Snickers and Mars bars

 Here's to the mighty Snickers bar, and here's to making it (sort of) by yourself (sort of) at home (sort of)!!

I know I've talked about this recipe once before, but I found myself making two batches this month, one with peanuts (like a Snickers) and one without (like a Mars Bar).

So, if you ever really wanted to know what's involved in making your own, here's the (less than) skinny on the process.

(And maybe this will be my last set of parentheses!)

Bottom Layer Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

Nougat Layer Ingredients:

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

Caramel Layer Ingredients:
1 14-ounce bag of caramels
1/4 cup whipping cream

Top Layer Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

It's really not a lot, this process just TAKES TIME since every layer needs to cool enough to hold its own before you add another one on top of it.  I'd plan on at least an hour per layer, even if you use the fridge, because you really want that pretty set of layers to come out evenly when you're down.

 Directions (Bottom Layer):
1. Buy a 9x13 disposable pan and spray it with a non-stick cooking spray.  You really want disposable and you really want to grease it up.  Trust me on both.  It makes the final steps the easiest.
2. In a microwave safe dish/measuring cup, melt together the bottom layer ingredients over 90 seconds, stopping every 30 seconds to stir, or until completely melted and combined.
3. Spread out melted PB chocolate goo into prepped disposable container, set in fridge to solidify.

Directions (Nougat Layer):
1. Melt butter in your pan over medium heat, then add your sugar and milk and bring to a boil.  Stir well so everything dissolves nicely.
2. Cook for about five minutes, still stirring from time to time.
3. Add fluff, PB, and vanilla - keep stirring!  Make it smooth.

 4. Turn off the heat and fold in the peanuts (for Snickers), or don't (for Mars bar)
5. Pour and spread over cooled and set bottom chocolate layer.  Stick that puppy back in the fridge for another hour.

Directions (Caramel Layer):
1. Combine caramels and cream in saucepan over low heat.  Stir until smooth (10+ minutes).
2. Pour over nougat and return to fridge for another hour.


 Directions (Top Layer):
1. In a microwave safe dish/measuring cup, melt together the bottom layer ingredients over 90 seconds, stopping every 30 seconds to stir, or until completely melted and combined.
3. Spread melted PB chocolate goo on top of other three set layers.  Put back in fridge to solidify one final time.

 Directions to Serve:
This is the part where you're really thankful I told you to use a disposable pan...

First, peel back the edges if your pan.  You'll see how nicely the layers have set, making it super simple for you to take them out of the pan.

I just flip it upside down and peel off the bottom.  The flexibility of the disposable pan helps.  If you're super-anti-disposable pan, then try to use a silicon one or something with equal amounts of flex.

 Next, take your nicely sharpened knife and cut it up.  You can make bars, squares, or whatever your heart desires.  I'd store them in the fridge because the chocolate will go soft if you leave it out too long.

When I make a double batch (two 9x13" pans), I can keep them in the fridge for about two weeks and they still taste amazing.  I can't vouch for longer than that because they really won't ever last once people have tasted them.



Try it.  You'll never want to go back to your standard Snickers/Mars bar again.  I promise.

Fudgy Peanut Butter Bites

 This is such an easy "cheater" dessert.  If you love the chocolate and peanut butter combo, you might just be thanking me with this one (and it's feasibly done within 15 minutes!)  Of course, you could make it more from scratch, but half the fun is how easy this is.

My ingredient list:
1 pkg. peanut butter cookie dough (I could only find it with chocolate chips, but who hates those?!)
1 C sweetened condensed milk
1 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 C of chopped peanuts (more or less, optional)

My cookies were pre-cut into 24 squares.  I chopped each in half and dropped the half into a Pam sprayed mini muffin pan.

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned and the cookie is firm.

The great thing is that in the oven, your squares become circles and puff.  Once you take them out, they cave to make the perfect little cups.

Cool for a minute or so before removing from the pan.

While they are cooling, this is the perfect opportunity to make your fudgy filling.

