Homemade Snickers Bars

Insanity.

That’s what this is. Pure In.San.It.TEEEEE.

You know those days when you’re in desperate need of sugar and you’ve already downed more gummy vitamins than recommended while seriously considering how many more you can ingest without causing severe harm to your internal organs? They’re just so gooooood.

Well… in that case you should make some homemade snickers bars. Because I definitely did that.

And I KNOW you know what I’m talking about.

I spent the majority of my pre-pubescent and adolescent years scheming just how I would be able to steal my brothers’ Halloween candy. Snickers were always my favorite, and the boys weren’t huge fans so more often than not, they would hand them over. But sometimes… they kept them just to spite me. Brats.

Then I went through a SERIOUS phase of those Snickers ice cream bars. I swear they only had like 4 in a package or something but I could easily take down 2 for dessert. As kids, we were rarely allowed candy bars, but my mom had no issue with buying bags of fun-sized candy because, well… when things are fun-sized it means the calories don’t count.

And that you can eat a million of them.

These days, it’s rare that I crave actual candy, often preferring some chewy cookies or super rich cheesecake or a bar of amazing chocolate that costs thrice as much as the recent organic meyer lemons I purchased. But snickers are in my blood.

They are the peanut butter to my jelly.

The salt to my pepper.

The broccoli to my… wait, no.

This recipes comes from my friend Nikki who, well… I didn’t even know until Instagram and Twitter.

But now Nikki is like my bestest friend ever. Because when someone emails you a recipe for homemade snickers bars, they are your BFF for life. I mean, who else has my best interests at heart like that? I don’t even know.

And the fabulous part? This is SO EASY. So, so, so, so, so easy. Like, had-five-drinks-and-a-recent-breakup-easy. It has four distinct steps and in print seems slightly intimidating, but it isn’t whatsoever. I promise. I swear. I even had every single ingredient on hand. And not just because I’m a hoarder. Would I lie to you?

I’m not even going to waste your time trying to convince you to whip up a batch because, uhhh…. look at them. They are irresistible. Literally… considering they ruined two of my family members’ January diets.

Now that’s a win.

Homemade Snickers Bars

[recipe from Nikki, who lightly adapted it from and old Taste of Home recipe]

makes one 9×13 pan

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.

Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, then cut as desired. These can stay at room temperature, but they do get gooey. I like them refrigerated best!

Note: for best results, buy one of the half-sheet aluminum cake pans at the grocery store. That way, you can pop the entire square out and cut from there!

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