Copycat Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bars

These Copycat Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bars are one of Mr. Grumbles's favourite recipes.  Little does he know that the inspiration came from my home country of Canada.  To this day, I am surprised at how similar, yet also so different, the US is to Canada.

For example, when I first moved to the US, I searched high and low for certain items such as Kraft Peanut Butter. Kraft is a US-based company but for some reason, you can not find their peanut butter here in the US.

As far as chips, "Ketchup" chips and "All Dressed" (which is a combination of flavours including ketchup, salt, vinegar, barbecue, sour cream, onion and other mystery seasonings) have yet to make it across the border.

What about chocolate bars?  Well, we have a variety that you can not find here in the states.  Here is a brief list of some of my favourites:

• Aero - Made by Nestle it is a chocolate bar with lots of air bubbles throughout
• Crunchie - Made by Cadbury, it is a sponge bar covered in chocolate
• Coffee Crisp - One of the most popular chocolate bars in Canada for over 75 years. Made with a crispy wafer with a creamy coffee flavoured fill and covered in delicious milk chocolate.
• Skor - A delicious slab of butter toffee drowned in rich Hershey’s milk chocolate. Every time a hockey player gets a puck into the net everyone yells the name of this bar. Proof we love it!

Slowly, I am hoping to have an entire section of my blog dedicated to copycat recipes of these Canadian chocolate bars.

And hence, I decided to start with an easy, yet a favourite of mine called an Oh Henry! bar.

History of the O'Henry bar

The Oh Henry Bar is a straightforward, delicious candy bar with a somewhat complicated history. As opposed to Snickers that was named after Forrest Mars’ beloved racehorse, no one is 100% certain where the name for Oh Henry came from.

Theories abound but one thing that almost everyone agrees upon is that this is a delicious candy bar and has been for close to 100 years.

Spark your curiosity? Read on…

Lore has it that the name was derived from that of a randy young man who made frequents visits to the original manufacturers – the Williamson company – less for sugary sweets and more to flirt with the eye candy who worked on the assembly line. This leaves us to assume that the young man’s name was — you guessed it — Henry. But certain proof eludes us.

Perhaps a more credible theory is that the candy bar was named after the owner of the now-defunct Peerless Candy company.  The owner’s name was Tom Henry and in a vainglorious move, created the Tom Henry Bar.  It was a short-lived venture as he sold the rights to the candy bar in 1920 to the Williamson Candy who changed the name to Oh Henry.

O'Henry was also one of the first examples of “gorilla marketing” as an employee of Williamson Candy Company who was determined to make the Oh Henry Bar famous. Lacking the funds to launch a full-frontal Madison Avenue advertising campaign, this wily salesman had bumper stickers printed with only two words – Oh Henry. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat and this candy bar quickly made a name for itself.

How to make these Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bars

Since an O'Henry! bar is just chocolate, nuts, nougat and a dense caramel layer, I knew this could be done.  In my first attempt, I ended up making into "bite" size pieces by dividing the mixture in an ice cube tray.  Although this definitely created the "look" I was going for, the time and patience it took was unrealistic.

Here is the ice cube tray version...

You can clearly see how similar it is to the actual picture of the bar above.  However, patience is not my virtue so I knew I had to simplify the method if I was ever going to successfully convince anyone in today's hectic world to try this recipe.

Step 1: Nougat Layer

I took some almond butter, coconut flour,  sweetener and vanilla and microwaved the ingredients until they could be easily mixed together.  I lined a loaf pan with parchment paper and poured the mixture into the bottom of the pan and placed it in the fridge to cool

Step 2: Caramel Layer

Instead of using my caramel recipe from Peanut Caramel Chocolate Bars, I decided to simplify things and combined almond butter, coconut oil, caramel extract and a sticky sweetener.  Once again, I microwaved the ingredients, stirred them together and layered them on top of the chilled nougat layer.

Step 3: Peanut Layer

Self-explanatory, right?  Peanuts were sprinkled on top of the caramel layer and the mixture was placed back in the fridge.

Step 4: Chocolate Coating

I simply took a chocolate bar, broke it into pieces and microwaved it with a little coconut oil and cream.  Once it was fully combined, I poured it on top of the peanut layer and placed it back in the fridge for a couple of hours in order to let it harden.

