Homemade Oh Henry Bars – Yum!

The summer always reminds me of my teenage years when I spent every evening swimming a mile at dusk at the local community pool. I think I must have swum those miles for one simple reason: having eaten too many sweets, especially homemade Oh Henry Bars!

As teens, we used to have girlfriend get-togethers, watch movies on our VCRs, and consume sugar. This Oh Henry Bars recipe made the rounds.

When I was doing a bit of research on the candy bar, I came across some interesting tidbits:

• In Canada, the Oh Henry Bar is made by Hershey Canada but Nestle USA makes it south of the border
• Candy bars that share the same name, but are made in different countries, have different ingredients! For example, in Canada the first ingredient is sugar and in the US, it is milk chocolate
• Because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has its own labeling requirements and restrictions for the use of the word chocolate, the Oh Henry Bar is considered ‘candy’ with a ‘chocolaty coating’
• Over the years, variations like peanut butter and fudge have been produced
• There are a couple of stories about the origin of the name but I like the one on the Nestle.com site about a candy shop owner who kept asking a worker named Henry to do this and that for him!

The homemade version of Oh Henry Bars can take many forms, including being made with Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies or oatmeal as a base. No matter how they are made, you can be sure there is always a chocolate and peanut component.

The key to making these bars and having them be presentable requires patience. Here are three tips that you MUST follow unless you plan on eating the batch by yourself:

• Use parchment paper
• Do not over-bake the bars
• Refrigerate the bars overnight or they will stick and be too gooey!

Homemade Oh Henry Bars

Base Ingredients:

• 1 cup melted margarine or butter
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 cups large flake oats

Topping Ingredients:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup smooth peanut butter
• ¼ cup chopped peanuts

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray or grease a 9 ½ by 13 inch glass dish; add parchment paper that goes up the side of the dish; crumple the paper then spread it out in the dish and spray or grease the paper.
• Combine base ingredients and pat into dish.
• Bake for about 13-15 minutes. DO NOT overbake.
• Check at 13 minutes and pull out of oven before the edges start to caramelize. Anything that caramelizes will be too hard to eat.
• Let cool for about an hour.
• Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a pot or in the microwave.
• Spread over base.
• Sprinkle with nuts.
• Refrigerate overnight.
• Remove squares by lifting parchment paper and cutting with a sharp knife.
• Store in the refrigerator between sheets of wax paper.

Enjoy!!