Holiday Entertaining

How to Make Twix Bars at Home

by:
June  4, 2014

All week long, our very own Jennifer Steinhauer from Weeknights with Jenny will be sharing recipes from her new book Treat Yourself: 70 Classic Snacks You Loved as a Kid (and Still Love Today). Follow along to win one of five copies we’re giving away -- and to take a trip down memory lane. 

Today: Jenny brings back the crisp, chewy candy bars of Halloweens past with a how-to for homemade Twix. 

Jenny Steinhauer's Twix Bars

Shop the Story

The Twix was my go-to candy bar, my movie companion, my lunchtime fascination, my trade-anything-for-it Halloween treat. When the mini-Twix came out, long after I became an adult who no longer had the metabolism to eat them daily, I thought them heaven-sent, even though their arrival meant I would simply hide in my laundry room and mow down my kids’ trick-or-treat bag’s entire supply. 

In the annals of classic junk food overreach, there was, for a short time in the late ’80s or early ’90s, a moment of Cookies-n-Creme Twix bars, with a chocolate cookie base and an Oreo-like filling in place of the caramel, a devastating development. Thank goodness, the classic seems to have reigned. 

This version is time consuming, but worth it. Just make sure your pan is very well greased when you make your shortbread, or it will be hard to slip it out. Here’s the good news: If the shortbread breaks, you can still set it easily into the caramel. But do NOT stack these once cooled, and especially don’t stack them on top of your Goo Goo clusters, or you will wake up in the morning with a glob of chocolate that you have to pull apart, perhaps in a dark room alone, where no one can see you eating approximately half a pound of chocolate for lunch.

Twix Bars 

Makes 12 candy bars

Unsalted butter, softened, for the pan
1/2 stick salted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (10 1/2 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels
One 14-ounce bag caramels (about 2 cups, or 50 caramels)
2 tablespoons half-and-half

See the full recipe (and save it and print it) here.

We're giving away a copy of Treat Yourself every day this week! To enter to win today's copy, tell us in the comments: What’s your candy bar of choice? We'll pick five winners at random next Monday, June 9th!

Photo by James Ransom. Excerpted from the book Treat Yourself: 70 Classic Snacks You Loved as a Kid (and Still Love Today) by Jennifer Steinhauer. Reprinted by permission of Clarkson Potter Publishers. All rights reserved.

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Jestei

Written by: Jestei

The ratio of people to cake is too big.

31 Comments

Mimi November 30, 2014
Heath bars
 
alisa S. November 2, 2014
Reece's peanut butter cups!
 
alisa S. November 2, 2014
Reeses Peanut butter cups!
 
witloof June 6, 2014
Scharfenberger's milk chocolate. Or a Reese's peanut butter cup.
 
Jenifer S. June 6, 2014
Skor Bar Frozen, yummy!
 
CarlaCooks June 6, 2014
Oh man, Twix are something special. I am also too fond of Lion Bars (not sure if you have those State-side). Nevertheless, Abba Zaba will always hold the fondest place in my heart. As a child, I was allowed to buy 1 candy bar from the little shop by a lake where my family would spend summer weekends. I always picked Abba Zaba. I would let it sit in the sun for 30 minutes or so to get it really gooey, and then devour it.
 
amysarah June 5, 2014
Almond Joy. Those, and the Coconut Patties my grandparents sent from Miami Beach every year, imprinted me early for a lifetime obsession with coconut/chocolate desserts. An Almond Joy is still the one to beat.
 
Alice G. June 5, 2014
I have and always will crave Twix bars as well. Those mini Twix you referred to get me into trouble- they are so small so I can have two or three, which then becomes seven and I would have been better off just having the regular size...
 
Scott L. June 5, 2014
Being an incorrigible Canadian, I will say Coffee Crisp.
 
ATG117 June 5, 2014
unadulterated, good, milk chocolate
 
Melody J. June 5, 2014
I like Kit Kat.
 
N June 4, 2014
PB Max. Miss those things.
 
spiffypaws June 4, 2014
Favorite candy bar? Not enough space to list them here, but twix, butterfingers, and sky bars are in the top 3.
 
mcs3000 June 4, 2014
TWIX - need to try this! Besides Twix, frozen Thin Mints, Kit Kats (especially the ones from Japan), Curly Wurlys + so many more. Can't pick one.
 
Miss F. June 4, 2014
I love me some peanut butter twix.
 
littleknitter June 4, 2014
My favorite candy bar is a Snickers!
 
Evelyn D. June 4, 2014
My candy bar of choice is Kit Kat!!!!!!
 
janecf June 4, 2014
Almond Joy
or Snickers, frozen
 
aargersi June 4, 2014
BUTTERFINGERS!
 
Diana N. June 4, 2014
I love Snickers, although the Midnight Mars Bar is almost as tasty.