Got leftover candy corn gathering dust in your pantry? Melt it down with peanut butter and it turns into a Butterfinger dupe! Use it Candy Corn Butterfinger Bars with a Cap’n Crunch base, Butterfinger layer, and thick chocolate ganache top.
Today’s post is all about candy corn. Are you wrinkling up your nose in distaste? Don’t close the browser window just yet! We’re not talking about plain, waxy candy corn. We’re talking about candy corn remixed, and that makes all the difference. Still not convinced? Patience. All will be explained in good time.
Do you have lots of leftover Halloween candy clogging your cupboards and loitering in the back of your mind at all times, whispering “Eat me, eat me…I know you want to…”? Well, I don’t. Because I’ve reached a horrible stage of life in which I am too old to go trick-or-treating myself and yet too young to have kids of my own to steal candy from use as an excuse to go take trick-or-treating.
I saw this on Tumblr and identified with it immediately:
But the truth is, there’s really no excuse for me to eat an entire bag of candy corn by myself, no matter how great my post-adolescent angst. I’m guessing you might feel the same way. That’s why Audrey and I have come up with a funway for you to get that candy corn out of your cupboard and put it to good use!
To console myself, I bought a bag of candy corn and pretended it was leftover from Halloween. It sort of was – I bought it on November 1st, from a depressingly cleaned out and deserted Halloween section at Target. I think I saw a tumbleweed roll by while I was there. It was made out of strands of synthetic hair that had been shed by many a wig during the Halloween rush.
How are we putting are candy corn to good use? We’re making Candy Corn Butterfinger Bars. Cuz as it turns out, melted candy corn mixed with peanut butter tastes…exactly like Butterfinger.
Skeptical? So was I. But intrigued.
Audrey actually experimented with a faux Butterfinger candy corn last fall and I wished I had been home to try them, so I knew I wanted to try it for myself this year. I decided to get a little fancy and come up with my own recipe incorporating the basic melted candy corn + peanut butter mixture.
I…may have gotten a little carried away.
What you’re looking at is a decadent 3-layer example of how my imagination often gets carried away and becomes proverbially “bigger than my stomach.”
Candy Corn Butterfinger Bars are:
Layer 1: Captain Crunch peanut butter bar (think Special-K bar, but with Captain Crunch).
Layer 2: Candy corn “Butterfinger.”
Layer 3: Chocolate ganache.
Bonus layer: Crumbled Butterfinger candybar.
If I were to make these Candy Corn Butterfinger Bars again, I would do it in a 9×13 pan. The only pan I have here at school is 8×8, which caused these bars to turn out really thick. They’re going to be decadent no matter what, but when you cram all that peanut butter and sugar into such a confined space…things get a little out of control. Like woah.
The amazing thing is that the melted candy corn + peanut butter situation actually tastes convincingly like Butterfinger. In fact, if I hadn’t known I was biting into something made with candy corn, I would not have detected it. Which is pretty cool. It doesn’t taste waxy or flavorless at all; even candy corn haters will happily munch on these bars in ignorant bliss (if you refrain from disclosing the ingredients list). In fact, if anything, it just makes me question what, exactly, Nestle is putting into their Butterfinger bars. Hm…….
Verdict? I consider this experiment a success. These Candy Corn Butterfinger Bars were very tasty (and rich). I would definitely make them again.
Prep Time:
Yield:
Print
PinIngredients
For the Cap’n Crunch base:
- 1 heaping cup Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Wonderful
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups Captain Crunch, lightly crushed
For the Candy corn “Butterfinger” layer:
- 1 cup Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Wonderful
- 1 ¾ cup candy corn
- 4 tbsp. butter
For the ganache:
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut in slices
- 2 tablespoons, plus 2 teaspoons whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 king size Butterfinger bar, crushed
Instructions
Make the base:
- Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil leaving overhang, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine peanut butter, corn syrup, sugars, and heat on high power for 1 minute to melt. Stop to stir. Mixture will be on the granular side, this is okay. Return bowl to microwave and heat for 1 more minute on high power. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in Captain Crunch.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan, packing it down somewhat firmly with a spatula and smoothing the top; set pan aside.
Make the Butterfinger:
- In a small sauce pan on medium to low heat, place butter and candy corn; let the candy corn melt for about one minute before adding the peanut butter.
- Place peanut butter into the saucepan stirring and making sure all the candy corn has melted with the peanut butter (about 3-5 minutes).
- Once done, add the layer over the top of the Captain Crunch base and place in the freezer for about 5 minutes or until the second layer is firm.
Make the ganache:
- For the ganache, combine chocolate, butter, and cream in small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring with a silicone spatula until melted and smooth.
- Turn off heat and mix in vanilla extract. Pour evenly over bars, tilting the pan as needed to spread the ganache all the way to the pan’s edges. Sprinkle crushed Butterfinger over the surface of the ganache.
- Chill bars for two hours, or until ganache is set.