Fork and Beans

Making food fun for the family

Gluten-free Vegan Twix Bars

by

Welcome to

Saturdays!

Every weekend during this month

will be dedicated to bringing you ideas on

making your very own:

Gluten-free Vegan Twix Bars - Fork & Beans

Gluten-free and Vegan Halloween Candy.

Are you getting into the Halloween spirit yet,

Or shall I shove it down your throat for the remainder days of the month?

 Either way, me thinks you wouldn’t mind if these delicious goodies

were shoved into your mouths:

*Homemade Twix Bars*

Gluten-free Vegan Twix Bars - Fork & Beans

(((I know I wouldn’t mind))).

Oh wait, now that I think about it, I did end up eating my fair share.

INGREDIENTS:

Makes: However many Twix bars you can take

For the cookie:

  • 1/2 c. sorghum flour
  • 1/4 c. rice flour (or if you don’t have the flour you can grind up rice)
  • 1/4 c. potato starch
  • 1/4 c. tapioca starch
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 stick Earth Balance, cold, cubed

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Combine the flours, xanthan gum, sugar and salt together with a whisk until completely mixed.
  2. Add butter into flour mix and with a pastry cutter/fork/hand mixer (whichever you have), cut the butter into dough until combined. Make sure the butter stays cold so you have to work fast!
  3. Knead dough briefly until smooth, divide in half and chill in fridge for 20 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven at 400 degrees.
  5. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper until 1/2″ thick. Cut into rectangle shapes (I used a candy mold so I have to make sure the cookies would fit inside–so I needed the cookies at 3″x1″) Gently using a metal spatula, place cookie dough rectangles onto a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes (to ensure that they will not spread in the oven).
  6. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet.
  7. Freeze the cookies while you are making the caramel.

For the caramel:

Taken from this recipe

INGREDIENTS:

  •  1/2 cup Earth Balance
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup coconut milk (full-fat, canned)
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Line an 8 inch x 8 inch pan with parchment or cover a baking sheet with parchment
    In a large saucepan (must be large enough where your candy thermometer will not touch the bottom when you attach it to the pot), put the coconut milk, sugar, butter and corn syrup in a large saucepan.
    Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil stirring continually. Keep stirring. You want the candy to reach 250 degrees (this is the temperature that my thermometer says is semi-hard caramel. Yours might be different though).
    Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
  2. Pour into a parchment paper lined pan (8×8 works great). Allow to sit out for a few minutes before placing into freezer for 10 minutes to set.
  3. Cut into rectangles with food scissors or a knife. Depending on what size you make your caramels into, these can make anywhere from 40-50 caramels. Wrap extras in parchment paper.

For the chocolate:

  • Simply melt Enjoy Life chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave. Go at 30 second increments (1 min 30 sec should be plenty of time), stirring at each stop.
  • Do this step last, when you are ready to put everything together.

Putting it all together:

**I bought these super fun candy molds which were so helpful. No worries if you don’t buy one though. You can still do this recipe without it–it just might be a little more difficult.

  1. Place a strip of semi-hardened caramel on top of a shortbread cookie (should be same length–if not, simply cut whichever that needs it).
  2. If you are using the mold, drizzle some chocolate to cover the top of the mold. Place the cookie and caramel (caramel side down) and pour chocolate into slot in order to cover completely.
  3. If you are doing it by hand, place the cookie and caramel into the chocolate bowl and using a spoon, drizzle chocolate until completely coated. Be gentle though–the cookies will be fragile. Set on a a piece of parchment or wax papaer to allow excess chocolate to drip off.
  4. Place molds or place of candy into freezer to set.
  5. Finally, after 20 minutes of setting, you get to enjoy your HARD WORK!!

Gluten-free Vegan Twix Bars - Fork & Beans

Wow, those took forever didn’t they???

But they are worth it.

Especially if you are having a Halloween candy sweet tooth

and are in desperate need for a Twix Bar.

Make these candy bars for your Trick-or-Treaters,

that is, if the kiddos get there quick enough…

Happy Hauntings!

About Cara

Based in Chicago with her husband and son, Cara is the creator behind the site Fork and Beans: A place where kids can have fun with their food.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Megan

    I tried these and they were amazing! I will admit, this is my first time successfully making caramel EVER! Even before I was dairy-free I never got it quite right. I looked up some altitude adjustments and that helped a lot. I’m at almost 7,000 feet and the temp adjustment is almost 15 degrees F. I think more people need to know about this because it seems to be the source of scrapped batches of caramel. Also patience! It does take forever for the temp to rise, I think I stared at my thermometer for like 10 minutes, wondering why it hadn’t gotten over 100 yet. And then suddenly it got hot really quick.

