Saturday 26 March 2011

Nigella's sweet and salty Crunch Bars

We were invited to a birthday party of a one yr old fella last weekend and this was on the menu. It tasted so good, I actually ate quite a bit of it. Even Ro for that matter kept going back and taking two or three pieces each time and I had to ask our host how it was made. She said she saw it on Nigella's show and gave me an outline of what it was, and some tips as well.

A few days later, I wrote to her asking if she had a concrete recipe and she passed on the details. Exchanged a few emails, googled a bit and there, I was ready to make the yummiest chocolate bar ever!
I mean I gasped when I saw the amount of butter it used, but what the hell...when its a one time thing, its OK to go a bit berserk right? I made this a couple of days back and have stored it in an air tight container in the fridge and its perfectly fine. Ro takes it to work for his sweet intake after lunch and I munch on it when I'm desperate for a sugar high. I am thinking this will make perfect 'take to a friends house' gift or do it up it small colourful wrappers and it would be great at parties as well.
The recipe has been adapted from her show and from here
Dark chocolate- 200 gms
Milk chocolate- 100 gms
Butter- 125 gms
Golden syrup- 3 tbsp
Unsalted peanuts- 250 gms
Cadbury's Crunchie bars- 4 x 40 gms
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Place a saucepan on low-medium heat, break the chocolate into smaller chunks, add butter and golden syrup and melt.
While that's taken care of, in another bowl break the Crunchie bars into smaller chunks and add the peanuts to it. Add the salt and mix well.
Take the chocolate-butter off the heat and stir to check if you have a smooth mix. Tip in the peanut-Crunchie bar mix into the chocolate and stir gently to coat the nut mix. 
Pour on to a foil tray (which is ideal) or on to any baking dish and smoothen it out evenly.
Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.
After the bars have set well, remove them from the foil tray and cut into smaller pieces and store in an air tight container.
Notes: The original recipe calls for salted peanuts, but I was advised that they were a tad too salty and so I went with regular peanuts and added the salt just to get that salty feel.
The chocolate too, you can make it all milk, all dark or equal quantities. We prefer dark choc to milk ones, but since I was a little concerned about it being too bitter, I decided to use 100 gms of milk chocolate.
You can also use any nut of your choice...hazelnuts, cashew nuts, walnuts etc
Using a foil tray is great because the whole thing just comes off as a large bar and you can chop it up on a cutting board.
Updated to add: A lot of you wrote in asking what Crunchie bars are..well they are like a honey comb coated in chocolate and is made by Cadburys in the UK. It may be available elsewhere as well but for those who cant get a hold of it, Nigella has her own version of the Crunchie bars called Hokey Pokey and you can make it on your own. Its super easy, here is the link http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/hokey-pokey-36
Sending this to Food Palette series brown over at Torviewtoronto

47 comments:

Raksha said...

I love chocolate in any form.

Tina said...

ivide manushyan vishannu kannu kanan melathe irunnappozhanu ithu kanunnathu...super dear...

Suja Manoj said...

Delicious chocolate bars,looks divine,aa photos kandittu kothiyavunnu.

Umm Mymoonah said...

Perfect chocolate bars, I too love this a lot.

Swathi said...

Adipoli snack bar, pine athil uppum madhuraum undu ennu paranjal entha paryauka.

Foodie Ann said...

I can munch on this anytime of the day....:)... Nigella..Chocolate...Nuts....thats an awesome combination...:D

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

what a recipe...love your clicks. so chic and mouth watering.

Unknown said...

:) reading ur first para i remember the video, that's wat she expressed its hard to stop eating. The day i saw the recipe i wanted to give it a try, procrastination my prime habit! You got just right there, top on earth indulging and eye catching flicks, good weekend beautiful!

Vimitha Durai said...

That yummy looking chocolate bar is making me drool like hell.. Looks like heaven ...

Binys Recipes said...

hey lovely dear and sounds easy.......great job

Suji said...

I bet this is the ultimate choco bar. looks sooo good Nisha...

Shah cooks said...

Delectable! did u use regular choco bars or baking ones?

divya said...

Slurp,mouthwatering here, wonderful clicks o...

Torviewtoronto said...

thank you for linking these fabulous chocolate bars haven't made like these looks good

Hari Chandana P said...

Woww.. Sounds interesting and tempting.. Thanks for the easy recipe.. :)

Indian Cuisine

Nisa Homey said...

