Butterfinger

[Cim Ryan]

With the explosion in availability of good chocolate, the stuff they enrobe Butterfingers in has become increasingly hard to stomach. What to do? Scrape the stuff off and re-dip the centers in good chocolate? Nah, I'll make my own! How hard could it be?!

One month and ten pounds of sugar later... Help?

What's baffling me is the sweetness. The ingredients list on the bars I've checked list Corn Syrup first, but even when I use five times as much sugar as corn syrup, the real thing tastes sweeter than my imitation. It's maddening. I haven't yet tried fructose, because I think I remember reading somewhere (McGee?) that fructose completely breaks down by 311F.

Any ideas on how to address the sweetness deficit?

[Chocolot]

With the explosion in availability of good chocolate, the stuff they enrobe Butterfingers in has become increasingly hard to stomach.  What to do?  Scrape the stuff off and re-dip the centers in good chocolate?  Nah, I'll make my own!  How hard could it be?!

One month and ten pounds of sugar later...  Help? 

What's baffling me is the sweetness.  The ingredients list on the bars I've checked list Corn Syrup first, but even when I use five times as much sugar as corn syrup, the real thing tastes sweeter than my imitation.  It's maddening.    I haven't yet tried fructose, because I think I remember reading somewhere (McGee?) that fructose completely breaks down by 311F.

Any ideas on how to address the sweetness deficit?

←

This is a pretty good copy of the original.

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup corn syrup, light

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 x chocolate melted

Directions

Cook corn syrup, sugar, and water to 310 degrees F., remove from heat, stir in warmed peanut butter until completely blended.

Pour onto greased cookie sheet and score into pieces.

When cool and hard, dip into melted chocolate.

[Cim Ryan]

This is a pretty good copy of the original.

(. . . snip . . .)

←

Thanks, Chocolot, that was the first recipe I tried; it seems to be the most widely published recipe on the net, but it's too peanut-buttery, and suffers from the aforementioned lack of sweetness...

[K8memphis]

Add a little honey or agave? Sub for some corn syrup?

Just a sweeter butterfinger thought for you.

[Tri2Cook]

I use this one:

1 c. sugar, 2/3 c. corn syrup, 5 tbsp. butter on high to boil, reduce to med-high and boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Mix 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/3 c. nonfat dry milk and 1/4 tsp. salt and stir into syrup. Cool to just warm to touch and mix in an equal weight of peanut butter (I usually mix it in a processor).

I keep meaning to take the time to convert this to weights and temps instead of measures and times but haven't got around to it yet. It's not perfect but it works well for what I do with it. One of these days I'll get back to playing around with it again... maybe.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I know that Butterfingers have confectioner's corn flakes in them, and they primarily affect the texture.

My other thought is that I have always thought of them as related to what my family always called honeycomb candy, and some call Cinder Toffee. These have an appearance eerily similar to what Ewald Notter calls 'straw sugar'. When I get them from commercial confectioners, they have sloped ends, like a Butterfinger. But, they have distinct air holes in them, and Butterfinger does not, so I don't think a recipe will be very helpful.

I suspect (but don't really know) that the commercial candy tastes sweeter because the sugar may be worked a bit before adding the peanut butter, so there are small stripes of peanut surrounded by candy shell. In other words, try cooking sugar (using any real-sugar recipe for pulling sugar) pull til glossy. Then lay it out as a wide rectangle, spread peanut butter on the top, and a dash of salt, for contrast. Leave a good centimeter of edge clean for a good seal, and begin pulling and folding the bar very carefully under your heatlamp. When you've folded it 6-7 times, trim with scissors, cool and dip in chocolate.

After a practice run or two, you might be able to add cornflakes with the peanut butter for a more accurate bar.

[Chocolot]

This is a pretty good copy of the original.

(. . . snip . . .)

←

Thanks, Chocolot, that was the first recipe I tried; it seems to be the most widely published recipe on the net, but it's too peanut-buttery, and suffers from the aforementioned lack of sweetness...

←

I use commercial peanut butter such as Jif that has added sugar, rather than an organic one. When you stir in the sugar mixture, pull up the mass on the spoon and let it fall back into the bowl. This sort of stretches the candy into the peanut butter and sort of makes layers. Hard to explain

[Tri2Cook]

I know that Butterfingers have confectioner's corn flakes in them, and they primarily affect the texture.

←

Hmmm... I'm going to have to try that. The only thing with the type I make that I wasn't completely happy with was textural. I'm not trying to make a butterfinger bar, I use it as a filling, so I'm more after the taste and texture than complete accuracy.

