Isaac, my oldest son, has a peanut allergy. Throughout the year, it's a pain to read all the labels, to eat cautiously when we are out, to worry about what he may be offered at parties...but I feel like Halloween is our annual reward. Once the kids get home from trick or treating, we go through their bags and take out anything that contains peanuts or that isn't well-labeled. Once they goes to bed, we PIG OUT on peanut-ridden treats. And we love it. There's my confession. One night a year, I like my child's allergy. Does that make me a horrible mother?

This year, the kids didn't bring home a single Butterfinger. In fact, they got very few treats containing peanuts. Perhaps people are being extra cautious this year? All I know is that their bags were completely lacking Butterfingers, and had a grand total of three Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. (Our annual pig-out was a little lackluster this year, to say the least.) As I was lamenting the lack of Butterfingers to Josh, I recalled that my cousin had made a knock-off recipe last year and shared them with us. They were great, but I hadn't actually tried the recipe myself. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I made them. As crazy as this recipe sounds, they were awesome! 

(This recipe is all over the internet and I don't know where to give credit, but I first saw the recipe here, on Plain Chicken)

1 C candy corn

1 C smooth peanut butter

1 C (+/-) chocolate chips

Place candy corn in a large microwaveable bowl. Heat for 1 minute. Stir, and heat for an additional 30 seconds. Heat and stir at 30 second intervals until melted. Add peanut butter and stir well. The candy corn will seize (similarly to when you add flavouring to melted chocolate). If that happens before the candy corn and peanut butter are thoroughly combined, microwave for another 30 seconds before stirring the mixture again. Spread into a large loaf pan, lined with parchment. Place in freezer until hardened.

Remove peanut butter mixture from freezer once hardened, and cut into pieces as desired. (I made my bite-sized like the "fun size" Halloween bars). Melt chocolate chips by microwaving, stirring each 30 seconds. Dip bars in chocolate to coat. Place on parchment to set. Store finished bars in the freezer.

It's amazing how similar the texture is to a real Butterfinger. As someone who doesn't like candy corn, I can attest to the fact that you certainly would never guess they were in these bars!