Candy Bar Lab

Oh Henry! bars are made by Nestlé in the US and by Hershey in Canada. The Nestlé version has a different look, both outside and inside, than it’s Hershey’s cousin.  Frankly, the Canadian version looks much better. This week though, I needed a late night snack. So, I raided the Candy Bar Lab stash and picked out one of these “Peanutty caramel fudge bars in rich milk chocolate”. Sounded good enough, so I gave one a try.

Structure
Two segments of peanuts, fudge nougat, and caramel covered in milk chocolate.

Texture
The bar’s thin chocolate coating is dry and crumbly.  Inside, peanuts are sparsely distributed throughout the caramel layer.  In fact, if I didn’t take a close look, I wouldn’t have known there were peanuts at all because they are so crumbly and soft they get lost amongst the caramel.  The grainy bottom layer of fudge nougat is very chewy - almost like bubblegum. Overall, the bar’s components run together and do not compliment each other.

Taste
What’s probably most interesting about Oh Henry! is what you don’t taste.  The chocolate has little to no flavor and you can’t taste the peanuts at all. There’s a little bit of saltiness in the caramel (not much), but the fudge layer doesn’t add any taste at all.  What you do taste, is a lot of artificial vanilla, sugar, and a slight burnt caramel aftertaste.

Verdict
Oh Henry! was a disappointment both as a late night indulgence and again the next day. The crunchy, salty, sweet, and chewy combination I was anticipating turned out to be a crumbly, chewy mess. I’ll have to try to get my hands on a Canadian version and try that out one day. Until then, I’m sticking with Snickers if I want a chewy, chocolate, caramel & peanut candy bar.

I’ve been telling people for a while that I make candy bars. However, I’m not sure everyone believed me. While I’ve eaten my own creations and frequently shared with my girlfriend and family, I hadn’t shared with many others (namely, my co-workers). So, I decided I was going to make some to bring into the office. The one that seemed to be the biggest hit was the Peanut Butter Caramel Peanut Bar shown below. I know… that’s not a very creative name, but I was just going for something descriptive, not catchy.

Here’s how I made it.

Step 1: Making Peanut Butter Caramel
Start by making a batch of soft caramel. Once you’re done, let it sit for a few minutes to cool down a little. Then, mix in a half cup of creamy, natural peanut butter. Let it melt and stir gently to fully incorporate.

Step 2: Preparing Peanuts
I used three different versions of peanuts - all derived from the same jar of dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts. First, I chopped about 1/4 cup in a nut chopper. Second, I left about 1/4 cup untouched. Third, I baked 1/3 cup at 350 degrees on a baking for about 10 minutes that had been coated in a slurry of water, sugar, and salt. When I was done, I mixed all of these together with the Peanut Butter Caramel and let sit until it was at room temperature.

Step 3: Tempering Chocolate
You must temper chocolate. Otherwise it’ll be soft, grainy, and discolored. I won’t get into the specifics of how to do it here, but there are a ton of resources available on the internet that will help you figure it out. Here’s a good place to start.

Note: I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate would have worked just as well.

Step 4: Assembly
The center is very soft, so I decided to use a mold to construct this bar. You’ll need something with a big enough cavity to fit the caramel and peanuts. I have one about the size of a regular Snickers bar, so I went with that. Coat each cavity of the mold the tempered chocolate. I’ve seen recommendations to use a pastry brush, but I prefer to use a small spoon and gravity to evenly coat everything. If there’s excess chocolate in a cavity, either let it pour out or coerce it out with the spoon. Once the cavities are lined, let the chocolate sit until it has hardened enough to be filled.

The center at room temperature is almost the consistency of cookie dough, though a little softer. I took out about a tablespoon of filling and rolled it first into a ball and then into a log about the length of the bar. I pressed this down lightly into the mold, so it filled in all of the space. After a couple of bars, you’ll get a sense for how much it takes to fill the mold.

Finally, after you’ve filled all the molds with the peanut butter caramel, top each one with a small spoonful of tempered chocolate. I used an offset spatula to smooth everything down, so it was flush with the mold. Let the bars sit for while until everything sets up and they’re ready to be unmolded.

This is a limited edition bar that, to be honest, is more about the marketing than the actual product. It was made to promote the upcoming release of the new Indiana Jones movie. But to Mars credit, instead of just printing some Indiana Jones graphics on a regular Snickers bar package, they at least tried something new to match the theme of the movie. This change… to add coconut and chai flavoring.

Now, I understand going with coconut, but I was a little confused why they would add chai. In my ignorance, I thought chai meant “tea-flavored”. So I looked it up on Wikipedia and it turns out “chai spices” refers to a mixture of warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, etc. Well that made a little more sense to me, but I was still a little skeptical how that would taste in a Snickers.

Structure
The center is a layer of nougat topped with a layer of caramel and peanuts; all enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
Texturally, it’s identical to a standard Snickers, which means it’s really good. There’s chewy nougat and caramel with crunchy peanuts. All of the textures are perfectly balanced.

Taste
When I first bit in, it tasted exactly like a regular Snickers. It took a second or two for the coconut aftertaste to hit. It’s very subtle, but tastes pretty good actually. After a few more bites, I started noticing cinnamon coming through. All the flavors actually went together surprisingly well. Though it’s good they didn’t add too much of these exotic flavors - it would have detracted from the inherent greatness of a Snickers too much.

Verdict
The coconut and cinnamon flavors are an interesting change of pace from a regular Snickers. This is a limited edition bar that while I liked it, I’m glad it’s not a permanent offering. I recommend to go out and pick one up - it’s worth tasting for yourself.