Peanut Butter Twigs
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:00AM | Taneasha 
When I was a little girl, my very favorite candy bar was Peanut Butter Twix. Over the years they’ve disappeared repeatedly from store shelves, only to reemerge in new packaging or with a new spin. At one point, you even had to buy them on the cookie isle. Their latest rendition, Twix PB, is simply an abomination. The idea sounds good, changing the cookies to chocolate, but it’s not. On the down side, this means I can no longer get my favorite childhood treat. On the upside, the lack thereof is what inspired me to recreate the original, but on my terms. No artificial crap, no hydrogenated whatever, and no mystery, can’t pronounce it, ingredients. Oh… and no dipping, because quite frankly, dipping is a pain in the ass, and we already covered that here.
Here’s what you’ll need: (minus salt and vanilla. D'oh!)
Crust:
½ cup (1 stick) butter
½ cup Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
Peanut butter layer:
1 cup Peanut butter (organic or all natural)
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons half and half
Chocolate ganache:
1 cups milk chocolate chips
2 Tablespoons half and half
First things first. Preheat your oven to 300° and line a square 8x8 pan with parchment, leaving plenty of excess for ‘handles’. If you butter the pan first, the parchment will stay in place better.
Let’s start with the crust. In a mixing bowl, beat together a stick of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla until it looks like this:
Sift in the powdered sugar (that’s icing sugar for you non-Americans). I know I’m starting to sound like a nag, but yes, you really do need to sift it.
Keep mixing until it becomes the consistency of icing.
Now add the flour and mix some more. When it looks like this, you’re going to think I’ve led you astray.
But keep mixing. It will eventually come together to form a dough. When it does, dump it into your pan.
Press it evenly into the bottom of the pan. If it sticks to your fingers, just flour them a bit. When it’s mostly even, prick the dough all over with a fork.
This is called docking. It allows steam to escape during the cooking process, which keeps bubbles from forming in the crust and keeps it flat. Bake the crust for 35 minutes, or until it’s golden around the edges and just beginning to turn on top. Allow it to rest in the pan for 5 minutes or so, and then remove it to a cooling rack.
When the crust has cooled, it’s time to start on the filling… topping? Whatever. Peanut butter and chocolate goodness. In your mixing bowl… you did wash your mixing bowl while the crust was cooling, right? Do it now, I’ll wait. *whistling the theme song from Jeopardy* Ok, now that it’s clean and dry, throw in the peanut butter, butter, salt, and vanilla and mix until it looks like this:
Sift in the powdered sugar (there I go with the sifting again) and continue mixing. When it looks like this:
It’s time for the half and half. 3 Tablespoons will make a world of difference. It should come together into a smooth, dough like consistency. Scoop it onto your crust.
Time for pressing again. At first, I thought I’d just spread it with an offset spatula. Um, no. Fingers are definitely the tool of choice here.
And now it’s finally time for the chocolate. As I said before, we’re not dipping. We’re just going to spread a nice layer of chocolate ganache on top. In a glass container (I like to just use my measuring cup) add 1 cup of chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons of half and half.
Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir, stir, stir, and keep stirring. Until it becomes a smooth, fudgy icing. Then, spread that over the peanut butter layer.
Refrigerate for at least an hour to allow everything to firm up before cutting. Run a knife along the pan edges to loosen the chocolate and peanut butter layers, then pull the whole thing out and place it on a cutting board. Pressing straight down with your knife, cut the whole thing in half, and then cut each half into long fingers.
These are more delicious than any store bought candy bar could be. Even if Twix decides to reincarnate the original, I think I’ll stick with my twigs.
So, what was your favorite childhood treat?
Reader Comments (7)
Eric brought them to work.... AMAZING! Every tastebud orgasmed.... Am I allowed to say that on here? SO DELICIOUS!!!
Oh sure, here I am begging Seeley to keep the swears down, and someone on my end comes in with 'orgasmed'. LOL
These look yummy! Is it bad that I was tempted to lick my laptop screen????
I had to avoid the site all weekend so that The Boy wouldn't see these! I'm guessing the guys at work will love them...
And if I tell them that they're fucking orgasmic, they'll probably love them even more. :P
Made these tonight. Delicious and super easy. I will be making again.
Also, I used the crust recipe to make a gluten-free crust for a blackberry pie (substituted gluten-free Bisquick for the flour). My DH loved the crust. We've been looking for a flavorful and easy to make gluten-free crust recipe for a long time. Thanks!
Question from a Luddite: how should I make the choc ganache without a microwave? Can I heat on stove or is a water bath the way to go?
PS I know, I know... but if you would have the amount of bench space I have, a microwave might seem more of a luxury :)
@Charlotte - Normally, when making ganache, you would bring the cream almost to a boil and then pour it over the chocolate, but this one is really heavy on the chocolate to make it a nice, stiff consistency. You can just put the half and half and chocolate in a pan over low heat on the stove. Just be very careful not to burn it. The safer way would be to put the ingredients into a glass bowl and set it over a steaming pan of water, but I'm too lazy for that. LOL
@Kimberly - I'm so glad the gluten free version worked for you. What a great idea!