Homemade Snickers chocolates

A Snickers bar is one of my favourite chocolate bars: this is my “cheat’s take” on this.

Homemade chocolates are fun to make and one of the many advantages is tailoring the flavours to your preferences.

Over the years I have recreated some of my favourite commercial chocolate bars with my take on Twix, Crunchie and Bounty. The recipe links for these can be found at the bottom of this page.

These mini Snickers might seem a bit fiddly, but it is actually quite straightforward to make these using effective shortcuts.

Even with shortcuts, good quality ingredients make all the difference. With this recipe, salted peanuts are essential (unsalted just doesn’t work as well), as are good quality peanut butter and chocolate:

Peanut butter

I used a sugar-free, smooth peanut butter that does not contain palm oil.

Some of the peanut butter is mixed in with the chocolate for the outer covering. This not only adds flavour, it prevents the chocolate from setting too firm: for some chocolates, such as these, I like a soft bite.

Chocolate

A good quality milk chocolate make such a difference to the overall flavour, so choose a brand that you enjoy eating.

You can temper the chocolate for a crisper finish, but just using melted chocolate here, combined with some of the peanut butter, is both simpler and quicker. By mixing with the peanut butter you get a gorgeous mouth-feel and a delicious flavour: it is almost going down the gianduja route.

Quick peanutty caramel

You can use caramel from a tin for simplicity and speed – I tend to use the Carnation caramel but a Dulce de leche is fabulous! It simply gets mixed with crushed salted peanuts.

Easy nougat

Butter, peanut butter and bought mini marshmallows, make a good shortcut nougat. You just heat them together (the microwave is ideal here), beat well and leave to set. When cooled, it goes stretchy and pliable.

Actually, balls of this nougat dipped in melted chocolate makes for a great sweet in its own right!

To use this nougat, simply tear off pieces and roll into small balls, stretching them a little as needed. They then get popped into the moulds: no need for a perfect fit! I sometimes roll out a large piece of this nougat into a thin sausage strip and cut off 2cm or so.

Moulds

I use flexible silicone moulds (including cake pop moulds) with small holes for these chocolates rather than the solid plastic moulds, as they are easier to turn out. Once the chocolate has set, they pop out easily and in one piece!

Recipe: homemade Snickers chocolates – makes about 16

Chocolate covering:

• 200g milk chocolate, melted
• 40g smooth peanut butter

Peanut caramel layer:

• 200g thick caramel such as Carnation or Dulce de leche
• 60g salted peanuts, roughly crushed

Nougat layer:

• 50g smooth peanut butter
• 100g marshmallows, mini or larger
• 40g unsalted butter

To finish:

• dark chocolate, melted

You will also need silicone moulds, a few sheets of greaseproof and a palette knife or long ruler

(1) For the chocolate covering, stir the peanut butter into the chocolate until smooth.

(2) Spoon this chocolate mixture into the moulds, coming at least half full and tilt a little to start to coat the sides. Invert fully a few inches over a sheet of greaseproof for a few moments to catch the chocolate drips until no more chocolate drips down onto the greaseproof. Run a palette knife or ruler across the top to clean it up a little.
NB: these chocolate drips will be re-melted later for sealing the chocolates.

(3) Place the mould on a clean sheet of greaseproof, chocolate facing down. Chill this to set fully.
NB: this helps the chocolate set evenly around the inside of the mould. If you leave it chocolate-side up, the chocolate will pool into the base of the moulds making it too thick there and too thin around the sides.

(4) For the peanut caramel layer: mix the caramel and peanuts together.

(5) For the nougat: microwave the marshmallows in short bursts until they swell and just start to melt. Add the butter and the peanut butter and stir well until you have a smooth mixture. Let this cool fully: it will be quite elastic and pliable, with a bit of a bounce to it.

(6) Roll out pieces of nougat to a thin sausage and cut about 2cm pieces or take small pieces of it and roll into a ball, flattening or stretching slightly with your fingers: you can lightly oil your fingers if the nougat sticks.

(7) Spoon a little peanut caramel into the set moulds, coming to just under half full. Pop a piece of the nougat on top and press down gently so that the caramel fills up any gaps. You want a little space (a few millimetres) between the nougat and the top of the mould as this will be filled with melted chocolate to form the base when turned out.
NB: alternatively, you can pop the flattened nougat pieces into the set chocolate mould first, pressing lightly to more or less cover the base: it doesn’t have to be a perfect fit. You then spoon the peanut caramel over this.

(8) Re-melt the chocolate that had dripped onto the greaseproof earlier and spoon a little over the tops. Shake the moulds gently to help the chocolate settle.
NB: if you have chocolate spilling all over the top of the mould, run a ruler or spatula gently over the top to give a clean finish when turned out.

(9) Chill until the chocolate has set and turn out of the moulds: the beauty of using silicone moulds here is they simply pop out. You can pipe or drizzle over dark chocolate (for a visual contast), milk chocolate or leave them as they are.

Anyone for Twix, Bounty or Crunchie?

Recipe: Bounty

Recipe: Crunchie

Recipe:  Twix