Lovely bar and sounds easy...perfect for a chocolate lover like me.

Satrupa said...

Chocolate = Perfect Bliss !!

Prathima Rao said...

Best looking chocolate bars ever!!!
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner

Tanvi@Sinfully Spicy said...

Looks darn easy and a yum snack.Love the last picture.

Priya Suresh said...

Very addictive crunch bars, yumm!

Cool Lassi(e) said...

Hey, lovely crunchy bars! Nigella sure knows how to make the taste buds happy. The photos make it look better all the more. **drool**

Katie said...

Those look absolutely wonderful. Wow.

aipi said...

My fav, very neat n yummy looking..should I come over for a steaming hot cuppa coffee now :D


US Masala

Monet said...

This may be decadent, but it is also satisfying! We all need a treat. Thank you for sharing with me. After a very long week, it is refreshing to return to the blogs/people that I love. Your words mean more to me than I can express. Many blessings this week!

Rekha shoban said...

perfect chocolate bars!!!looks cute n yummmmmmmmmmmy!

Kankana said...

They looking soo yum yum .. and i like the way you used diff kind of chocolates.

Nitha said...

Perfect one Nisha... Ialways wanted to make this after seeing Nigella's video.. Was just worried about the storage..

Jun said...

This is easy, pretty and absolutely finger-licking quality snack. You take really good pictures of it.

schmetterlingwords said...

Lovely choco bars... Crunchy and chocoeeyy... Easy to prepare too.. :-)

Padhu Sankar said...

Wow! This is simple awesome. No doubt your photos are a treat to the eyes

Jaisy James said...

wow bars looks superbb n lovely clicks adipoli

Unknown said...

WOW!! Yummy choco bars..Stunning clicks!

Sunitha said...

Hmm.. delicious! well.. I guess once in a while to go berserk on butter and sugar is okay. :) Who are we kidding? I made some black forest cake today thinking the same.. once in a while is okay. You have a nice friend to have shared the recipe with you.

Anonymous said...

Great recipe, I have to try it for my daughter's birthday! I also have to go back and bake your french yogurt cake again...it was awesome!

Sushma Mallya said...

Can I come over for coffee to take a bite of this...drooling;)

Sarah Naveen said...

Amazing clicks gal!!!!

Unknown said...

Those are some really yummy bars!

Lawyer Loves Lunch said...

These look awesome but I admit I gasped when I saw the ingredient list (not that my favorite store bought chocolate is any better but still) :)

the Junkie book said...

oh no, it's jus tht me no exciting happening person for you to say wow, even if you recognise me...name ginza. roshan will not know...as i said i jus happen to have good memory with names and faces. i was gayathri's classmate in marian before they shifted to corpus...then gayathri and i were college mates in bcm for a while...we marthomites too...yea, everyone knows everyone else in ktm. tht's precisely why i kept an internet moniker :p jus to be on the safer side...otherwise i don think i would've met fresh faces here hehe.
now we (you and i) met briefly on a train to chennai. i got down at arakonam...it was the year of our marriage or next, incidentally same year... tht's abt it...don think too hard...not worth it!!

right now i'm an overburdened mother of two young girls and my lil alice is trying ever so hard to poop this right moment coz she some constipated!! haha...do i even get to peek at nigella's chocolate...btw fab job you done here!

incredibly long huh? once forgivable i guess :p

good day

dl.blogspot said...

I love Nigella! And again, this looks so YUMMY!!

Soma said...

DELIGHTFUL! I make a similar one, but spoon them in to ugly shapeless things for my gals. They love it anyway :-) yours look so professional.

Swapna said...

Perfect chocolate bars & awasome clicks too Nisha!

tameingraleat said...

Hello! This looks wonderful. However, I have never heard of that kind of candy bar and am not sure it's distributed in America - any suggestions for a good substitute?

tameingraleat said...

You are wonderful! Thank you! Yay!

Anonymous said...

just stopping by to say hey

maria . K said...

hey, any substitute for crunchy bars - not available
in India - thanks

My Kitchen Antics said...

Hi maria, sorry for replying so late.
Hmm you can just omit it altogether. It would still be delicious. Im not sure there is a substitute. Although you can make your own honeycomb, its pretty easy (just google it, replace the golden syrup/corn syrup with honey) and use that as required. Its basically the same thing.