    I fed these to several of my friends (who are not gf, vegan) and some said they liked it better than regular twix!

    I used a petit loaf mold and it was WAY too big! The chocolate to cookie/caramel ratio was just way too high. I think next time I may press my cookie dough into an 8×8 pan lined with wax paper and then cut the rectangles to help with uniformity. Then cut caramels and just dunk the cookies in the chocolate and maybe rest them to dry in my loaf pan (I also liked them better with no freezer step at the end, though the freezer did help expedite the prep).

    Also my caramels have seemed to get progressively harder over the week since I made them, is that pretty standard? Admittedly I am using a cheap tupperware container to house them which might not be airtight and I didn’t cut them up and wrap them individually either.

    I am so excited to share a vegan caramel recipe with some of my food-allergy friends! They will be so thrilled! I can’t wait to make another batch! Thanks again!

  2. Megan

    Hey Cara, do you have any experience making your own chocolate with cocoa butter and cocoa powder? I decided to go this route (who knows why) because I can’t buy dairy-free choco chips in my town (200 mile round trip seems a little much for chocolate chips). So I mail-ordered some cocoa butter and cocoa powder to use for this recipe. It might take some extra research on my part…

    • Cara

      The purpose of the rice flour (you can grind your own with rice) is to provide a nice little crunch. Regardless, you can definitely sub brown rice (I’d do that over quinoa) but both would work. Good luck! xo

  4. karina

    “**I bought these super fun candy molds which were so helpful. No worries if you don’t buy one though. You can still do this recipe without it–it just might be a little more difficult.” The link doesn’t work! where can i find these so i can see what they look like?

    • Cara

      Karina, you can check out Amazon.com and the choices over there are abundant. Bummer the link doesn’t work anymore 🙁

  6. Alex

    my caramel is not really setting up. I have taken it out of the freezer after 40 minutes of still being soft and heated it back up and added some corn starch to harden it up. did anyone else have a hard time getting their caramel to harden? any tips?

    • Cara

      We are spreading the gospel of candy bars quickly, Averie! You are doing the Lord’s work, indeed 🙂 I’m so glad to hear of this–keeping my fingers crossed for you! xo

  9. Nina

    Howdy, I’ve been drooling over and printing out your recipes ALL DAY (it’s 9.47pm here in Canberra). You are one talented woman. 🙂
    One question, how much does a ‘stick’ of Earth Balance margarine weigh? Is it 8oz/225g? We don’t get it in Australia but I can use a different vegan margarine.
    Oh, and thank you for all these wonderful treats. We don’t really DO halloween in Australia but I’m going to bake up a storm for Christmas. I have three small children and vegan store bought treats are few and faaar between. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

    • Cara

      Ha! Hi Nina!!! Thank you so much for checking out the site–I couldn’t be more pleased to hear that you like it 🙂 I just checked the fridge and 1 stick of Earth Balance = 1/2 c = 8 Tbs (which also equals =) 4 oz/113g. Phew! That was a lot of info, huh? Hope this helps and please let me know if you need anything else/need me to convert. I’m more than happy to do so! xoxo, Cara

      • Nina

        Thanks so much Cara, that’s briliant. I appreciate you checking for me. I’ve become rather nifty with conversions. It’s only tricky when I don’t know what the ‘standard’ is.
        Great to have found you on facebook too. Love food porn! 😉

        • Cara

          You can definitely teach me a thing or two about conversions! That is something I need to understand, really. The problem with Americans is that we are convinced that the world revolves around cups, lbs, etc… so it is shocking when we realize our metric system is the odd man out 🙂 You are so welcome, Nina! xo

  10. Amanda

    Just when I thought your blog couldn’t get more delicious, I see this post! Twix were my ultimate FAVORITE!! I need one of these right away. I better get to making this recipe soon. I am now drooling!

  11. Lou

    OMG come to my house and make these, seriously!!!! I would make em but im doing stuff: 10 week old baby, breastfeeding, attempting my own blog, car breaking down, trying to lose baby flub : D these look amazing!!!!! maybe i should train my husband to make them : ) I wil try em soon as i get some time, big loves from yorkshire, UK mwah!

