Making a Snickers bar is a posh science — a candy engineer explains the best way to create the fluffy nougat and chewy caramel of this Halloween favorite

It's Halloween. You've just finished trick-or-treating and it's time to guage the loot. You probably have a favourite, whether it's candy bars, peanut butter cups, those gummy bears with nerds on them, or something else.

For some people, myself included, one item stands out – the Snickers bar, especially when it's full size. The combination of nougat, caramel and peanuts covered in milk chocolate makes Snickers a preferred sweet.

As a food engineer While studying candy and ice cream on the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I now take a look at candy from a much different perspective than I did as a baby. Back then it was all about shoveling it in as quickly as possible.

Now, as a scientist who has made a profession by studying and Write books about confectioneryI actually have a very different attitude towards sweets. I actually have no problem sacrificing a chunk for the microscope or texture analyzer to higher understand how all of the components add up. I don’t work for, own inventory of, or receive funding from Mars Wrigley, the corporate that makes Snickers bars. But in my work, I examine the assorted components that make up many popular candy bars. Snickers has a lot of essentially the most common items you'll find in your Halloween candy.

Let's take a look at the weather of a Snickers bar for example of candy science. As with almost all the things, each component is more complex than you may think when you get into it.

Airy nougat

Let's start with the nougat. The nougat in a Snickers bar is a light airy sweet with small sugar crystals scattered in every single place.

One of the ingredients in nougat is egg white, a protein that helps stabilize the air bubbles that provide a lightweight texture. Such nougats are sometimes made by mixing sugar and egg whites. The egg white envelops the air bubbles created during beating and provides the nougat its airy consistency.

Then a cooked sugar syrup is slowly mixed into the egg white and sugar mixture after which melted fat is added. Since grease may cause air bubbles to burst, this step have to be done last and really rigorously.

The last ingredient added before cooling is powdered sugar Germs for sugar crystallization within the batch. The presence of small sugar crystals makes the nougat “short” – pull it apart between your fingers and it breaks cleanly without stretching.

Chewy caramel

There is a ribbon of chewy caramel on the nougat layer. The chewiness of the caramel contrasts with the sunshine, airy texture of the nougat, which provides contrast in every bite.

This makes caramel stand out from other sweets comprises a milk ingredientlike cream or condensed milk. During cooking, the milk proteins react with some sugars in a posh series of reactions called “milk proteins.” Maillard browningwhich provides it the brown color and caramel flavor.

Maillard browning begins with proteins and certain sugars. The The end products of those reactions include melanoidinsthese are brown dyes and a wide range of flavors. The specific aroma molecules depend upon the starting materials and conditions corresponding to temperature and water content.

Commercial carameljust like the one on the Snickers bar, is cooked to about 240-245 degrees Fahrenheit (115-118 degrees Celsius) to regulate the water content. If the temperature is just too high, the caramel will likely be too hard. However, if the temperature is just too low, the caramel will flow straight out of the nougat. In a Snickers bar, the caramel must be barely chewy so the peanuts will follow it.

Chocolate coating

To make chocolate, raw cocoa beans are harvested from cocoa pods after which fermented for several days. After the fermented beans are dried, they’re roasted to develop the chocolate flavor. As with caramel, the Maillard browning response is a vital factor to the taste of chocolate.

The milk chocolate coating on the Snickers bar is completed through a process called overdrafting. The naked bar, placed on a wire mesh conveyor, passes through a curtain of tempered liquid chocolate, covering all sides with a skinny layer. Tempering the chocolate shell makes it shiny and provides it a clearly defined bite.

The flow of tempered chocolate have to be precisely controlled to acquire a coating of the specified thickness without creating tails at the underside of the chocolate bar.

The Snickers Bar

When done appropriately, the result’s a delicious Snickers bar, a preferred candy for Halloween – or any time.

With about 15 million bars are produced day-after-dayGetting every detail excellent requires a variety of scientific understanding and technical precision.