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