a bit less noodles, so it sticks together better.

I love the candy but found it easier to drop the candy by teaspoon rather than try to cut it later, because it crumpled too easily.

Thanks for providing this roadmap to our creativity, Sam. These were great. Since we really enjoy our chocolate and butterscotch in separate doses, I made mine with just the chocolate chips and added raisins, mini marshmallows and toasted slivered almonds. There are many many variations to this great recipe. Thanks for sharing!

This is a family tradition for the holidays in my house. One suggestion- I "drop" the combined ingredients onto wax paper then chill instead of trying to cut them.

my husband loves these things! He use to get these at a deli close to his work. They later closed and he hasnt had them in about 10 years, but always remembers them. He said the ones he had didnt have peanuts, so I made half the recipe with peanuts, half with out. very enjoyable snack!

This was very good! I didn't want to make a large amount of this recipe so I used 1 cup of chocolate chips, 1 cup of crushed chow mein noodles and 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts instead of peanuts. I omitted the butterscotch chips. I used a heaping coffee spoon as a measure and dropped it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. I sprinkled it with grated coconut. This made 15 pieces of candy.

This isn't a particularly Chinese dessert (they wouldn't indulge in something so sweet), but it's a fun recipe nonetheless with Chinese elements (the chow mein).

Sam! Thank you! My girlfriend made these for me one year. They were wonderful! I decided to try them myself, but she's out of town and hasn't checked her email and I found myself with out the recipee on the day before baking day! Thought I'd give the net a whirl and found this recipee with two clicks, no kidding! Happy Holidays!

I substituted white chocolate chips for chocolate and they were wonderful. I ha a hard time getting the chips to melt to a good consistency so I had to add some Gulf wax to it. This is my favorite so far of all that I have made!

These are great. I've been making them since I was a teenager. But there is an EASIER way. Line cookie sheets with waxed paper. Drop the warm mixture by the spoonful onto wax paper and let cool overnight in fridge. I took these to a boyfriend once and when he saw them, he asked "What is that? Chocolate covered Tarantula?". Since then, I've made "Tarantulas" for my family every Christmas. They always ask "Where's the Tarantulas?"!

Fantastic candy! I do homemade baked goods instead of giving out store bought gifts to my family. I added these to the mix this year and took them to my Grandpa's house this past weekend and they were ALL GONE by the end of the night! Instead of baking them in a pan, I spooned them out into Christmas printed baking cups. Thanks for Sharing!

My mom made these every Christmas. They're so easy! As others have mentioned, we just drop spoonfuls onto wax paper to set up.

This recipe is easy to make but very sweet. I crushed the noodles a little and made mine into drop candy instead of putting it in a pan. Great recipe just too sweet for us.

I make these all the time but I don't put them in a pan. I drop them by teaspoons on waxed paper. So much easier.

I've been using this recipe for years. I always made drop cookies with it. What a great idea to put it in a pan! Used a few less noodles and peanuts and turned out great.

I have made these for years they are always a big hit!!!

These were good and very easy to make. Nice sweet snack especially if you like something crunchy!

Simple and delicious!

Love, love, love it. I am so insanely sick of baking Christmas cookies. This was a nice break. No measuring. No mixers. No hot ovens. Just dump the bags of chips, melt and mix in the rest of the stuff. I substituted marshmallows for the peanuts. My kids like that much better.

I learned how to make these during preschool years ago, only we called them Haystacks. I make these with my oldest every once and a while for something fun for he and I to make together. It's very kid friendly.

This was fun to make and change it around. Later on I made this variation and it was a huge hit: I used the chips but nixed the nuts and instead added marshmallows and cherry chocolate chips during the mixing.

making this as a gift for Chinese New Years but tasty anytime. So easy

I made this with 1 can of chin. noodles, 1 cup of nuts, and 2 cups of chips, melted....put nuts and noodles in large bowl, melted choc. and stirred altogether thorougly....then dropped on wax paper with a teaspoon (heapint) they were very good and we could not stop eating them....def. i would make again.

Yummy! I've been making this since I was 6 years old. The only thing I do differently is that I make individual candies by dropping spoonsfuls on a baking sheet. Then I stick them in the fridge or freezer until chilled. Then just stick them in a ziplock bag and keep in the fridge. Also, if you don't have peanuts, you can use walnuts or any other nut you like. Enjoy!

A huge hit! I made this for a family diiner (30+ people) and everyone kept coming back for more.

EASY RECIPE. GOOD TASTE.

So much fun especially for children! I agree in that I think the origins of this recipe are American and not Chinese (the "Haystacks" recipe I saw submitted by a European American on the back of an American Food Product last summer) but who cares because the sweet is a cool idea. Fusion? This recipe dates back at least to the 1960's or earlier. I have also seen variations which use Corn Flakes, Pretzels, and even Potato Chips instead of the Chinese Chow Mein Noodles. Remember that there are many varieties of Chow Main Noodles also to try of various widths etc. My husband is Chinese and in general he says the Chinese culture does not like things that are TOO sweet but they do sell Poki Sticks (sp?) that are like thin crisp bread sticks dipped in chocolate. And they do have Chinese Bakeries that sell items similar to rich Europan Style Baked Goods that in general are lighter and less sweet. Thank you Sam Mei for this good idea to Celebrate CNY !!

This was a hit at an office Christmas party. It was super easy to make and quite good!

Be prepared to make more than one batch of these candies. Instead of a 9 by 13 pan I made cookies by spooning a large tablespoon of mixture onto wax paper. This recipe was enjoyed by young and old.

I grew up on these. I can remember my mom making them when we were kids. When kids were able to actually go trick or treating without any worries, my mom would give these out to the neighbor kids and they loved them! Now that im dating myself, BIG time, I will say that these are delicious and an old time favorite. I still make them at Halloween but only for family & friends, to keep up my mom's tradition!

It looks good!

Absolutely delicious! Made exactly as the recipe stated, and I wouldn't change a thing.

We had a chocolate social at an event I went to and these were snapped up so fast! And they're so easy to make. Will definitely do again.

I think I would try these in drop form as suggested by one of the other reviewers instead of in bars if I did it again.

Tasty and easy. Its a great recipe to have the kids help with because they can do most of it. I always melt the chips in the microwave, then add the peanuts & chow mein noodles to the bowl, saving extra clean up time.

Very tasty candy! Enough said.

Excellent used drop method

This is a recipe my family has been making since I was a kid. The only difference is we drop by tablespoon on wax paper and refrigerate, AND KEEP REFRIGERATED - it gets melty and not as delicious if you store at room temp (Probably because of the butterscotch chips in them). Eating them cold is an art, though, as the chow mein noodles bite into your cheek and gums! ENJOY!!!!!!