Wunderbars are a popular Canadian candy bar, also known as Starbar in other countries. These Homemade Wunderbars are easy to make, and tasty!
The holidays are coming up, and with it... candy-making season!
Today, I’m sharing a recipe that will make your expat Canadian - and British - friends VERY happy - homemade Wunderbars!
This is a recipe that I developed for More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land. Not only was it a hit with my Canadian expat friends in the area, my American friends LOVED it.
These take a little bit of work to make, but are totally worth it - especially when you lack access to the source material, like I did when I created this recipe!
What is a Wunderbar?
A Wunderbar - Also known as a Starbar in the UK - is a Cadbury candy bar that’s very popular in Canada. It’s been around since 1976.
The center is a crispy, peanutty filling, enrobed in a thick, chewy caramel.
The whole thing is dipped in chocolate... and that’s a Wunderbar. Simple, but tasty!
What is in a Wunderbar?
The ingredients for the commercially made bars are:
Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Peanuts, Modified Milk Ingredients, Modified Palm Oil, Modified Vegetable Oil, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Unsweetened Chocolate, Rice Crisps (Rice, Sugar, Salt, Malt Extract (Barley, Wheat), Monoglycerides), Cocoa Butter, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Bicarbonate, Soy Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavors.
The ingredients for my homemade version are:
Milk chocolate chips
Crisp rice cereal
Light brown sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Creamy peanut butter
Butter
Corn syrup
Sweetened condensed milk
Shortening
Vanilla extract
Salt
Are Wunderbars Gluten-Free?
The commercially made, source material is NOT gluten-free - the malt syrup is made from barley and wheat.
While this can be fine for some people, it’s decidedly NOT celiac friendly.
That said, it’s possible to make them gluten-free - just be sure to use gluten-free crispy rice cereal.
A Note About the Nutritional Facts
The nutritional facts in the recipe card are way off, as this makes more caramel than you will use for a batch of bars.
It's just not practical to make - and use - a smaller batch, and the software isn't such that it can take that into account!
How to Make Homemade Wunderbars
The full recipe follows at the end of this post, here’s a quick walkthrough.
Make the Filling
In a stand mixer, beat peanut butter, vanilla extract, and salt together until smooth and well combined.
Add cereal, beat well, until cereal is broken up and fully incorporated. Add powdered sugar, beat on low until sugar is completely mixed in.
With clean hands, knead the mixture slightly to bring together.
Divide into 8 equal-sized balls, roll into logs about ¾" in diameter.
Freeze while you prepare the dipping caramel:
Make the Dipping Caramel
In a large saucepan, combine everything except the vanilla extract. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Once boiling, affix a candy thermometer to the pan. Make sure the tip of the thermometer is in the sugar mixture, but not touching the bottom of the pan.
Boil - stirring constantly - until mixture reaches 240 F (115 C).
Once the mixture reaches 240F (115 C), remove from heat, stir in the vanilla, and set aside. I like to pour it into a glass loaf pan - it's the perfect shape for dipping the bars!
Allow to cool for 5 minutes, before dipping anything in it, line a baking sheet or flat work area with parchment paper.
Carefully dip your frozen filling logs into the warm dipping caramel.
Allow excess to drip off, before transferring to parchment paper. Allow to cool and fully set before proceeding.
Make the Dipping Chocolate
Either in the top of a double boiler - or in a glass bowl, microwaved for 30 seconds at a time - carefully melt chocolate and shortening together, stirring well until smooth.
If chocolate is too thick for dipping, add a little more shortening, once again stirring well until smooth.
Carefully dip each bar into chocolate, allow excess to drop off, and transfer back to parchment paper.
Keep chocolate warm while dipping, as it thickens as it cools.
Allow bars to set before transferring to covered storage container.
More Canadian Comfort Food!
Whether you’re a Canadian in the US or not, we could all use some comfort food these days. Here are some Canadian Favourites!