Fill a 2 C (or more) microwaveable measuring cup with 1 cup of sweetened, condensed milk and 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Microwave from about 1 minute, stopping halfway to stir.  Once the chips are completely melted, stir the mixture and place a dollop in each cookie cup.

Move quickly when filling the cookie cups because your fudge will set fairly firm as soon as it cools.  I would try to do the filling all in one setting so you don't have to reheat the fudge and compromise it's makeup.

I wasn't going to chop any peanuts to put on top, but the cookies seemed so plain, and I really wanted people to realize that there were peanuts in the cookies, so I quickly chopped some lightly salted peanuts and sprinkled them on top.  I lightly pressed some into the fudge so that they wouldn't just keep rolling off.

I had a hard time convincing people that I made them myself.  And I really {kind of} did, so I totally deserve the credit.  As does BHG for the original recipe that I only vaguely modified.

Two-fer Tuesday!

In order to celebrate my benevolence today (Thomas is coming home, how could I not feel in great spirits?!), I'll doling out two recipes for the price of none!  Yay!!

The first is an easy and relatively healthy Thai Lime Chicken.  I love a good peanut flavored dish, so this was a no brainer for me.  Plus, it only has five ingredients, of which I just needed to buy the lime, so that was a HUGE bonus.

 Of course, I also had the added bonus of being able to use my Pampered Chef Citrus Press...  It always makes my life so much more simple!

You juice the lime over the chicken (top and bottom), and then coat the chicken with your peanut/ginger/garlic mixture.

How easy is that?!  Plus, it doesn't take terribly long to cook, so it's an easy dish all around.

Bake it at 375 for about 25 minutes.

Oh, but that other dish?  The side dish for this one?

Yeah, I might have made it with Brown Rice, so in this case, the side took longer than the main.

Ah well.

For my side, I threw some peppers on a skillet to cook them through.  Didn't add oil, salt or anything, just cooked them to an al dente.

But the long rice dish I made, that was a skinny knock off of Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice.  I used barely any oil, and only salted the water.  We're trying to be more heart healthy, so this was an experimental dish.

 I used barely any oil, and only salted the water.  We're trying to be more heart healthy around the house, so this was an experimental dish.  However, it was still tasty, and the brown Jasmine rice held up well again.

Definitely impressed.

So that was my two-fer.  Thomas gave them all a thumbs up, and the flavors complimented each other nicely.  Plus I made a double batch of the rice to sue as a side dish for weeks to come!

Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Snickers!

Home made Snickers?  Sounds like a great way to spend a Friday afternoon, right??

Actually, it's like your entire Friday.  Not because it's really labor intensive, but because it takes a long time to cool all of those layers into their yummy goodness!

 The recipe is here, and I followed it to the T.

 The chocolate, melted with peanut butter, is amazing by itself.  It just means that the chocolate doesn't really set unless cold.  It melts quickly in your hands, so I've found it's better to keep it in the fridge while it's not being eaten...  if you can keep it that long!

The nougat is amazing as well.  I hate working with marshmallows or marshmallow fluff, but it's totally worth it.

I couldn't find chopped peanuts -  is that even possible in this day any age?!  No worries, I chopped them myself with a knife.  I was just surprised, that's all.

It was amazing I didn't burn the caramel.  It goes quickly.  Almost did, but that's what I call the authentic, "home made" effect! 

 

The hardest part about this entire process is waiting between all of the layers.  The nougat melted the first chocolate layer, the caramel started to soften the nougat, and so on down the line.  I LOVE that the original blogger suggested using a throwaway aluminum pan for this.  It made removal so simple.  The only realy change I made was I cut the 9x13 of Snickers before adding the top layed of chocolate, and then I just dipped the pieces into the final chocolate and drizzled the extra on top.  I made some "bite sized" pieces, but most of them were about 1.5" squares.  Since I've been keeping them in the fridge, thinly slicing each piece helps with eating it, but really it's gone before you care that much, anyway.  Regardless, outcome: AMAZING!