Introduction: Homemade Kit Kat Candy Bar Recipe

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These homemade Kit Kat candy bars taste amazingly like the real thing.   You won't find a better copycat recipe anywhere!  

If you're a Kit Kat fan, you have to try this recipe.  It's simple to follow, and easy to produce delicious results.  These make a tasty surprise for any event, and you can be sure you'll be the only one to bring Kit Kats!

This one's a good story too.  It starts with complete disaster, leads to gin, and ends with raging success.  Read on!

Step 1: Ingredients

Tools:
Ingredients:
  • 1 Box Club crackers or Waverly's (some kind of square butter cracker)
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
  • 1 cup peanut butter chips


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Step 2: First Layer (the Hard Way)


the "easy way" will be revealed later on in the story

 Spray the smaller pan with cooking oil and lay crackers edge-to-edge along the bottom.

Step 3: Cook Filling (the Right Way)


Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the milk. 

Add the sugars and bring to a boil.

Stir in the graham cracker crumbs and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Easy, right?

But trust me, this order of events is important.  Were you to, say, dump all the ingredients into a pan and just cook away, you might have to throw the whole sloppy, sticky mess into the trash.  (see pictures [and image notes] below)

If this does happen, don't worry, pet - fix yourself a g & t and give it another go!

Step 4: Making Layers


Pour about half of the filling over your layer of crackers.

Make another layer of crackers in the same orientation as the first.  Or not.  I'm not standing over your shoulder judging you.

Pour the rest of the filling over your crackers.

Make a third layer of crackers on top.

Cover with cling wrap and put in the fridge to firm up.

Step 5: Raising the Bar (the Hard Way)


To try and make something visually similar to a Kit Kat bar, I cut up the pan of crackers into sticks.  The plan was to make the familiar three-bar Kit Kat candy bar.  While I don't feel I was successful in doing so,  I certainly don't want to discourage you from trying this yourself.

If you do choose the hard path, let the candy come to room temp before cutting into bars. Trust me.

Step 6: Making the Candy Coating


Now it's time to make the magic chocolate coating that tastes something like the chocolate you know, and something I can't describe as anything other than "candy bar."  

Melt the chips together in a double boiler (or microwave) until all smooth and creamy.  I don't have a double boiler, and I tend to botch melting chocolate in the microwave, so I used one pan set on top of another pan with a small amount of simmering water in the bottom pan.

The melting process will take some active participation on your part, as the butterscotch chips don't like to play friendly and need some coaxing to melt smoothly into the rest of the mixture.




Step 7: Making the Bars


If you decide to go the route of making the three-stick bar, do as follows.  Otherwise, just pour the chocolate coating evenly over the top of the layers you made in Step 4!  ah, that my friends, is the "easy way."

Cover a larger baking dish in plastic wrap.  Pour in a layer of chocolate and allow to set. 

Arrange the bars you cut apart in Step 5 on top of the chocolate layer.

Coat the bars in another layer of chocolate, making sure to cover the tops and sides.

Once they're set, break 'em up and see how you did!  Mine were almost completely indistinguishable from the real thing, as you can clearly see in the photos.




Step 8: Some Final Thoughts


The next time I do this, I'm going to change a few things.  (If you get to it before me, let me know how it goes for you!)  

I would:
  1. Use butterscotch extract instead of chips.  Possibly peanut butter extract as well.   I think this would allow the chocolate to become even meltier than it did (yes, that's a technical term I learned in chef school), and allow for more even pouring.
  2. Don't try and mess with the three-bar iconic image of a Kit Kat.  These taste good and don't need any extra fancifying (another of them technical terms).  The fancier I got, the worse they looked!  No one wants to eat ugly candy.
  3. Pour a layer of the candy coating into the pan before adding the first layer of crackers.  Chocolate on top and bottom of these (and not bothering with the sides) makes for a nice sweetness ratio.

I hope you have fun making your own Kit Kat bars, and that you're as amazed as I was at how awesome they taste!  Enjoy!