Gluten-free/Vegan Twix Bars

Welcome to

Saturdays!

Every weekend during this month

will be dedicated to bringing you ideas on

making your very own:

Gluten-free and Vegan Halloween Candy.

Are you getting into the Halloween spirit yet,

Or shall I shove it down your throat for the remainder days of the month?

 Either way, me thinks you wouldn’t mind if these delicious goodies

were shoved into your mouths:

*Homemade Twix Bars*

(((I know I wouldn’t mind))).

Oh wait, now that I think about it, I did end up eating my fair share.

INGREDIENTS:

Makes: However many Twix bars you can take

For the cookie:

• 1/2 c. sorghum flour
• 1/4 c. rice flour (or if you don’t have the flour you can grind up rice)
• 1/4 c. potato starch
• 1/4 c. tapioca starch
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/3 c. sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 stick Earth Balance, cold, cubed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the flours, xanthan gum, sugar and salt together with a whisk until completely mixed.
2. Add butter into flour mix and with a pastry cutter/fork/hand mixer (whichever you have), cut the butter into dough until combined. Make sure the butter stays cold so you have to work fast!
3. Knead dough briefly until smooth, divide in half and chill in fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven at 400 degrees.
5. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper until 1/2″ thick. Cut into rectangle shapes (I used a candy mold so I have to make sure the cookies would fit inside–so I needed the cookies at 3″x1″) Gently using a metal spatula, place cookie dough rectangles onto a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes (to ensure that they will not spread in the oven).
6. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet.
7. Freeze the cookies while you are making the caramel.

For the caramel:

Taken from this recipe

INGREDIENTS:

•  1/2 cup Earth Balance
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk (full-fat, canned)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line an 8 inch x 8 inch pan with parchment or cover a baking sheet with parchment
   In a large saucepan (must be large enough where your candy thermometer will not touch the bottom when you attach it to the pot), put the coconut milk, sugar, butter and corn syrup in a large saucepan.
   Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil stirring continually. Keep stirring. You want the candy to reach 250 degrees (this is the temperature that my thermometer says is semi-hard caramel. Yours might be different though).
   Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
2. Pour into a parchment paper lined pan (8×8 works great). Allow to sit out for a few minutes before placing into freezer for 10 minutes to set.
3. Cut into rectangles with food scissors or a knife. Depending on what size you make your caramels into, these can make anywhere from 40-50 caramels. Wrap extras in parchment paper.

For the chocolate:

• Simply melt Enjoy Life chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave. Go at 30 second increments (1 min 30 sec should be plenty of time), stirring at each stop.
• Do this step last, when you are ready to put everything together.

Putting it all together:

**I bought these super fun candy molds which were so helpful. No worries if you don’t buy one though. You can still do this recipe without it–it just might be a little more difficult.

1. Place a strip of semi-hardened caramel on top of a shortbread cookie (should be same length–if not, simply cut whichever that needs it).
2. If you are using the mold, drizzle some chocolate to cover the top of the mold. Place the cookie and caramel (caramel side down) and pour chocolate into slot in order to cover completely.
3. If you are doing it by hand, place the cookie and caramel into the chocolate bowl and using a spoon, drizzle chocolate until completely coated. Be gentle though–the cookies will be fragile. Set on a a piece of parchment or wax papaer to allow excess chocolate to drip off.
4. Place molds or place of candy into freezer to set.
5. Finally, after 20 minutes of setting, you get to enjoy your HARD WORK!!

Wow, those took forever didn’t they???

But they are worth it.

Especially if you are having a Halloween candy sweet tooth

and are in desperate need for a Twix Bar.

Make these candy bars for your Trick-or-Treaters,

that is, if the kiddos get there quick enough…

Happy Hauntings!