Butterfinger Bars

Do you like Butterfinger candy bars?  If you say no, then we can’t be friends anymore.

I happen to love Butterfingers!

These homemade Butterfinger Bars were so easy.  Almost a little too easy, if you know what I mean.

With 3 ingredients

And in 3 minutes

They were done

First ingredient: Candy Corn.  If you have leftover candy corn from Halloween or a surplus that’s just burning a hole in your cupboard, you can use it to make these.

Or you can make Candy Corn Cookie Dough Pretzel Bites, too.

Second ingredient: Peanut Butter.  Everyone has this.  I know there’s no shortage of nut butter in the cupboards of bloggers and blog readers.

Third ingredient: Chocolate chips.  Everyone has these, especially if you read my blog.

Now everyone can have these.

They’re so easy and spot on with the flavor of real Butterfingers that these are dangerous.  I’m not even kidding.

I’ve always wished I could just have Butterfinger centers.  Fold back the chocolate and just get to that flaky-textured, peanut buttery-flavored orange stuff.  I’ve also wished I could duplicate just that orange stuff at home.

And now I have.

 

Butterfinger Bars (Vegan, Gluten Free Options)

1 c candy corn (to keep vegan use Vegan Candy Corn or make your own homemade vegan candy corn – there are tons of recipes online, google it)

1/3 c peanut butter

3/4 c chocolate chips, for the top layer

Directions:

Line a small baking dish with aluminum foil, parchment, or plastic wrap.  Make sure you have this ready to go. (I used a 5 x 5 Gladware plastic container meant for leftovers that I lined with foil and also sprayed with cooking spray)

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the candy corn.  This will go fast.  Approximately 30 seconds (50-60 seconds, max).

Have your peanut butter waiting on a big spoon and the second you take the candy corn out of the microwave, stir in the peanut butter.  If it hardens up on you too fast, place mixture back into the microwave for 10 seconds or so, until you can stir it to be smooth.

Take your smooth mixture and put it into your baking dish, pushing it down with a spoon or your hands.  Work quickly.  Place this into the freezer.

Next, melt your chocolate chips.  If you want more/less of a chocolate layer, use more/less chips.

Remove the baking dish from the freezer, pour melted chocolate over it.  Place in freezer and allow to set up for 10 minutes or so, slice & enjoy.

Tips:

Spray your microwave-safe bowl with cooking spray before you add the candy corn and begin microwaving and melting it.  It will dramatically help with cleanup.

Line your baking dish with aluminum foil, parchment, or plastic wrap.  It will dramatically help with cleanup.

Double or triple the recipe as needed in a 1:3 ratio, i.e. 1 cup Peanut Butter to 3 cups candy corn, and use a 8 x 8 baking dish or similar.

You could make Butterfinger Truffles by cutting squares or rectangles with a knife or pizza cutter of the hardened orange mixture, and then submerging those into a chocolate bath.  I personally did not need the entire bar coated in chocolate because it’s quite rich just having chocolate on one side, but to each her own.

Here was my Gladware container that I made them in.  First I poured down the orange layer, and let that cool.  Then I poured down the chocolate layer and let that cool.  Sliced and ate.

Tastes.just.like.a.real.Butterfinger

It’s unreal how close the candy corn + PB mixture approximates the taste of that orange Butterfinger center we’ve all come to know and love.

Or that I have come to know and love.

In terms of texture, they also have that flaky crisp and crunch like store-bought Butterfingers.  And boy, did those flakes ever make for plenty of photography out-takes.   Note to self: flaking candy bars are not easy to work with.

The homemade bars have a slight degree of chewiness to the orange center.  Not much more than store-bought Buttefingers, but just a tiny bit of extra chew, which I enjoyed.

And even if you’re not a candy corn fan, the bars don’t taste like candy corn.  They taste like Butterfingers!

Because I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, the chocolate is darker and richer on the homemade Butterfingers bars compared to store bought, which have more of a milk chocolate coating.  I prefer dark to milk chocolate, any day.

I also opted to just keep the chocolate on top, rather than dunking the entire thing into a chocolate bath.  You could, but these were plenty rich with just chocolate on one side, and that’s saying something especially coming from me.

And as I said in the recipe portion, you could also make the orange pieces smaller and dip or fully coat them witth chocolate, thereby making Butterfinger “Truffles”

These are my take on Butterfinger Mini’s.

These are so easy.  Go on, make some.  I know you’ve got candy corn lurking in your cabinets, and if you don’t, go buy some just to make these.

Questions:

1. Do you like Butterfinger candy bars?

You could of course just buy Butterfingers, but then you wouldn’t get to re-invent the wheel but that would take the fun out of wondering what to do with leftover candy corn.

The other nice thing is that you control what goes into these.  You know what ingredients are going in, so in a roundabout way, somehow they are probably better for you than storebought Butterfingers.   You know, because candy bars of any type are good for you and all, right?

2. What do you do with your leftover Halloween candy?

I’ve seen chocolate bark that’s sort of a candy bar dumping grounds, i.e. throw in bits of Snickers and Milky Way hunks, add M & M’s and gummi bears, whatever you have on hand, add it all to melted chocolate, spread on a sheet pan, and create a candy bark smorgasboard with your leftover candy.  Any type of flavor combo goes.

I’ve also seen the same principle but applied to popcorn.  Popcorn, plus candy bar odds and ends are added, then a caramel mixture is made and poured over it, bake it all in the oven for 10-20 minutes, and candy bar infused caramel corn is born.

Nothing like a few low-sugar recipes, eh?  Just go to Pinterest and if you need ideas.  Prepare to drool.

3. Halloween Plans?

Be safe and have fun.  Those are the two golden rules.

My plans involve this

Need other homemade candy recipes?

Candy Corn Cookie Dough Pretzel Bites (No Bake)
Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
White Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
No-Bake Vegan Chocolate “Turtles”
No-Bake Vegan “Peppermint Patties”

And if you have one spare second, could you please Vote for Me in the Delta/Biscoff Bake-Off.  Thank you!  I really appreciate it.