Dining In - Homemade Butterfinger Bars

Vegan Butterfinger Bars - Chocolate Covered Katie 

This was my first attempt at making a candy bar and I'm happy to report it was a success. The end result didn't last long, because it was so damn good! My boyfriend and I gobbled this right up. The inspiration was the Butterfinger candy bar, but the recipe author calls these Betterfinger bars for the cleaned up, better-for-you ingredients list. The recipe comes from a very popular dessert blog called Chocolate Covered Katie. Her recipes focus on a healthier vegan approach to incredibly delicious desserts, for instance this recipe sneaks in fiberful bran flakes. I'm now a fan. This was an easy and quick treat to pull together. I will be making this again! You can find the full recipe here on the website. 

1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tablespoon molasses (I used blackstrap)
3 1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups bran flakes cereal
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup non-dairy semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted (the Trader Joe's variety is vegan!)

Prepare an 8 x 8-inch pan by lightly greasing or lining with parchment paper.

Combine agave, molasses, and sugar in a small saucepan. Boil on medium heat for about a minute, stirring the whole time. Remove from heat and pour into a medium bowl. Stir in peanut butter and salt. Next add bran cereal. Mixture will be very thick but continue to stir until cereal is coated and crushed into small pieces. 

Press mixture into pan so it's evenly distributed and flattened. Give it a few minutes to cool and then score it into small bars. Freeze for about 15 minutes.

Melt chocolate chips. Pour chocolate over cooled candy batter. Use a spatula to evenly coat. Chill again then cut into bars, using precut lines as a guide. Store in refrigerator when not eating (if that's possible!).