These chocolate caramel cookie bars taste exactly like a copycat Twix bar, and people flip over them. In fact, saying that you’re bringing homemade candy to any party is the equivalent of walking into a crowd cheering your name and going home with a sash that says ‘MVP of the party.’ We’re baking these homemade Twix bars in a bread loaf pan so that they can be cut into perfect sticks. If you’re not familiar with a Twix bar, here is a good explanation of exactly what they contain. Homemade Twix bars are very similar to millionaire’s shortbread, in my opinion.
Ingredients of Homemade Twix Bars
Butter. We need butter both for the shortbread cookie base and the caramel layer, so pull out two sticks. One stick should be at room temperature to make the bottom layer.Powdered Sugar. I consider myself a shortbread expert, and you can check my expertise with my Chocolate Shortbread recipe, my Strawberry Shortbread, or even my Honey Shortbread. In all of my experiments, powdered sugar makes the best sweetener for a shortbread cookie base. Its finer consistency allows it to fully dissolve in the dough, plus the small amount of cornstarch in powdered sugar makes for a tender yet crisp cookie. This type of crisp cookie base is pivotal in copying the original Twix bar. Flour. All purpose regular flour.Brown Sugar. A small amount of light or dark brown sugar is ensures our caramel layer of our homemade Twix bars doesn’t set up into a dense, hard-to-bite-through caramel.Sweetened Condensed Milk. Using sweetened condensed milk from the can is a shortcut to making caramel! Instead of heating sugar to an exact temperature and streaming in heavy cream at just the right moment (like I do with my small batch caramel sauce), this is so much simpler! Honey. Typically, a small amount of corn syrup is added to caramel to keep it soft and chewy, but I prefer to use a squeeze of honey. I’m sure you’re more likely to have honey in your house than a bottle of corn syrup, so just know that the fructose in honey acts in a similar way to the glucose in corn syrup. Both prevent graininess and guarantee a soft bite.Vanilla Extract. Real vanilla extract brings so much to a caramel sauce when you stir it in at the last minute. Chocolate Chips. Because these homemade Twix bars are super sweet, I like to use a semisweet chocolate chip. I believe milk chocolate chips would be way too sweet here!
The Directions
I want to talk about each layer of these homemade Twix bars.
Equipment
Bread Loaf Pan - In order to emulate the stick shape of a Twix bar, we are baking these homemade Twix bars in a loaf pan. After baking, slice into sticks. This is the bread loaf pan I love and use.Saucepan - A small nonstick saucepan for cooking the caramel layer on the stovetop.
Storage
Since these bars contain caramel and chocolate, they need to stay cool. If your house is running cool, it’s fine to leave these at room temperature. For longer storage, place them in the fridge, but please let them rest at room temperature to soften before serving. They can also be frozen, but similarly, they must thaw at room temperature.
Questions about Homemade Twix Bars:
How to store leftovers: Since these bars contain caramel and melted chocolate, they need to be kept cool. If your house is running cool, it’s fine to leave these at room temperature. For longer storage, place them in the fridge and then let the rest at room temperature to soften before serving. They can also be frozen, but similarly, they must thaw at room temperature for the caramel to soften.