These bars turned out divine and the great thing is that you can easily make any substitutions to suit your dietary restrictions.

Substitutions for these Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bars:

Almond Butter - peanut butter or any other butter such as sunflower seed butter works just as well.  Just make sure you taste the mixture along the way and adjust the amount of sweetener used as some kinds of butter have added sugar while others do not.

Stevia - you can easily replace this with regular sugar, xylitol or erythritol.

Golden Swerve - this can be replaced with brown sugar.

Liquid Sweetener - I used Lakanto maple syrup but any maple syrup or honey can be utilized

Chocolate Bar - I used Lily's stevia-sweetened bar but chocolate chips can work just as well.

Cream - I add cream to my chocolate coating as this helps to prevent the chocolate layer from cracking when cut (that is how I made the "bites).  For the bar version, I only used coconut oil and although the taste was the same, the chocolate coating did crack when I cut them into bars.

Bars vs. Bites - I made these in ice cube trays and although they look more authentic, they were also more time-consuming.

If you have any favourite treat you would like me to recreate, send me an email and I gladly accept the challenge!

If you like this Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bar recipe, you may also enjoy:

• No-Bake Carrot Cake Bars (Keto, Gluten-Free)
• Red Velvet Cake Bars (Gluten-Free, Low Carb, Dairy-Free)
• Peanut Caramel Chocolate Bars (Keto, Low Carb, Gluten-Free)
• Chocolate Avocado Protein Bites (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Egg Free)
• Cookie Dough Protein Bites (Low Carb, Gluten-Free)

Chocolate Peanut O'Henry Bars

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5 from 2 reviews

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I have made this recipe over 3 times in the last couple of months because Mr. Grumble's loves them so much.  The ingredient list is really short and the same glass measuring cup can be used for all three layers.  Only 2 dishes and very few ingredients make these bars are my "go to" for a quick, sugar free, gluten free, keto treat!

• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 15 bites 1x

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Nougat Layer:

• ½ cup nut butter (or seed butter)
• 24g (¼ cup) coconut flour
• ¼ cup sticky sweetener (I used VitaFiber but honey or Yacon syrup will work)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Caramel Layer:

• 66 g (¼ cup) cup nut butter (or seed butter)
• ¼ cup sweetener (I used Lakanto Maple syrup but any maple syrup or honey will work)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• ⅛ tsp caramel extract

Peanut Layer:

• 1 - 2 oz peanuts

Chocolate Coating:

• 2 oz (¼ cup) chocolate (bar or chips - I used Lily's)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (or cream)

 

 

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Instructions

1. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. 
2. In a glass measuring cup, combine nougat ingredients (except for the coconut flour) and microwave on high for 15  seconds or until melted.  Stir in the coconut flour and press into loaf pan. 
3. Gently press the nuts into the mixture.
4. Prepare caramel layer but combining all the ingredients in the same glass measuring cup, heat in microwave for 15 seconds or until melted.  Let cool slightly and pour over nougat and peanuts.
5. Place loaf pan in the fridge for 15 minutes.
6. Lastly, prepare chocolate layer by breaking chocolate into pieces.  Place in glass measuring cup and add oil.  Microwave for 15 seconds or until fully melted.  Remove loaf pan from fridge and pour chocolate over entire surface.
7. Place bars in fridge and allow to harden (about 3 hours)
8. Cut into 15 pieces.  Store bars in fridge or freezer.

Notes

• Nutritional value is based on using sugar free items in recipe.
• These bars can easily be made in ice cube trays following the same recipe except allow bars to harden for 3 hours before trying to remove them from ice cube tray to cover with chocolate.
• Taste your mixture along the way and either increase or decrease the amount of sweetener as all nut and seed butters have different levels of sweeteness.
• Make sure to keep these bars in the fridge or freezer.

• Author: Cat
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Category: Sweets
• Cuisine: Keto, Low Carb, Gluten Free

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 square
• Calories: 96
• Fat: 10.1 g
• Carbohydrates: 2.4 g
• Fiber: 1.7 g
• Protein: 2.1 g