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Hi everyone! Sigh….. well after weeks of trying and failing I am coming to you to share my experience.
This was my journey into making a homemade peanut caramel chocolate bar better known as Snickers.
I don’t know what it is about this time of year but it’s a curse. I always struggle with recipes around this time of year. My halloween brownie recipe was born because the recipe that I had planned for that week, failed back in October last year.
Do Snickers have Nougat?
Snickers are made up of 3 components nougat on the bottom layer with chewy salted caramel with crunchy peanuts on top and all encased in chocolate.
What The Heck Is Nougat?
Nougat candy is a soft and airy confection made from beaten egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup, and honey. It can have roasted nuts like hazelnut, pistachio or almond also dried fruit folded up into it or like in a candy bar, just plain white nougat.
Nougat comes in many different styles from all around the world like german nougat, Italian nougat, french nougat and viennese nougat.
What Is Nougat Made Of?
Like I said before nougat is in general made with egg whites, sugar and/or honey, water, and corn syrup. Different styles of nougat have different quantities of all of these things to produce different outcomes.
For example the French style, which we will be using in this recipe, has a higher quantity of honey and is the softest of the nougat styles.
Granulated Sugar V.S Corn Syrup and Honey In Nougat
A very important ingredient in a nougat mixture is the kind of sugar that is used. In nougat, you get a stretchier texture when you add more corn syrup than granulated sugar and you get a texture that breaks off more cleanly when you add more granulated sugar that corn syrup. For a snickers bar that is what we are looking for.
This is because these products contain 2 different kinds of sugar. Granulated sugar is sucrose while honey and corn syrup contain fructose. Sucrose block fructose bonds from forming and making your nougat stretchy.
The honey aids in the soft texture of this nougat. This addition making it French style nougat.
How To Make Meringue Without Cream Of Tartar
The first part of making nougat is making a meringue. A meringue is pretty simple. However, there are a few things that you can do to ensure success.
Rule 1 – The first is make sure everything is super clean. Any fat that comes in contact with egg whites will prevent it from whipping up. You can whip and whip and whip and nothing will happen. It might get a little frothy but not much.
You should use a stand mixer ideally to make it easier but if you must do it by hand using a metal or glass bowl is best because plastic can be scratched when you are washing it and scratches can trap fat and make your egg white not want to whip.
Rule 2 – Room temperature eggs also whip up quicker and better than cold.
Rule 3 – Start whipping your egg white on medium speed. Once bubbles start to form, start streaming in the granulated sugar slowly not all at once.
At this point just continue whipping until you get stiff peaks.
Temperature Matters!
Getting the temperature right in this nougat was a challenge to say the least. What I learned is that temperature matters.
You have to watch it like a hawk and take it off at exactly 280•F.
I cannot stress to use a candy thermometer on this enough. And to make sure you are cooking over medium low heat to control the temperature as best you can.
If you are even 1 degree over, disaster. The hotter the temperature the harder the nougat. The lower the temperature, the softer the nougat.
Do Snickers Have Peanut Butter?
The nougat in a Snickers is peanut nougat. So I put smooth peanut butter in at the end. The important thing to remember here is that the peanut butter has to be in a pourable consistency and you can do that in 2 ways.
You can heat it up in the microwave for 30 seconds on in a double boiler until you get a leaky and pourable consistency.
What Happened With My Homemade Nougat Attempts
The first few attempts of this part of the recipe, I did not put sugar in the egg white to start as well as I did not use honey. The additional honey gives the nougat it’s softer texture.
The sugar in the egg whites to start is very important because adding sugar to egg whites makes them stronger so you aren’t as likely to have the egg white deflate. Which can spell disaster for this recipe. What we you are looking for is a fluffy, marshmallow like texture.
The next element of this recipe that gave me trouble was the peanut butter. It must be heated up so that is at a pourable consistency. If you just shovel it in with a spoon not heated up the whole thing will deflate and you will have a soupy mess.
The last thing I had to fight with is the temperature of the sugar syrup. I first took the temperature to 270•F. That ended up being too loose and soft and ended up looking like this.
Then I tried 300•. Way too hard and crumbly.
Then I tried 280•F. Perfect!
Do Snickers Have Caramel?
The second component in a snickers is the peanut caramel. The recipe that I used was a bit like my caramel sauce recipe but with the addition of corn syrup to make it stretchy.
Do Snickers Have Peanuts?
Snickers do have peanuts that are mixed into the chewy caramel layer when it’s finished.
How To Make Easy Peanut Caramel
Unlike nougat, you do not need a thermometer for caramel. Just your eyes. Starting with sugar, corn syrup and water, cook that down until you get a dark amber color.
At that point, turn off the heat and add in the heavy cream, butter, salt like sea salt, salted or roasted peanuts, vanilla extract and salt.
My Attempts At Making Peanut Salted Caramel Layer
Snickers are a chewy caramel candy bar as well as with nougat. I had a couple attempts at the caramel as well and the first time, I did not wait long enough and when I was cooking the sugar and so the caramel did not have that deep, rich, dark, salted caramel flavor. So just don’t be afraid to burn it and be patient.
The second time, I let it get to that deep amber color and then turned off the heat and added my heavy cream and butter mixture. I then pour the salted caramel mixture into a prepared pan to cool completely.
The Chocolate
In a store bought snickers chocolate bar, they use milk chocolate, but I really wanted to dial down the sweetness of this chocolate bar so I used semi sweet chocolate. You could also use dark chocolate.
