Vegan Snickers (GF)

• First arrange peanuts for the crunch layer on a tray layered with parchment paper and roast them at 180 °C for 10-11 min. You want deeply roasted peanuts. After roasting leave them to cool for a little bit then rub their skin off with your fingers. Break every peanut in half with your hands so that they will be able to cover the whole surface on top later when you are going to sprinkle them on the caramel.

Nougat:

• While peanuts are roasting start preparing the nougat layer. Crush cashews in a blender. Work in smaller batches (3x50g) so that they don't transform into cashew butter. You want the consistency of flour. Transfer ground cashews into a larger bowl.
• Add to the bowl vanilla powder and salt. Mix together.
• Then add also peanut butter, vegan Dulce de Leche and vegan butter to the mixture. Mix well together.
• Grease the bottom and sides of a square baking dish with a removable bottom (mine was 20×20 cm) and layer the bottom part with parchment paper.
• Spread the nougat layer equally on the bottom of baking dish. Tap the top with your hand so that the top gets a clean look and all the holes are filled.
• Put the baking dish with nougat in the freezer while you work on caramel.

Caramel:

• Add all ingredients for the caramel to a pot and gently melt them over low heat until you get a very smooth caramel. Leave it to cool a little bit before proceeding.
• Take the baking dish out of the freezer and pour the caramel over it, spreading it with the back of a spoon.
• Sprinkle roasted peanuts on top and press them gently into the caramel with the back of a spoon.
• Return the baking dish in the freezer for at least 1 hour.

Coating:

• Melt chocolate over double boiler. Leave it to cool for a little bit. If you pour too hot chocolate over bars, they will start to melt too.
• Take baking dish out of the freezer. Cut the edges of the dish and lift the bottom to release the content from the dish. Cut the frozen square in half from top to bottom. Then cut one half from top to bottom two more times so that you get three equal very long bars. Do the same with the other half. You should now have 6 very long bars. Now cut the square from left to right two times so that you get 18 equal bars.
• Take one bar from the batch and return the rest of the bars back in the freezer. Coat the bar with melted chocolate. I do this by coating with the spoon the bottom part of the bar first then placing the bar with its bottom part facing down on that same spoon. I take the second spoon and coat the top and all the sides of the bar too. I tilt a bit the spoon with the bar on it to drain excess chocolate. Place the coated bar on a plate lined with parchment paper.
• Repeat the last step for the rest of bars. When you have all the bars coated, put them in the refrigerator for the chocolate to harden.
• After chocolate is hardened trim the edges of the bars with a knife where there's excessive chocolate.
• Take bars out of the refrigerator 20-30 min before serving them so they become softer and more enjoyable to eat.