[Beth Wilson]

You might check out the type of peanut butter too... I know Skippy is pretty sweet for my tastes.

Try different types to see if there is a difference. This has been making me hungry to try it out and I just bought some peanut butter!

[JAZ]

I've only made these once (from the recipe quoted above), and I liked them because they weren't as sweet as the original. But if you want them sweeter and less peanut-y, why not just start cutting back on the amount of peanut butter until you get to the point where the sweetness level is what you want?

[Sethro]

Is a butterfinger supposed to taste peanut buttery? I never even knew there was peanut butter in it at all. I assumed the "butter" referred to butterscotch, which is pretty much caramel, vanilla and salt. It always just tasted like butterscotch and fuilettine (not a bad thing at all) to me. I haven't had one in years though...

[Tri2Cook]

They taste peanut buttery to me but I don't really eat them. I just had a request at one point for a butterfinger cake and wanted to make a filling I could form in a pan then place between cake layers because I'm too stubborn to do the smart thing and just cover the cake in butterfingers.

[Lisa Shock]

From the Nestle Website:

"What is in a BUTTERFINGER? Freshly roasted peanuts are chopped, and made into a creamy peanut butter that is blended with a sugar candy. This unique substance is kneaded, rolled, cut and covered in a chocolatey coating."

I love the use of the 'word' chocolatey, which has no legal restrictions....

Anyway, I suspect that if you use pure peanut butter, containing only peanuts, and add some salt, the sugar part will seem sweeter than it would with a PB that contains sugar.

[JAZ]

Bumping this up because I'm planning on experimenting with this again. I found a different recipe online here, which doubles the amount of sugar in the recipe quoted above and increases the corn syrup as well. The other major difference is adding some baking soda at the end with the peanut butter, which from what I know about candy would seem to make for a flakier and lighter texture. I'd like that, but I don't want them sweeter than my first batch. My question is, if I cut back on the sugar, will that change the way the baking soda acts?

[Lisa Shock]

Depends on how much sugar you cut. The soda is a mechanical leavener in this case, since the recipe is a riff on peanut brittle, it will cause the sugar to become foamy with air bubbles. If you use a lot less sugar you'll need less baking soda. If you cut the sugar by a couple of ounces, it probably won't need adjustment.

The additional corn syrup goes hand-in-hand with the additional sugar. It's a fail-safe for the boiled sugar, to help less experienced cooks cook the sugar and not have it crystallize. I would reduce its amount by the same percentage that you reduce the sugar.

I do have one suggestion, having recently made peanut brittle and done a little experimenting. Try putting some kosher salt, or other large crystal salt, on the product at the end. (or in the pan before adding the product) I made some peanut brittle with and without coarse salt and people really liked it and preferred it to the traditional batch.

[JAZ]

Thanks, Lisa. I ended up cutting the sugar from 2 cups down to about 1-1/4 cups, and the corn syrup to 1/2 cup. I added 1/2 tsp. of baking soda at the end, and I'm very happy with the texture.

I agree about a little salt in brittle -- I make a salted nut crunch that starts out with roasted salted cashews and macadamias, and it's always a hit. In this case, I'm layering peanut butter truffle filling over the base and coating with bittersweet chocolate, so I'm not sure about the salt, but maybe I'll try a few with a sprinkle of salt on top after coating.

[pastameshugana]

The additional corn syrup goes hand-in-hand with the additional sugar. It's a fail-safe for the boiled sugar, to help less experienced cooks cook the sugar and not have it crystallize. I would reduce its amount by the same percentage that you reduce the sugar.

Lisa, I'm curious as a candy noob, is it better to not use corn syrup? If so, what additional precautions should be taken, and/or how would you adjust a recipe calling for corn syrup (ie, how much sugar should replace it?).

I tried my hand at the method involving baking soda and vanilla - so far so good. I'm letting it cool now. I'll probably dip them in the morning. Here's a few pics!

This is just as I added the peanut butter, baking soda, and vanilla. Love that smell!

This is cooling, just about to score it for later:

I'll be back with the results!

[John DePaula]

The additional corn syrup goes hand-in-hand with the additional sugar. It's a fail-safe for the boiled sugar, to help less experienced cooks cook the sugar and not have it crystallize. I would reduce its amount by the same percentage that you reduce the sugar.

Lisa, I'm curious as a candy noob, is it better to not use corn syrup? If so, what additional precautions should be taken, and/or how would you adjust a recipe calling for corn syrup (ie, how much sugar should replace it?).

I tried my hand at the method involving baking soda and vanilla - so far so good. I'm letting it cool now. I'll probably dip them in the morning. Here's a few pics!

