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Imperial Sugar
Imperial Sugar

Copycat Lion Bars

Copycat Lion Bars Imperial

Ingredients

Caramel

Cookies

  • Eight 4-layer vanilla wafer cookies (or 16 2-layer vanilla wafer cookies) stacked together using a thin layer of chocolate or vanilla frosting in between

Crispy Chocolate Coating

  • 1 cup crispy rice cereal
  • 12 ounces melted and tempered milk chocolate or melted light cocoa candy melts

Directions

  1. To make caramel, melt butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on high power for 30-45 seconds.
  2. Pour brown sugar, granulated sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk into bowl and stir until melted butter is completely blended into other ingredients.
  3. Heat in microwave on high power for 2 minutes.
  4. Remove and stir until smooth and creamy.
  5. Heat on high power for an additional 2 minutes. Remove and stir.
  6. Check temperature using an instant read thermometer, swirling it around bowl for 10 seconds before reading temperature. You are aiming for 245°F (soft and chewy) to 250°F (firm and chewy).
  7. Continue to heat caramel for 1-2 more minutes, stirring and checking temperature every 15 seconds. Temperature can increase very quickly so be sure to check temperature every 15 seconds! If caramel gets too hot, it will become too hard.
  8. Once caramel reaches 245°F to 250°F, remove it from heat and stir in vanilla.
  9. For cookies and chocolate coating, see note about vanilla wafer cookies before proceeding.
  10. When caramel is ready, dip a wafer cookie into caramel, coating it completely.
  11. Lift cookie out of caramel using a chocolate dipping fork or kitchen fork. Allow excess caramel to drip off then set caramel-coated cookie onto a silicone baking mat. Repeat, coating all cookies in caramel. Be careful not to touch caramel as it is extremely hot and can easily burn your fingers.
  12. You will have a small amount of caramel in bowl when you have coated all your cookies.
  13. Pour excess caramel out onto your silicone mat and once it cools, you can enjoy a snack.
  14. Set caramel-coated cookies aside for 20 minutes until they cool completely.
  15. For crispy chocolate coating, stir crispy rice cereal into milk chocolate.
  16. Dip a caramel-coated cookie into chocolate. Coat entire cookie in chocolate, then lift it out using a dipping fork and allow excess chocolate to drip off. Then, set candy bar on a parchment paper (or silicone mat) lined baking sheet.
  17. If you are using candy melts and chocolate is thin and it runs off cookie, let candy melts cool slightly until they thicken before continuing.
  18. Repeat process dipping all 8 of your Lion Bars.
  19. You'll have a small amount of crispy chocolate remaining. Spread it on a lined baking pan. Once hardened, you can break it up into chocolate bark and enjoy another snack.
  20. Chill candy bars (and thin layer of crispy milk chocolate) in refrigerator for 10-20 minutes until chocolate hardens.
  21. Remove from refrigerator and allow candy bars to come to room temperature before serving.
Imperial Sugar Insight

Note: You want to use 4-layer thick vanilla wafer cookies to make these homemade Lion Bars. If you can only find 2-layer wafer cookies, you can make them thicker by attaching two of them together using some melted chocolate or vanilla frosting. Just be sure they are securely attached together before dipping them in hot caramel.

Recipe created for Imperial Sugar by Beth Jackson Klosterboer @Hungry Happenings.