I’m not going to lie to you here, these are going to take the better part of your afternoon to make – but not all at once. There’s a lot of chilling and rechilling and setting and chilling again. So make sure you make this for someone who will really appreciate it, or someone you’re really down with – or both! I made these for our friend Steve’s birthday this weekend. He’s got a bit of a serious sweet tooth. His cake was even more epic than these – more on that later this week. I’m happy to report he loved them, his girlfriend loved them and their guests loved them too! Winning all over the place.

So, they are labor intensive because they’re made in four separate steps and they need to completely set up and cool off before you pour the next layer on top or you’ll totally wreck it. No pressure though haha. Also, I should note that even if they set up properly, they’re a pain in the ass to cut free from the pan and this whole production might have gone a lot smoother (and prettier) if I had made them in chocolate bar molds. When I made Twix Bites a few months ago, I made a mess and then I used molds. I’m about 4200km (or 2609 miles) from all my cool kitchen gear so I had to make due, however I’m totally ordering chocolate bar molds like, right now.

First you’ve got the base chocolate layer, then the nougat, then caramel (I reeeeally recommend you make this from scratch) and then of course the top layer of chocolate. So let’s get to it!

Homemade Snickers Bars – via How Sweet it Is
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
             *
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
1 tsp vanilla extract
             *
Homemade caramel (or 1 14-ounce bag of caramels & 1/4 cup whipping cream)
             *
1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

So first, melt 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips with 1/4 cup peanut butter over medium low heat until creamy and then pour/spread into the bottom of a well greased 9 x 13 pan. You can use a smaller pan, up to about 9 x 9 (each layer will be thicker but there will be fewer pieces overall and it will take longer for each layer to set). Let this cool and then totally set in the fridge. Now, onto the nougat.
Melt the butter and the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in the evaporated milk.
Add the marshmallow fluff (sadly it has to be the crap from the store or it wont set right) and once that’s incorporated, the peanut butter.
Chop up the peanuts roughly so there are still some big chunks in there! Stir that into the saucepan.
Let this cool off a bit before you pour it over the bottom layer! The bottom layer will be cold and set in the fridge by now, but if you pour crazy hot nougat over it, you’ll melt it! I let it cool for about 10 minutes or so before I poured it over the chocolate. Pop this back in the fridge and set your sights on caramel!
I made Amish Caramel (the only real difference I found between Amish Caramel and the Microwave Caramel I made in February for the Twix Bites is that Amish Caramel takes longer and is a bit of a pain in the ass). I will explain Amish Caramel in a different post, so in the meantime, either use about 1 3/4 cups of the Microwave Caramel or melt a 14oz bag of caramels with 1/4 cup of whipping cream. Either way, let it cool off some before you pour it over the nougat! Put it back in the fridge while you prep the top layer of this ridiculously amazing treat. The top is the same as the bottom, so again melt 1 1/4 cups of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup of peanut butter in a saucepan and pour it over the caramel layer.
Let these babies set up overnight in the fridge and they’re ready to be attacked the next day! You can probably get away with just a couple of hours in the fridge but they’re worth the wait! We dug into the tray while I was at their house, and hours after I left I was getting texts that they were still being devoured and loved. Best compliment ever.
This pic was taken the next day as they sat down with the tray – and a spoon. Love!!

I had been trying my hand at vegan baking for a few month when we made a friend with a pretty severe milk allergy. 2/5 of us are lactose intolerant so we are no really that big on milk anyway, but I have always left dairy in the recipes I use and it never seems to bother us the way a bowl of ice cream might. But even a cup of milk in a batch of muffins was too much for our new friend and I had made fudge for the kids that he had to miss out on.

Thankfully, I found this kick ass recipe on Averie Cooks and it was super simple to make and even more importantly, it’s delicious and free of chemicals and rando garbage store bought fudge is full of!

Vegan Fudge via Averie Cooks

1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1/2 cup coconut milk not light
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the margarine and coconut milk over medium heat until blended. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, combine chocolate chips, sugar, and cocoa, then pour the hot melted butter and coconut milk over top.
Mix! Mix! Mix!
Pour into a brownie pan and pop in the fridge for about an hour or two to set up.

We make a lot of Rice Krispie treats around here. I don’t mean like, a few times a month a lot, or ever once a week a lot. I mean, like, a lot of Rice Krispie treats. My husband snarffles down a handful as a midnight snack, my oldest requests them in his lunch nearly everyday and the girls are all over them. Sometimes I add things like wheat germ or ground flax seeds to them and no one is ever the wiser, in this case however, I added more sugar to them via the addition of sugar cookie mix. I know, I know. A treat comprised mostly of marshmallows and I added more sugar? Blame Jaclyn over at Cooking Classy for this one. Aren’t her pictures so cute?! Don’t they make you want to run to your kitchen and whip up a batch? You’re a dirty liar, I know they do.

Ahem.

I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some cookie mix because DUH I don’t keep that shit in my house on the regular. Theeen, I ran to my kitchen and whipped up a batch – with my husband because he was intrigued. I was messing with one of his favorite snacks, so he wanted to know what was up.

After we made them, (sorta) let them cool and iced them, they were good but not so much better than regular Rice Krispie treats for me to add the cookie mix to them all the time. It did get me thinking though, if adding sugar cookie mix made them taste sort of like a sugar cookie, what about adding chocolate cookie mix? Is that even a thing? It must be. Or maybe the same amount of brownie mix? I will have to experiment!

As I mentioned above, the recipe was originally posted at Cooking Classy.

Rice Krispies: 1/3 cup butter 1/8 teaspoon salt 5 cups miniature marshmallows 1/2 cup sugar cookie mix 6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

Frosting: 1/4 cup butter, softened 2 tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla pinch salt 2 cups icing sugar

I trust that you know how to make Rice Krispie treats, but here’s the blow by blow anyway.

Melt the butter and the marshmallows together till it’s soupy.
Now add the sugar cookie mix and mix till it’s dissolved. Then add the Rice Krispies and stir until they are all coated with marshmallowy goodness. Press them into your pan/s and let them cool off a bit.
For the frosting, beat the butter, milk, vanilla, salt and icing sugar till it’s the consistency you’re going for. If you want thicker frosting, add more icing sugar. Spread it over the top of your cooled Rice Krispie treats and you’re done. Well, add some sprinkles or something to make them festive!

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desserts, no bake, rice krispie treats