Scraps and Snippets ~ Butterfinger Fudge

 I hesitate to even attempt vegan candy since Cara of Forks and Beans is the queen. But. A few months ago I had a friend tell me about homemade butterfingers that is seriously 1 bag of candy corn and 1 18 ounce container of peanut butter melted in the microwave for 1 minute. She said she found the recipe on Pinterest and that it was so easy and so delish. I, of course, want this in the worst way. However, classic candy corn in not vegan. And vegan candy corn is not cheap and I'm not sure it would work out the same way. 

So. Cara made some delicious looking crunchy honeycomb somesuch candy. And even though I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand and wasn't confident enough to trial and error a whole batch, I did experiment. So thanks for the recipe Cara...and I hope you don't mind that I made it my own and came up with something very close to vegan butterfinger insides. Flaky and chewy, peanut buttery and sweet. And anything covered in chocolate, well, nuff said, right? 

2 1/2 TBSP Earth Balance

2 1/2 TBSP brown rice syrup

1/3 Cup sugar (vegan)

1 1/2 TBSP water

1 tsp baking soda 

1/3 Cup peanut butter

Grease a bread pan.

Put Earth Balance, brown rice syrup, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat and when the sugar dissolves increase heat and bring to hopping boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add baking soda and stir. Let sit for 3 or so minutes. Then add the peanut butter and stir. And pour the mixture into the bread pan. 

NOTE: The goal is to get this to a crack stage. Two friends have tried the same recipe and gotten different results, one got toffee, the other got gooey caramel…still amazing tasting, but different. Go with a medium heat to boiling and get it to a rolling boil adjusting the flame as needed. Use a candy thermometer or water test if unsure. The baking soda puffs this up making air pockets, the peanut butter combines and softens the end result so you get layers like in a real deal butterfinger. 

Chocolate Topping
1/3 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1 TBSP peanut butter

Melt peanut butter in the same saucepan. Add chocolate chips and stir. When they are all melted, pour over butterfinger layer. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Cut and put back into the fridge until they set up. They are kind of fragile, so store in the fridge.