Back Bacon / Canadian Bacon
Beep
Canadian Popcorn Seasoning Recipes
Clodhoppers
Confetti Bars
Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Dip
Doughnut Holes - Timbits!
French Canadian Pea Soup
Homemade Deep N Delicious Cake
How to Make Peameal Bacon and Back Bacon
Maple Butter Tarts
Montreal Bagels
Persians Recipe
Poutine, My Way!
Puffed Wheat Squares
Replica Swiss Chalet Sauce
Tiger Tail Ice Cream
Looking for even more Canadian recipes? Check out our full Canadian Recipes list!
My Canadian Cookbook!
This recipe is one of many fantastic Canadian recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land”. "More than Poutine" is a Canadian cookbook like no other - written by a Canadian living away, it includes both traditional home cooking recipes, as well as accurate homemade versions of many of the snacks, sauces, convenience foods, and other food items that are hard to come by outside of Canada! Order your copy here on this site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you post it to Bluesky, be sure to tag us - @CelebrationGen. We're also on Pinterest, so you can save all your favourite recipes to a board!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.
Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Homemade Wunderbars
Equipment
- Candy Thermometer
Ingredients
Filling:
- 1 cup Creamy peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 ½ cups Crisp rice cereal
- 1 ½ cups Icing powdered/confectioner sugar
Dipping Caramel:
- 2 cups Light brown sugar firmly packed
- 14 oz Sweetened condensed milk 396 g
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Corn syrup
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
Dipping Chocolate:
- 24 oz Milk chocolate chips 2 bags
- 2 tablespoon Shortening
Instructions
Filling:
- In a stand mixer, beat peanut butter, vanilla extract, and salt together until smooth and well combined.
- Add cereal, beat well, until cereal is broken up and fully incorporated.
- Add powdered sugar, beat on low until sugar is completely mixed in.
- With clean hands, knead mixture slightly to bring together.
- Divide into 8 equal sized balls, roll into logs about ¾" in diameter.
- Freeze while you prepare the dipping caramel:
Dipping Caramel:
- In a large saucepan, combine everything except the vanilla extract.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Once boiling, affix a candy thermometer to the pan. Make sure the tip of the thermometer is in the sugar mixture, but not touching the bottom of the pan.
- Boil - stirring constantly - until mixture reaches 240 F (115 C).
- Once mixture reaches 240F (115 C), remove from heat, stir in the vanilla, and set aside.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes, before dipping anything in it.
- Line a baking sheet or flat work area with parchment paper.
- Carefully dip your frozen filling logs into the warm dipping caramel.
- Allow excess to drip off, before transferring to parchment paper. Allow to cool and fully set before proceeding.
Dipping Chocolate:
- Either in the top of a double boiler - or in a glass bowl, microwaved for 30 seconds at a time - carefully melt chocolate and shortening together, stirring well until smooth.
- If chocolate is too thick for dipping, add a little more shortening, once again stirring well until smooth.
- Carefully dip each bar into chocolate, allow excess to drop off, and transfer back to parchment paper.
- Keep chocolate warm while dipping, as it thickens as it cools.
- Allow bars to set before transferring to covered storage container.
Matt
So when do you add the vanilla extract to the dipping caramel?
Marie Porter
Oops, looks like I left that out! Fixed it!
Stephanie
Marie, I really appreciate your attention to detail and homage to authenticity. That said, I would like to pick your taste bud brains. I have made some feuilletine and would like to use it in place of the cereal. Do you think that would work here? I know it would be a different candy.
Marie Porter
Huh. That's a new one for me.
I'm not sure? The texture would be completely different, and I'm not sure how it would take the moisture. If you try it, let me know what happens!
Laura
Hey there! We made these for gifts for my Wunderbar loving parents today and I was wondering if they should be stored in the fridge if we aren’t gifting them for a few days or are they fine on the counter? I didn’t know if the fridge would make them sweat when we take them out to gift. Thanks so much for the recipe! They turned out great!
Marie Porter
Room temp works fine! Let them harden/cool completely, then a gift box or plastic baggie works.