Vegan Butterfinger Candy Bars

Butterfingers are one of my all-time favorite candy bars. Something about that crunchy peanut butter and thin layer of milk chocolate works realllly well with my taste buds. It’s funny because I’m not a huge fan of peanut butter-flavored things in most circumstances (believe it or not, I don’t LOVE Reese’s) but I seriously LOVE Butterfingers. I love them so much that I decided to try and make them for myself, and voila! They turned out great!

For this homemade vegan Butterfinger recipe, I made it more ‘adult’ by using dark chocolate and natural sweeteners. It would be so, so easy to make homemade Butterfinger by just melting together some peanut butter and sugar and covering the whole thing in milk chocolate, BUT I was hoping to go a little bit above and beyond just for the fun of it. This Butterfinger recipe is made with crunchy peanut butter, maple syrup and coconut sugar, which makes it a little healthier IMO. Add a splash of vanilla and a sprinkle of cinnamon for spice to get a perfect balance that takes these Butterfinger bars from a 10 to a 20. Honestly, there are only a few ingredients in these vegan Butterfinger bars, including the not-so-secret ingredient that makes sure these bars have that signature Butterfinger crunch.

That ingredient is… Cornflakes. It’s funny because I had literally every ingredient for these homemade Butterfingers on hand except for Cornflakes! I don’t eat cereal, but you’ll need to add Cornflakes to this recipe to make sure your Butterfinger candy bars are crisp and crunchy and not dense like a Reese’s (which would also be yummy, but not what we’re going for here). If you want to use a gluten-free “Cornflakes” brand, more power to you! I used the regular kind.

Ready to make some homemade candy bars? Good, because this recipe is really quick and easy and will go by faster than you think! I recommend picking up a few kitchen essentials like these if you don’t already have them:

• Loaf pan

• Wax paper

• Coconut sugar

Let’s eat!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/3 c maple syrup

• 1/4 c coconut sugar

• 1 c peanut butter, creamy or crunchy

• 2 c Cornflakes, lightly crushed

• 1/4 tsp vanilla

• pinch of cinnamon

• pinch of salt

• 10oz vegan chocolate (I use Trader Joe’s), broken into pieces

Directions

1. Line a loaf pan with wax paper.

2. Pour the maple syrup and coconut sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer and stir for about 1 minute, until it’s all melted.

3. Turn off the heat. Add in the peanut butter and spices and stir. Mixture will be thick.

4. Add in the Cornflakes and stir until all pieces are well-coated.

5. Press the cereal mixture into the loaf pan. Freeze for about 1-2 hours.

6. Once the cereal mixture is hardened, lift the wax paper out of the loaf pan. Slice the peanut butter bars into rectangles.

7. Now, place the chocolate in a medium bowl and microwave at 15s intervals, stirring frequently, until completely melted.

8. Dunk each peanut butter bar into the melted chocolate so it’s coated on all sides. Place each bar on a plate lined with wax paper and freeze for about 30 minutes until hardened. Time to eat!

Adapted from: Flora and Vino