How To Temper Chocolate
Tempering chocolate is further explained in my How To Make A Homemade Chocolate Bar” post and my “Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups” recipe but basically tempering is the process of heating chocolate up and then very gently cooling it down so that when it comes to room temperature and sets it is breaks cleanly, does not melt in your hand and is shiny.
You can use chocolate chips but those have dusting on them that makes them a little sturdier so they won’t melt so easy. A high quality callabaut chocolate or a cauverture works best. Those are meant to be melted chocolate and tempered.
Microwave Method
This is a method that you can use where a thermometer is not needed. Start by taking out 25% of your chocolate and setting that aside. With you 75% of chocolate, heat the chocolate in a microwave safe plastic bowl in 30 second intervals stirring in between until the chocolate is half melted and then 15 second intervals stirring in between until completely melted.
And then I stirred in that extra chocolate to cool that bulk chocolate down to a temperature of 89•F before using.
The Polycarbonate Chocolate Mold That I Used
Usually to make any of my candies I use a silicone mold but this time I couldn’t find one and the polycarbonate mold that I found was perfect.
The only issue with polycarbonate molds is that if your chocolate is not tempered just right, it will not pop out of the molds.
Putting The Chocolate Caramel Bars Together
All you have to do now is cut the filling into bars. Actually, do this before you temper the chocolate.
It is extremely important to remember to make the nougat and the peanut caramel separately and put them in a prepared pan lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil to cool and set and then merge the two once they cool and set. Otherwise, this will happen.
When each element is ready, cooled and set, you will stack the nougat on top of the caramel and give that about half an hour to settle. Then cut them into bars.
Temper the chocolate and then fill each candy mold. Press a bar of filling into each mold. Press it as far down as it will go. Cover the back of the bar with the excess chocolate that has leaked out. Add more if needed.
Allow about 5 minutes to set.
If there are any question, please let me know but and that’s pretty much it! That’s how to make a peanut caramel chocolate bars or Snickers Bars. Thank you so much for joining me today.
These are tons of other fall festive recipes to try out on this blog as well like these sliced caramel apples. There are a lot more recipes on my main menu as well. Just go to the search bar and type in “Thanksgiving” or “Fall”. You are sure to find something you love.
Leave me a comment for any questions that you might have or any suggestions for anything you want to see next.
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Homemade Snickers
A homemade version of the classic snickers candy bar. A bar of caramel with peanuts on top of a bar of nougat and encased in semi sweet chocolate.
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Nougat
- 1 egg white
- 170 g of Granulated Sugar (divided)
- 60g of Honey
- 60 ML of Corn Syrup
- 30 ML of Water
- 113 g of Smooth Peanut Butter (heated up to a pourable consistency)
- 1/4 of a Tsp of Salt
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Peanut Caramel
- 1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 of a Cup of Light Corn Syrup
- 1 TBSP of Unsalted Butter
- 1/3 of a Cup + 2 TBSP's of Heavy Cream
- 1/4 Cup of Water
- 1/2 tsp of Salt
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
- 2/3 of a cup of halved peanuts
Chocolate Coating
- 12 oz of semi sweet chocolate
Instructions
Peanut Butter Nougat
- Combine the 170g sugar, 60g honey, 30g water and 60g corn syrup in a medium sized sauce pot. Cook until the mixture hits 280*F exactly.
- Seporate the egg and put the white into your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until the egg white starts to get frothy.
- At that point sprinkle in the salt followed by 16g sugar. Increase the speed to high continue beating until you get stiff peaks.
- When the sugar mixture gets to 280•F slowly stream it into the egg while the mixer is still beating on high.
- Continue beating on high until the mixture cools to 140•F.
- Slowly stream in the heated up peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until incorperated.
- Transfer into a prepared sheet pan sprayed with nonstick spray and let cool completely before covering the nougat and putting it in the fridge to set. About 5 hours.
Peanut Caramel
- Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water and cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches a dark amber color. Take off the heat.
- Add the heavy cream and butter. Stir until incorperated.
- Add the salt, vanilla extract and peanuts. Mix until combined.
- Pour into another prepared 8x8 pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Leave at room temperture until cool and then cover and chill for 8 hours to set.
Cutting The Filling
- When the nougat is set, roll it out to 1/4th of an inch thick. Cut to fit on top of the caramel.
- Melt the top of the caramel a bit with a kitchen torch of lighter to make it sticky. Press the nougat on top.
- Cut the filling into bars that are slightly smaller than the dimensions of the mold.
- Place back in the fridge.
Tempering Chocolate
- In a microwave safe bowl, add 75% of your chocolate.
- Heat on high in 30 second intervals stir in between until the chocolate it half way melted.
- Then melt on high in 15 second intervals stirring in between until completely melted.
- Add in the other 25% of chocolate. Mix until fully melted.
- Test if chocolate is in temper by spreading a small amount of chocolate on some parchment paper. It should be very shiny when set. If it isn't in temper, Let the mixture cool more and test again. It should be at 89•F.
Forming The Snickers
- Fill the molds with the melted chocolate.
- Press in the bars of filling into the mold. Letting the excess chocolate goosh out.
- Use a bench scraper to scrape the excess chocolate over the exposed back of the bar. Use excess chocolate to cover if needed.
- Use the bench scraper to even out the chocolate.
- Set bars aside at room temperture to harden.
Notes
For the nougat, if the peanut butter is not heated up to a pourable cosistancy, the meringue will just deflate and will not be able to be beaten up at all.
You might need a frend to help you hold the bowl while you scrape the nougat out. It can be difficult to get it out.
If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below, message me on instagram, facebook or leave me an email.