Homemade Twix Bites

Domestic

Phone calls and notes in the mail can convey love and thoughtfulness over a long distance, but I have found that nothing says ‘we love you’ like homemade treats in the mail. 🙂

These treats were made for the brother of one of my best friends. Her brother and my husband have also become friends over the years and those are the connections that make me happiest to see happen. They’re totally random and stuff like that can’t be forced so when it happens on it’s own, I just love to witness it. He has always been a fan of my cooking, baking, and slightly odder kitchen experiments – so this year I’m sending him a random treat in the mail once a month. January’s treat was Homemade Twix Bites.

This is one of those times when you go all out when you say you’re making something from scratch. If I had said I was making these from scratch and used store bought caramels I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night (I’ll let you decide if I’m kidding or not). Essentially, you make the caramel first, then you measure it out and find that you need to make another batch of caramel because you’re half a cup short. Ahem. Theeeen you make the shortbread base, make the caramel layer (with the scratch caramel of course) and pour it over the base. Once it’s set you cut out bar shapes, dip them in chocolate and you’re done. HOWEVER, that last step sounds a lot simpler and prettier than it really is. When making cake pops, or chocolate covered nuts or berries, it’s a lot easier to handle because you’re dealing with much smaller pieces to dip in chocolate. Also, those things don’t melt when they come into contact with liquid chocolate. The caramel, even chilled in the fridge for hoooours was totally running and falling apart on me when I tried to add the chocolate layer. So I took a moment, made a martini and wished I had bought the chocolate bar molds when I bought the wee chocolate square molds – and then I thought oh yeah those wee chocolate square molds!! I cut my bars into bites and tah dah!! Much, much easier and way prettier looking too.

Caramel (from Food.com):
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate Layer (from King Arthur Flour):
3 cups chopped dark chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Cookie Base (from King Arthur Flour):
1 cup salted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour

Caramel Layer (from King Arthur Flour):
Either double this recipe or make it twice (I made it twice)
2 cups caramel, cut into small chunks
3 tablespoons heavy cream

homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
To make the caramel put all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Just dump it all in.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Mix it up. Microwave it for 6 minutes, taking it out every 2 minutes to stir it.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Let it set. Now start the cookie base! Preheat the oven to 300F, and combine the icing sugar with the butter and the vanilla extract.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Add the flour and mix till incorporated. Mix! Mix! Mix! Spread it in a 9″ x 13″ (ish) pan and bake for about 35 minutes.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Mmmm fresh caramel…. Mmmm fresh shortbread….
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
While the cookie base is cooling, it’s time to make the caramel layer. Pour 2 cups of caramel into a saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons of heavy cream to the caramel and cook.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
This sheet of shortbread is about to be seriously upgraded. Cover it evenly in caramel sauce.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Now it needs to be popped into the fridge for AT LEAST a couple of hours, leaving it overnight will save you much heartache. The chocolate layer is just the standard, melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or in a heat safe bowl over a pan of simmering water) and add the vegetable shortening.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
This is where it got tricky. It is near impossible to ‘dip the bars in chocolate’ without the caramel sliding off. So I put down a layer of chocolate for the bottoms. Then I slathered the chocolate over top. My husband ate these ones. They’re good but ugly.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
See? Yummy but ugly. So very ugly.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
This is when I had that stroke of genius I mentioned earlier. LE DUH. So I filled the mold with chocolate & put a bite sized version on top. I covered those babies with more chocolate and voila!
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Just as yummy and now even prettier. I recognize they will not be winning any presentation prizes, but that’s alright.
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
homemade twix bars with homemade caramel
Since they were mailed, I wanted their little caramel souls to be protected so I wrapped them up in tin foil. Individually!
In case you were wondering, yes he loved them! I’m sure he felt the love that was my husband & I messing around in the kitchen at 3am making these chocolate treats!
2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Kelly  •  Feb 6, 2012 @3:17 pm

    Love, love, love your skills Maytina! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Aww thanks Kelly! You’re so sweet!

    You are extremely talented too!

  2. Mutant Supermodel  •  Feb 8, 2012 @12:26 pm

    OMG those look amazing. I’m drooling.

    Thanks! Me too. I’m super glad I mailed them off and didn’t eat them!

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