It's easy to make Cadbury Crunchie Bars at home. These chocolate-dipped sponge candy bars have a light, airy honeycomb center, and rich, creamy milk chocolate coating.
If you are a fan of Cadbury Crunchie Bars but can't find them in a nearby store, grab a few pantry items and make them at home.
With just 5 ingredients, you can make homemade sponge candy, cut it into bars, then dip it in chocolate.
This recipe is easy but you'll want to follow the instructions to ensure your candy is airy and thick enough to make nicely shaped candy bars.
How to make sponge candy?
This recipe is so simple, but it's important to cook the candy to the correct temperature in order for it to harden properly. You definitely want to use a candy thermometer or an instant-read thermometer. I love my Thermapen instant-read thermometer especially for candy making because it registers the temperature so quickly.
- Start by mixing sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. I used a 3-quart saucepan which has enough room for the candy mixture to bubble up into a foamy candy once the baking soda is added. Don't use a small saucepan as the candy will overflow the pan.
- Heat the sugar and corn syrup on medium heat.
- Stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Once bubbles start to form, quit stirring.
- Let the syrup boil until it reaches 300°F-305°F.
- This should take 4-6 minutes. On a gas stove, it typically takes 4 minutes. It may take longer if you are using an electric stove especially if your burner turns on and off as it heats.
- Once the sugar reaches 300°F, remove it from the stove and immediately pour in some vanilla (for flavoring) and baking soda.
- Stir to combine the ingredients.
- The baking soda will cause the sugar syrup to bubble up a lot.
- DO NOT touch the hot candy. It will seriously burn your skin.
How to make homemade sponge candy bars?
- Grease a non-stick loaf pan with butter and line it with a strip of parchment paper.
- Pour the hot candy into the loaf pan if you want to make homemade Cadbury Crunchy Bars. I used an 8-½ x 4-½ x 2-½ inch loaf pan but a 9x5-inch loaf pan will work fine too. If you are just making sponge candy and don't care if it is in bars, you can simply pour the candy onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
- Let the candy harden for about 40 minutes then remove it from the pan.
- Use a serrated knife to score the large bar into eight 1-inch wide candy bars. Use the knife in a sawing action to score the bars.
- Then, break the bar along the score lines. You will get 8 bars. Some may crack but you should get several nicely-shaped bars to dip in chocolate. You can also dip any broken pieces.
- If you poured the candy onto a baking tray, just simply break it into pieces. It's rather easy to break the airy candy.
Dip sponge candy in chocolate.
- Melt and temper pure milk chocolate or melt light cocoa candy melts. See my chocolate-making tips page for detailed instructions. If you use pure chocolate made with cocoa butter and you do not temper it, your chocolate will not harden properly and may bloom (white spots or streaks of cocoa butter will show on your chocolate).
- Dip a piece of sponge candy into the milk chocolate.
- Use a dipping fork or a kitchen fork to lift the sponge candy out of the chocolate.
- Tap the handle of the fork on the edge of the bowl a few times. This will cause any excess chocolate to drip off the candy.
- Set the chocolate-dipped sponge candy on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Repeat until all the candy is dipped.
- Chill in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes until the chocolate hardens.
- Remove and let the candy warm to room temperature before serving.
RECIPE
You can find the printable Copycat Cadbury Crunchie Bars Recipe on the Dixie Crystals website.
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