Gourmet NutRageous!

Gourmet NutRageous

Gluten Free and Dairy Free 
and better than the original (according to hubby)

Ok, so NutRageous has always been my favorite candy bar.  I remember one summer on vacation in Madison, CT my hubby and I were looking high and low at the various drug stores and grocery stores to satisfy my craving and when I was pregnant with B, 2 Christmas' ago, my husband got me a big box of NutRageous chocolate bars from Costco!   I had been craving them all pregnancy, but in Dallas we couldn't find them anywhere so when we were back in WA for Christmas, that big box of NutRageous bars was way better than a tiny box with something sparkly.  

SO, ever since I had B (now 18 months) I have been off dairy and now gluten, so I couldn't have a NutRageous even if I could track one down in Omaha, but I was really craving one last week while driving in the car and suddenly I knew what I had to do....

so here is what I did.....

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

mix pb, sugar and egg and then form cookies and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  let set for a few minutes then transfer to wire cooling rack.  I formed my cookies with a "canal" in the middle, pushing the length of my finger down the center rather than flattening with a fork, to hold the caramel.

I placed the cookies in muffin cups after making them, but you could start out making them in muffin cups to create a more uniform shape.  Line the cookies up on a cookie sheet.

Later that day when the cookies were cool and i had a minute, I made my mom's caramel corn recipe, her caramel corn is my favorite because the caramel is soft and doesn't break your teeth...perfect for a candy bar!

Dairy Free Caramel (make with real butter if you can have dairy)

2/3 cup sugar (all white or 1/2 white 1/2 brown)

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter (I use best life buttery baking sticks they are dairy free)

1 tsp vanilla

combine sugar, butter and corn syrup in a small pot. Melt to boil then boil for 3 minutes while stirring.  Add Vanilla.  I let the caramel cool and thicken a little bit and then spooned it on top of the gluten free peanut butter cookies.  

NUTS

Top caramel with a generous amount of peanuts and gently press into the caramel.

Set aside and let caramel set up completely, (a few minutes)

CHOCOLATE

In a microwave safe bowl, put a bag of 60% cocoa ghiradelli chocolate chips (they're dairy free) in bowl and microwave for 1 minutes.  Stir with a fork then microwave another 40 seconds, stir with fork and then microwave another 40 seconds and stir till chocolate chips are all melted.

Spoon melted chocolate over the cookes and spread around covering the entire surface.

Cover cookies with plastic wrap or foil and place in the fridge so the chocolate will harden back up.  Keep refriderated and remove from fridge 10-15 minutes before serving so they can soften up a bit.  The chocolate melts really fast so having the nutrageous in a muffin cup helps keep the hands cleaner.  For my daughter we put on a cutting board and cut the candybar into bite size pieces and that made it easier and less messy to handle.  Personally...I don't mind having to lick the chocolate off my fingers after I've polished off one of these babies!

It may seem like a lot of work, but it was really just a couple easy steps that I just came back to when I had a spare moment here and there yesterday.  I mean, take the easiest ever cookies recipe and the easiest fastest ever caramel recipe and that's the hardest part!...yeah not very hard :)