Homemade Twix Bars (GF and Vegan Twix Bars)

Twix – One of My Favorite Candy Bars

Around this time a few years ago, I worked on a recipe for healthier and homemade Bounty. I had plenty of desiccated coconut, a by-product after making coconut milk a day earlier, and wanted to recreate this treat in my kitchen. Since it was around Easter, I shaped them into half-eggs.

This year I decided to work on Homemade Twix Bars. However, as always, I tried to make another one of my favorite treats healthier as well as gluten-free and vegan diet-friendly.

Three Layers of Heaven

As all fans of these candy bars know, Twix consists of 3 parts: cookie base, caramel filling and chocolate glaze. The cookie part is a buttery and rich shortbread layer in the original, so I wanted to recreate these features using vegan and gluten-free ingredients.

Although usually in vegan recipes, you replace butter with coconut oil, here, I used unrefined rapeseed oil. Why? Because it is much healthier. And even though it has a pretty strong smell, nobody noticed it while eating my Homemade Twix bars.

As far as flour is concerned, I used a mixture of oat, rice and potato flour. All of them are gluten-free, and the combination worked very well. As a result, although it was a bit harder, the baked shortbread was very close to the original.

Caramel Center and Dark Chocolate Topping in Homemade Twix Bars

When it came to the homemade caramel layer, the matter was quite simple. Since it was supposed to be vegan, it had to contain dates. Due to their sweetness, I didn’t need extra sugar or any other sweeteners, which was an added advantage.

I used Medjool dates as they were soft, delicious and simply the best. However, if you don’t have them, you could use other types, but probably you would have to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes and use a powerful blender.

The other ingredients for the homemade caramel included peanut butter and salt – for balancing the sweetness and a tiny bit of melted coconut oil – to make sure the caramel stayed solid.

The chocolate layer was the easiest part of The Homemade Twix Bars to make healthy: I used good quality dark chocolate with 85% cocoa solids. This type has many health benefits, but it can be a bit bitter to some people, so obviously, you can swap it for milder or even milk chocolate. To make sure the chocolate coating wasn’t too hard, I added one tablespoon of coconut oil.

Serving the Gluten-free and Vegan Twix Bars

After I prepared the three parts of the Homemade Twix Bars, putting everything together was pretty straightforward. I pressed the caramel into the shortbread crust with my fingers and then straightened it with a bland side of a wide knife. Next, I spread the melted chocolate on top of the layer of caramel. After it hardened, I cut it into bars.

If you prefer your homemade candy bars to look more like the original Twix, you could cut them first with a sharp knife. Then carefully cover each side of each bar in chocolate. It will take you longer, though. I didn’t do it, as this way the prepared but unpartitioned vegan Twix bars looked more like Mazurek – a traditional Polish Easter cake {you can read about it here). So guess what I will have on my Easter table this year? ?

P.S. Has the chewy caramel filling always been your favourite part of Twix? Then you can make more of it {50% more or even double the ingredients} to have a thicker layer of it on top.

P.P.S. Would you like the chocolate layer to be more decorative, like in one of my pictures below? Then use some extra chocolate {milk or white}. Melt it and pour on top of the glaze, making thin, curvy lines. Then gently swirl the two chocolates with a skewer.

Homemade Twix Bars (Gluten-free and Vegan Twix Bars)

Agnieszka Weiner

Delicious three layers of a famous candy bar made healthier, vegan and gluten-free.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Cookies

Servings 24 pieces

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Shortbread base:

• 80 g oat flour
• 80 g rice flour
• 20 g potato flour
• 0.25 tsp baking powder
• 60 ml maple syrup
• 60 ml unrefined rapeseed oil

Homemade caramel:

• 220 g Medjool dates pitted
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 3 tbsp unrefined coconut oil melted
• 1 pinch salt

Chocolate glazing:

• 80 g dark chocolate {or your favorite chocolate}
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Instructions

 

• Preheat an oven to 180C.
• Sift all types of flour to a medium bowl, add baking powder, oil and maple syrup. Mix ingredients thoroughly with a spoon. The dough should be moist and sticky. If it is too dry - add a bit more syrup and oil.
• Line a small baking tray {approx. 15cm x 23cm} with parchment paper.*
• Transfer the shortbread dough to the prepared tin, spread it evenly and pierce with a fork. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
• Using a food processor, combine all caramel ingredients until smooth.
• Transfer the caramel mixture and spread it on top of the baked shortbread cookie base. Press the caramel with your fingers so it sticks to the shortbread cookie crust. Next, even out the top with a blunt part of a wide knife. **
• Melt the chocolate and coconut oil on medium heat or in a microwave and, when cools down, pour over the top of the caramel.
• Cut into thin Twix-like bars.

Notes

*You can use a slightly bigger baking tray. However, it shouldn't be much bigger as the dough will be too thin and break easily.

** If the caramel looks greasy after levelling the top, put paper towels on top and press gently to absorb the excess fat.

If you would like the chocolate layer to be more decorative, like in one of my pictures, use some extra chocolate {milk or white}. Melt it and pour on top of the glaze, making thin, curvy lines. Then gently swirl the two chocolates with a skewer.

Keyword homemade twix bars, vegan twix, vegan twix bars

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Related Recipes:

https://www.tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/pistachio-cake-mazurek/

https://www.tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/homemade-chocolate-fudge-cake-with-homemade-milk-chocolate/

https://www.tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/coconut-bounty-balls/