    • Cara

      Hmmmm, that might be a long flight out to the UK but. well, okay! I’m coming 🙂 I’m a sucker for Europe so you found my soft spot! (And I found yours)…hehe

    • Cara

      Yes! Go into the kitchen now, Robin, and get cracking! 🙂 Thank you for the comment and I couldn’t be more pleased to hear that you like it here! That makes me so happy, truly… xo, Cara

  16. Susan Kelley

    WOW, amazing. I can’t wait to try this! I haven’t had a Twix in 14 years but I think I can still remember how awesome they were. There used to be a peanut butter kind, too… Getting ideas…

    • Cara

      Susan, don’t be getting peanut butter-twix crazy on me now. But just in case you, I’m sending you my address so you can send me some!!! 🙂

    • Cara

      Please do!!! No one comes over here on Halloween, trick-or-treating, and it’s depressing! But in order to get your twix, you HAVE to come dressed in a costume.

  19. The Sister

    Ohmygosh!!!! Send some to Cambria!!! She would be so excited to eat her very own Twix bars!!!! (There is no way I will make them. What a mean mom I am!)

  21. Cassie

    When I read that Kathy’s purple monster was dedicated to you I knew I had to check your blog out! And am soooo glad I did!! Those twix bars look incredible! I do believe you’ve gained a new follower 😉 Off to check out all your other monstrously tasty creations.

    • Cara

      Kathy is pretty awesome isn’t she? And that oatmeal monster is AMAZING isn’t it?? I loved that! I got such a kick out of it. I’m so glad that you found Fork and Beans 🙂 xoxo, Cara

      • Cassie

        Yes to all! So I just realized that I had been here before…it was the homemade cheeze-its. Well, now I’m a true believer and won’t forget 😉

        • Cara

          It happens to the best of us 🙂 Shoot, I can’t remember half the things I say 10 minutes ago… hehe. Glad you came back!

    • Cara

      Thank you so much for stopping by KT–make yourself comfortable! I am so happy you are liking what you find here 🙂

  23. Megan

    It makes me so sad that we get NO trick-or-treaters at my house. I wish I could make them homemade vegan treats… oh well, when I have a house of my own, I will 😀

    • Cara

      We don’t get any here either–I feel your pain! Total rip off. I live on a hill and those lazy kids don’t want to climb it, I guess. If only they knew… Oh well, Megan, you will just have to be your own trick-or-treater 🙂

  24. GiGi Anber

    Hahahaha. Shove the spirit of Halloween down my throat, which is fine as long as you don’t shove any other kind of spirits down my throat. I’m allergic to those. ooooh I never had a real twix. These look great . So if you if you “tweet” this post. It would be Twix or tweets. Bahahahah.

    • Cara

      HAHAHAH!!! There you go again, showing off your amazing sense of humor, GiGi 🙂 Twix or Tweets. That gave me a good giggle. And P.S. How have you never had a real Twix bar before????!!! My mind is blown here. P.P.S. When I wrote “Oh no you deh-ent” on your blog, It should have read “Oh you no you didn’t” but with attitude. I tried writing you back but have problems at times commenting on your blog with my computer…

      • GiGi Anber

        Ahhh. Thank you, backatcha. Nope never had a twix bar 🙁 Thank you for making me laugh and smile too. Got it. Silly computer… I bet it would be easier for you to comment on my blog if you added yourself as a follower (shameless self promotion):) Keep up the awesome posts, Cara.

  25. Susan

    Amazing! Twix used to be one of my favourite sorts of chocolate bars in my pregan day. I have starred this recipe, hopefully one day I can make it!

  30. Isobelle

    Oh yum! It has been too long since I had a Twix. These look so much like them too. I want to make some raw candy bars tomorrow. Making bars take so much time though because of each layer. But agree, they’re definitely worth it.

    Thanks for telling me about the Iron Chef thing! It’s pretty neat that they have that. I entered in the socca quesadillas 🙂

    • Cara

      Oooooh, raw candy bars! I cannot wait to see your final product. And you’re welcome on the tip-off. I’m so happy you entered–those quesadillas are brilliant! xoxo

    • Cara

      Try substituting 1 cup of your trusty All-Purpose flour for the sorghum and starches and keep the brown rice flour the same. Instead of corn syrup, maybe try agave? I bought some caramels that were agave based before and they were delicious. And is he okay with the Enjoy Life chocolate chips brand? Hopefully that helps, Heather! If there is more, let’s put our heads together and make sure that little guy gets his Twix fill! 🙂