The Better (Semi) Homemade Snickers Bar

For a person who takes great pride in baking everything from scratch and ironing her curtains, I am actually very very lazy. Lazy to the point of doing more work than necessary to avoid doing something small. You know what I mean, right? Like when you want to turn off the light. But instead of getting up and walking to the switch, you stay in bed, stretch your leg as far out as you can, point your toes as straight as possible so you can flick the switch off just with the very end of your toe? 

Great! I knew I was not the only one. These semi-homemade Snickers bars were a total toe-to-light-switch experience. I so badly wanted a candy bar, but I so badly did not want to change out of pajamas to go to the store. 

Luckily I had most of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry, then I convinced my mom to purchase everything else while she was out running errands. It is only as I write this post now that I realize I could have just as easily asked her to buy me one candy bar. But there's no fun in that. In the words of Edna Mode, "I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now." 

I consider this recipe to be semi-home made because the caramel was not made from scratch, nor was the nougat (since I used marshmallow creme). I didn't want to deal with scortching hot liquid and candy thermometers. And frankly who has time for that when they are binge watching old episodes of Monk on Netflix? Not I. 

{First chocolate peanut butter layer}


{Layer of caramel being poured over the nougat}

 

By the copious amounts of gratuitous food pictures showing up on your feed, I'm sure some of you may have realized that I got (and am obsessed with) Instagram. 

This great recipe was taken from How Sweet Eats! It's really simple, though it requires some patience for the cooling in between layers. As each layer cooled in the fridge, I took the time to rinse out my pot and start preparing the next layer. Give it a try! This will impress everyone. How many people do you know that make their own candy bars on the reg? Not many. That's what I thought.

RECIPE

bottom chocolate layer

1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter

Thoroughly grease you baking pan. Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into the baking dish and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely.

nougat layer

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped, roughly chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer. Let cool completely.

caramel layer

1 14-ounce bag of caramels

1/4 cup whipping cream

Combine ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth – this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely.

Top chocolate layer

1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter

Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour over caramel and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely.