Make your own chocolate bar knockoffs at home

Making your won chocolate bar knockoffs at home is simple. Many popular candy bars can be duplicated at home easily.

Photo Credit: Michael Blackburn
By Christena Palmer

Making your own chocolate bar knockoffs at home is simple. Many popular candy bars can be duplicated at home easily. The ingredients are readily available at any grocery store. With a little practice, you can be making candy bars that look and taste like professional work. Here are a few recipes to get you started and others are easily found on the Internet.

The easiest kind of chocolate bar to make is one with nuts. Any kind will do, such as peanuts or almonds, but they must be dry roasted without salt. When making a simple chocolate bar like this, every ingredient must be of high quality, because there are only two flavors, the chocolate and the nuts, so each much taste wonderful. The way to do this is to buy excellent chocolate and nuts.

2 packages (16 oz. each) of good quality baking chocolate. (This can be milk, semisweet, bittersweet, white, etc.)
1 cup nuts

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, until smooth and creamy. The water in the bottom pot should be simmering, not boiling, or it will ruin the chocolate. Add the nuts and stir to coat. The mixture can then be placed in molds, which are available at any craft store. It is fun to use seasonal molds or a simple bar mold will do nicely. If you do not have a mold, try using a glass dish that has been buttered or sprayed with non-stick spray. Pour the chocolate into the mold or the dish, and allow to harden. Once the chocolate has cooled and hardened, you can simply pop the chocolate bars out of the mold or cut the cooled chocolate into smaller pieces.

Peanut Butter Balls (similar to whatchamacallits)

2 cups peanut butter
1 lb. Powdered sugar
1 square melted butter or margarine
3+ cups rice crispies cereal
24 oz. good quality melting chocolate (milk chocolate)

Mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar and melted butter together until well mixed. Add three cups of rice crispies. You may need a little more than three cups, because you will want the mixture to be handled easily so that it can be rolled into balls. It should not be so sticky that it won’t keep its shape. Roll the peanut butter mixture into balls and freeze for several hours or overnight. When frozen, dip into melted chocolate by placing on the tines of a fork so that any excess chocolate will drip back into the pot. Set each one on a cookie sheet that has been covered with wax paper or parchment paper to harden.

Coconut Almond Bars (similar to Almond Joy)

5 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
14 oz. shredded or flaked coconut
24 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole dry roasted almonds

Mix the condensed milk and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time until smooth. Stir in the coconut. The mixture will be firm. Pat into a greased 9×13 pan and chill in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours. Melt the chips in a double boiler, stirring often. Cut the coconut mixture into 1×2 inch bars. Place 2 almonds on top of each bar. Set the bar on a fork and lower it into the chocolate. Place the finished bars on wax paper to dry.

Homemade Heath Bars

2 cups sugar
2 cups butter (no substitutes)
6 tsp. water
1 pkg. (2oz.) sliced almonds
Â½ pkg. (24 oz.) milk chocolate chips

Stir the sugar, butter and water in a large pan over medium heat until mixture reaches the hard crack stage. Stir in the almonds and pour onto a 12×18 buttered cookie sheet. Let this cool. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, cooking 30 seconds at a time until melted. Spread over the toffee. Allow to dry and then break into bite size pieces.