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No Bake Sweet Marie Bars

 Reminiscent of the popular Canadian candy bar, these desserts are soft, chewy, salty and sweet. Covered in chocolate, these bars boast the perfect flavour and texture combination!


Growing up in Canada, I never realised that many of our beloved candy bars/chocolate bars did not exist in the U.S. It wasn't until I lived in the U.S back in 2001, that I realised how different chocolate bars were there. Gone were many of my favourites, which I only was able to enjoy on trips home to visit family. Why are things so different? Well in Canada, we carry many Cadbury brands of chocolate. Since we are a British Colony, naturally we import British products. Cadbury never made it big in the U.S, after Hershey's accused the company of infringing on it's trademark rights and importing U.K products not intended for sale in the U.S.

The Sweet Marie Bar had crispy rice, peanuts, caramel and chewy nougat, covered in chocolate. Inspired by a love affair and a love poem, this chocolate bar first made it's appearance in the late 1800s. It's said that in 1893 author Cy Warman had been taking an evening stroll through a park in London Ontario, with his sweetheart Marie. He had been so smitten that he sat in the park and wrote a poem title "Sweet Marie". When musician Raymond Moore later read the poem, he decided to put it to music. The song eventually became a hit, which inspired the creation of the chocolate bar. Pretty neat if you ask me!

My mom first made this recipe over 30 years ago and would only make this dessert at Christmas. Mom's Christmas trays are always overflowing with dozens of different types of desserts! Her's resembled little fun sized Sweet Marie Bars, but I decided to make them in a cake pan, since I'm not the greatest at dipping things in chocolate. I don't know how similar these taste to the actual Sweet Marie bar, which is no longer in production, but these sure are delicious. They are chewy, crispy and studded with salty peanuts, which gives them added texture. An absolutely wonderful flavour and texture combination!



Sweet Marie Bars

½ C smooth natural peanut butter
½ C brown sugar
½ C light corn syrup, or raw honey
1 tbs butter
2 C Crisped Rice Cereal
1 C salted peanuts
1 package semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 C white chocolate chips

Heat the peanut butter, sugar, corn syrup (or honey) and butter over low heat until mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and stir in rice cereal and peanuts; mix well.

Press into a greased 8 inch square pan and cover with chocolate chips while hot. As chips melt, spread over the top, using an offset spatula. Let cool.

Melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, using 30 second intervals, until melted. Stir until smooth and pour into a zip top bag. Cut a small piece from the corner of the zip top bag and drizzle white chocolate onto bars.

Once white chocolate has set, cut into squares; using a long sharp knife.

PIN IT!!!


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Comments

  1. The Rowdy Baker10 December 2020 at 15:50

    Oh my goodness - what a perfect treat! A little bit of heaven. Can't wait to try them. They're on my Christmas list!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Irene11 December 2020 at 09:39

    I have lived in Canada since the mid 90s and have never heard of these bars. I like trying all things Canadian, and these sure sound delicious, so I have pinned the recipe and will have to make a batch soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Miz Helen15 December 2020 at 19:44

    Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday,514. Hope you are having a great week and come back to see us soon!
    Miz Helen

    ReplyDelete

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