When you harken back to the days of waiting in line at the school concession stand or at the local pool (even if you’re not that far removed yourself), you probably have a favorite treat that comes to mind immediately. Some of these may be classic candies we wish we could have back. However, if 3 Musketeers bars were ever on your favorites list, you may be surprised to find out that they’re not some old-timey candy that’s no longer with us — they’re very much still around. But if you’re looking for a quick and easy chocolate treat at home, you can recreate a 3 Musketeers bar with just three ingredients: Cool Whip, milk chocolate chips, and vegetable shortening.
The easy at-home candy does an excellent job of fabricating the flavor of a 3 Musketeers, but with much simpler ingredients. The sweet center of a 3 Musketeers is made of nougat, an ingredient you probably don’t want to bother making at home unless you’re a professional. If you’re not familiar with nougat, it’s a sometimes hard, sometimes soft (in the case of 3 Musketeers) sweet confection, like a toffee. It’s made with cooked sugar that is then whipped with egg whites to add more volume and the tiny bubbles that give it its signature chew. As we all know, working with cooked sugar at home can be difficult to get the right temperature, and downright dangerous when mixing in other ingredients. In the case of these mock 3 Musketeers, the most dangerous ingredient you have to work with is some warm chocolate. Just don’t get it too hot, and you’ll be all good.
How to make homemade 3 Musketeers bars
To make these frozen, chewy chocolate treats, you’ll need a tub of Cool Whip, a few bags of milk chocolate chips, and about a tablespoon and a half of vegetable shortening. You’ll start with melting about half of your chocolate chips however you normally would. Just be sure to stir the chocolate regularly, so it doesn’t burn. Once you have your melted chocolate, you simply stir in the (room temperature) Cool Whip. This is the mix that will make the faux nougat center, but it needs to be cut into bars. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put it in a parchment-lined cake pan and freeze it long enough that it can be cut and still hold its form. Once cut into the size of bars you want, you can freeze them again, so they’re easy to dip into the next chocolate mix. Heat your remaining chocolate chips with a bit of vegetable shortening mixed in, which will help them set a bit better. Dip your frozen “nougat” in this chocolate mix until coated.
Once dipped, put your bars in the freezer again and they’ll be ready to enjoy in a few hours. They’ll come out melt-in-your-mouth chocolatey with a nice creamy chew, remarkably like a real 3 Musketeers bar. And if you get your candy fix at the movie theater these days, you can even bring these bars along, because it’s not actually illegal to smuggle candy into a movie theater. While the bars will hold their form for a few hours out of the freezer, they will eventually melt. On the other hand, they’re so tasty that they likely won’t make it past the opening credits.
