Some foods are pure evil. Because you can't not eat the whole thing in one go. They are just so super delicious and addictive that your self control immediately flies out the window...This is one of those foods.
And yes, they're homemade Butterfingers. And yes, they're healthy. As in no weird chemicals, no transfats, no refined sugar, and high in protein. But you still don't want to be downing the whole thing in one sitting... so only make it when you have guests or some other way to ensure that you won't finish the whole thing yourself.
I blame my friend Cori for introducing me to this recipe. I first made it the way it is listed on Chocolate Covered Katie's site, and it was super awesome... But I still felt guilty about making it, since it had white sugar, and because the honey it used was super expensive. I have this thing- I use non refined sugar in my foods most of the time. And sometimes I will use refined sugar, but rarely. But I feel like it's a waste of money to use an expensive non refined sugar, like honey, together with processed food- it feels like it cancels each other out. ;) So yea, I stopped making this recipe.
And then I decided to tweak it, to make it refined sugar free. And to find a cheaper alternative to honey for the recipe.
So I replaced the honey and the molasses with date syrup/date honey, since date syrup/honey has a sort of molasses like taste anyhow, and replaced the sugar with coconut sugar. It came out awesomely. Now I have less guilt, both financially and health-wise about making this.
I use gluten free corn flakes for this- to keep this entirely refined sugar free, make sure to use a sugar free version of corn flakes. And to keep this refined sugar free, either use refined sugar free chocolate chips, or use homemade chocolate.
Of course, if you want to, you can make the recipe like the original, but my version is vegan and refined sugar free and costs me half the price it would cost me to make it with honey.
If you want to make this grain free, I suspect that it would work with these homemade grain free coconut flake "corn flakes", minus the stevia, but I haven't tried it myself, so if you want to try it, let me know how it comes out.
Healthy Homemade Butterfingers Recipe- Refined Sugar Free, Gluten Free, Vegan
Ingredients:1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon date syrup or 1/4 cup honey plus 1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or sucanat or white sugar)
1 cup peanut butter (use pure peanut butter, no junk added, to keep it healthiest. Mine is 100% peanuts.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flakey cereal- to keep it gluten free, use gluten free corn flakes. Otherwise regular corn flakes or bran flakes work.
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chocolate (use homemade chocolate chips if you want to keep it refined sugar free but can't find store bought refined sugar free chocolate chips)
Instructions:
1. Mix the date syrup (or honey and molasses) with your coconut sugar (or sucanat or sugar) in a pot and bring it to a boil.
2. Let it boil for one minute, then turn it off.
3. Mix in your peanut butter and salt. You should do this relatively quickly, but you don't need to drive yourself crazy. Just mix it in well.
4. Add in your flakey cereal, mixing it very well so it is all coated.
5. Press your mixture into a baking pan. I use a 9x9 silicon baking pan, but any container with similar dimensions should work. You should want it spread out thinly.
6. Place in the freezer for half an hour or so to harden.
7. Melt your chocolate chips in a double boiler. If you're using homemade chocolate chips, no need to make them, harden them, break them, and melt them again- just skip that step and go immediately to step 8.
8. Spread the melted chocolate all over your peanut butter/cereal mixture.
9. Return to the freezer for 2-3 hours to completely harden.
10. Break up/chop up into serving size pieces before serving.
Enjoy, and try not to devour the whole thing in one go!
Are you a fan of chocolate? Or peanut butter and chocolate? Do you like Butterfingers chocolate bars? Does this look like a recipe you'd try out at home? What version do you think you'll try?
Tags
candies
dairy free
desserts
egg free
frugal recipes
gluten free
made from scratch
nightshade free
recipes
refined sugar free
snacks
treats
vegan
vegetarian
I love butterfingers but they're a double whammy - gluten and Nestle. I will definitely have to try these!
ReplyDeleteNot a peanut butter fan, although when I was a kid I devoured something called Koogle, which was chocolate and peanut butter together, to be used in a sandwich. Then it disappeared, and I went back to hating peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make this -- hey, it's sweet -- but since I have a lot of hazelnuts and my goal is to use up my food storage before we move, I'll make hazelnut butter to use instead. Then...let's see.. no flaky cereal but there's homemade granola so let's use some of that or quick oats because I'm not sure anymore what I put in the granola...homemade date honey or something kinda like by cooking dates (have those!) in water (have that!) and I have lots of chocolate...well.. it won't be much like a Butterfinger. I think it'll taste good though. At least it'll use up some of the storage. Thanks, Penny!
I was really hoping for something that tasted like Butterfingers...I was a little disappointed. That said, they do taste pretty good :)
ReplyDeleteNext time, I would crush the cornflakes a bit before using them - I really think it would make a difference.