Today you’re going to have to run to your nearest grocery store, pharmacy, or closet candy-selling facility and grab up a bag of discount candy corn because you have to make these! It’s like a crazy cool science experiment that melted candy corn, peanut butter, and crushed cereal make a concoction so close to Butterfinger candy it’s ridiculous. I felt like a magician making these, but the truth is almost every other food blogger has done it and revealed their secrets already. So this post-Halloween season I’ve jumped on board and joined the leagues of magic candy makers and now you can too!
I’m not sure if these truly count as homemade since all I did was take one kind of candy and turn it into another type of candy, but I’ll take what I can get here. Candy corn is probably the most artificial and processed candy out there as well, so let’s not get too excited about ourselves thinking we’re wholesome with these, but it’s still pretty cool! The one thing that always threw me off when I saw this idea on other blogs is that they’re described as spot on taste-wise, but not texture-wise. The bloggers said their truffles/bark/bars were soft and chewy, rather than having the quintessential crispy crunch of Butterfingers. Turns out adding crushed up cereal such as Frosted Flakes or Corn Flakes helps give these bars just the right amount of crunch so this homemade version is practically a duplicate of the store-bought kind! And I got to make mine into cute little cubes with fancy chocolate drizzles on top :)
I’m sure you’ve had plenty of candy in the past week or so, but if there’s room in your tummy for one more sweet I highly recommend having some fun with whatever candy corn you can find and whipping up a batch of these. And if you’re one of those crazy people with “leftover” Halloween candy, transform your candy corn into something even more delicious and impress your family and friends with this magical recipe.
Homemade Butterfinger Bars
Recipe adapted from Buns in My Oven
Yield: 36 candy pieces
Ingredients:
3 cups candy corn
1-1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup crushed Frosted Flakes or Corn Flakes
Milk or semisweet chocolate chips or melting chocolate for dipping
Directions:
Place candy corn in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in 30 second intervals, stirring well between each interval, until completely smooth. Add the peanut butter and cereal and mix until well incorporated. You'll need your muscles for this, but you can also return the mixture to the microwave for 15 seconds to soften it up again if it gets too hard to stir.
Line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper or wax paper and transfer mixture into prepared pan. Use a spatula to smooth the top and transfer to the fridge for an hour to allow the mixture to set. Once set, remove the wax paper from the pan and use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut into desired shapes (I chose little cubes).
Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until completely smooth. Dip each cube into the chocolate and transfer to a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Once all are dipped and the chocolate is set, drizzle with leftover chocolate for decoration. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or store in the fridge (but if you choose the fridge, just let the bars sit out at room temp for 10 minutes before serving so no one breaks a tooth).
As cute as this looks, candy corn is just not my thing :( I did make minion cupcakes though :)
I have never been a fan of candy corn, but who knew it could be used to recreate something so delicious?!
These sound absolutely amazing! Who knew making homemade butterfingers could be somewhat simple. And I love that it uses candy corn, one of my favorite snacks this time of year. The individual bite sized pieces make it perfect to snack on.
So how hard to these get? I love all the ingredients but can’t deal with hard candy. Fresh butterfingers melt in your mouth…will these do the same?
Erica — November 24th, 2013 @ 2:22 am
Just don’t keep them in the fridge and they won’t be hard!
I always thought if I ever opened a pastry shop I’d name it sweet tooth with icing dripping off of the tooth! I saw these delicious looking bars, clicked the link, and what do you know! Also I can’t wait to try these, the husband loves homemade goodies!
Candy corn and frosted flakes? I love butterfingers, but hate candy corn!
Erica — May 27th, 2014 @ 1:35 am
I know – it’s a weird recipe but I swear the result tastes just like Butterfingers!
I love candy corn & love Butterfingers. However as I have gotten older harder to eat the Butterfingers. So glad to find this recipe. It’s August but I plan on making these ASAP. Thanks
I have made these for years, but I don’t use the cereal, just the candy corn and peanut butter. I may have to try the cereal to see how it changes the taste, if at all. It may just be the texture it changes. But they do taste surprisingly like a butterfinger. But I do love candy corn!!
What is the shelf life for these? I’m making them as Christmas gifts and didn’t know if I could make them a week before Christmas.
Thanks!
Erica — December 9th, 2014 @ 9:21 pm
I think a week before would be fine – just store them in the fridge until you’re ready to gift them. Enjoy!
I have just made this candy and it was a total waste——will throw it out—-it does not taste at all like a butterfinger in texture looks or taste—–was very hard to mix, used the cereal and let it sit for the hour and I can see no resemblance to butterfinger at all—–the cereal gave it a weird taste and texture—-glad I did not dip it in the chocolate——-big waste of good chocolate
Erica — December 14th, 2014 @ 10:02 am
I’m really sorry these didn’t work out for you – was your cereal very finely crushed? It did take a lot of muscle to mix everything together (and a few blasts in the microwave helped make things easier to mix), but I used the exact recipe listed above with great results. There are also recipes floating around there that omit the cereal, so you could try that next time if you’re still interested in trying them, but they won’t have a crunchy texture.
Swap out the cereal for crushed cheez-its crackers and it’s perfection.
This worked perfectly for me. It is dead on like a Butterfinger in taste and texture! I used raisin bran (sans raisins) for the cereal because that is what I had and it was great. The melting part really is strange and kinda hard, and it didn’t seem like it was really working, but when I came back after it was cool it was great. I did end up with Butterfinger “bites” because it was difficult to cut without breaking, but that just gives it a fun homemade vibe. Thanks for a fun recipe!
So with the cereal added, are these super hard to bite in to? I made them yesterday without cereal and used natural peanut butter. I wonder if the natural peanut butter somehow made the difference in hardness or if using more peanut butter would soften them up some.
Erica — December 20th, 2016 @ 6:46 pm
Hmm, I’m not sure about that one! But from my experience with natural peanut butter it is a lot harder in general, so that might be it. Sorry to hear they didn’t turn out perfectly!
Great recipe I love butterfingers and I added some heavy cream when I was melting the candy corn’s and they come out very soft thanks again for the great recipe !
My keeps Falling apart I don’t know why when you cut it it falls apart what did I do wrong
I don’t know why when you cut it it falls apart what did I do wrong