This is just as I added the peanut butter, baking soda, and vanilla. Love that smell!

...

This is cooling, just about to score it for later:

I'll be back with the results!

Please do! Can't wait to hear how you'd judge the texture and flavor.

[pastameshugana]

Okay, somehow my reply disappeared...

After cooling for several hours, I'm noticing that they seem to be headed toward 'hard-candy' land, and bypassing the yummy flakiness we were shooting for. There are some distinct air holes from the baking soda reaction, but the confection as a whole is quite heavy and solid.

Where did I go wrong? I was careful to take it off the heat right at 300 like the recipe said, I can't really (as a complete noob) think where else to look. I think my corn syrup may have been of dodgy quality, could that be it?

The taste is fantastic, my wife (preggo w/number 4!) is in serious danger of eating it all before we ever get the chocolate on...

Any ideas?

[nhamilto]

I would try beating the candy before letting it cool. If you break open a butterfingers center you should notice that it has a brittle but flaky structure. The sugar separates into flakes or leaves.

[JAZ]

Pastameshugana, I had that trouble with the original batch I made (without the baking soda), which is why I wanted to try the baking soda variation. I based my second batch on this recipe, but changed the quantities as follows:

8-3/4 oz. (250 grams) (about 1-1/4 C) granulated sugar

2-5/8 oz. (78 g) (1/3 C) water

5-3/8 oz. (154 g) (1/2 C) corn syrup

Then I mixed in:

9-1/4 oz. (268 g) (about 1 cup) peanut butter (I used smooth Jif)

2 g (1/2 tsp) baking soda

4 g (1 tsp) vanilla

I brought the first three ingredients to a boil and cooked it to 300F -- if anything, I went a little higher. Then stirred in the peanut butter, soda and vanilla. I wouldn't say that I "beat" it, but it does take a lot of stirring to get the peanut butter incorporated. I wanted it the finished candy to be on the thin side, so rather than an 8" pan, I spread it out in a quarter sheet pan (on a silpat) and it fit perfectly.

Anyway, I was quite happy with the texture; it's much better than my first try. I didn't get photos of the candy before cutting, but this is what it looked like after.

I wanted to do a layered candy with peanut butter truffle filling on top, which is one of the reasons I didn't want it quite so sweet.

(Then I dipped in 70 percent chocolate, but I didn't get a photo of that either.)

[pastameshugana]

Well, I'm sure my wife will be bummed that I have to experiment on another batch...

Thankfully there's no expensive ingredients, I'll try again with more beating. Also, I had the baking soda/vanilla/PB all in a dish and dumped it together, I think (possibly?) mixing in the PB/vanilla, then adding the baking soda and beating well.

In the meantime, I need to go donate some candy to the neighbors...

Thanks for all the help!

[Lisa Shock]

To reply to the question from 11/3, I would leave the corn syrup in when adjusting a recipe. It really helps sugar get to the type of structure you want, and to keep it. Just don't get overeager and add too much, as too much can make it runny.

If I ever get around to trying this, I would make some pulled caramel sugar, divide into two lumps, pull one to a rectangle, place a layer of fuilettine on it, cover with the other rectangle, spread PB on that and start folding and pulling under a heat lamp. But, I really suspect that the butterfinger factory has special machines to make this work out just right.

The peanut brittle approach is probably pretty close for a home cook. Finely chopped nuts rather than nut butter may give a crisper texture.

[xxchef]

...If I ever get around to trying this, I would make some pulled caramel sugar, divide into two lumps, pull one to a rectangle, place a layer of fuilettine on it, cover with the other rectangle, spread PB on that and start folding and pulling under a heat lamp...

Your idea of folding is similar to how I make this candy.

I use a recipe similar to the one posted above (here: ) but cook the sugar mix to a medium caramel. I've made it both with and without a little baking soda stirred into the caramel (haven't noticed much difference between the finished products) but then I pour the caramel out on a slab, blop the peanut butter/vanilla mix over it and start folding it over itself with a large off-set spatula until it reaches the right consistency and begins to hold it's shape. I then corral it in with some caramel bars and press the candy to the desired thickness. Score immediately for individual pieces. Cool completely, cut through, dip in dark chocolate.

[lebowits]

The confection "center" of a Butterfinger is actually a "laminated" product in the style of croissant dough. Greweling has a good formula and description of the technique on p.198 for "leaf croquant". It's not the easiest technique as you need to keep the "dough" warm enough to roll and fold seveal times in order to get the proper lamination. It's definitely delicious and if you have the space, worth the effort.