Scotland has the deep fried Mars bar, so make your own version in your kitchen with these baked Mars bars, or baked Milky Way bar.
Back in 2002 my sister and the local church youth group visited Scotland. It took years of fundraising, with countless bottle drives and sales of chocolate covered almonds. At the time I was in training for rowing, so my sister had a ready market of my crew and I to buy the chocolate. That said, she loved visiting Scotland. The stories she came back were…..well informative.
Back in 2002 my sister and the local church youth group visited Scotland. It took years of fundraising, with countless bottle drives and sales of chocolate covered almonds. At the time I was in training for rowing, so my sister had a ready market of my crew and I to buy the chocolate. That said, she loved visiting Scotland. The stories she came back were…..well informative.
However, what really shocked her was fast food. If you’ve ever gone to Scotland, you will learn quickly that fried food is quite prevalent. I read somewhere that this was a historical reaction against the English, who favoured roasting. No idea if that is true or not. In any case, there is more deep frying in Scotland than in a state fair. Hamburger? Deep fry it. Sausage? Deep fry it. Pizza? Deep fry it. Mars bar? Deep fry it.
When I visited Scotland myself back in 2008, I wanted to try the deep-fried mars bar. I can’t lie, I was left slightly underwhelmed by the experience. I love Mars Bars, and what I got was a slightly mushy par-cooked chocolate bar in a soggy crust.
So, years later when I was making my Cheeky Country Chicken Pie, I had a bit of pastry leftover. You can guess what happened next, I got creative and came up with the baked mars bar. I ran out to the shop and picked up a few Mars bars. I wrapped one up in pastry and shoved it in the oven. It didn’t end well. However, I learned. I froze the next bar, and then wrapped it in pastry and gave it an egg wash. Put that into the hot oven, and viola.
The baked Mars bar. Inspired by the deep-fried original, but made in your own oven. So really it is a Mars bar pie, or a Milky Way pie for my American friends and family! Well, maybe a Mars bar or Milky Way hand pie
Just a word of advice. Let the thing cool down before you eat it. Hot liquid chocolate and caramel is a mouth burning proposition.
Mars bar vs Milky Way (H2)
As this has been pointed out to me before, chocolate bars are not necessarily universal. In Europe, and pretty much most of the English speaking world outside of America we have Mars bars. They are usually nougat and caramel covered in milk chocolate. Like a Snickers bar without the peanuts. In America, the closest equivalent would be a Milky Way bar. Oddly, in the UK we also have a Milky Way bar, but these are closer to a 3 Musketeers bar!
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 ¼ sticks of salted butter (cold)
- 6 Mars bars of Milky Way bars
- ¾ cup Coldwater
- 1 Egg
Instructions
If you just want to use ready-made pastry (see tips and variations), place your bars into the freezer and skip to step 4.
- Place your chocolate bars in the freezer, make sure they are frozen. Make your pastry dough but chopping the butter into small chunks and mixing with the flour. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour, or use a pastry cutter to make this job MUCH easier. Once done, add 2/3 of the water and mix, continue to add water only until the dough comes together. Chill for 30 minutes.
- Turn out dough on a floured board. Knead gently, you don’t want the butter to start to melt, and shape the dough into a rectangle. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough in one direction only, roll the dough until 3 times the width, about 20 x 50cm. Do this quickly, again we want the butter to stay cold.
- Time for the turns! Fold the dough by taking the top and bottom third and fold over each other. Rotate (or turn!) the dough by a quarter and repeat step 3.
- When ready, turn the oven to 400F. It needs to be at this temperature before you start to prep the bars.
- Roll the pastry into rectangles, enough to wrap around the bar. Brush the inside of the pastry with beaten egg, and wrap up the pastry around the bars. Seal the pastry, and brush the outside with remaining egg wash. Place directly onto a parchment-lined sheet, and shove immediately into the oven. Bake until crispy golden brown. Let cool, dust with icing sugar.
Equipment
- Pastry cutter
- Mixing bowl
- Baking sheet with a slipmat!
Tips and Variations
What kind of chocolate bars can I bake?
This recipe is for the Mars Bars or Milky Way bars, but you could easily try different varieties. Snickers is the obvious bar, as would 3 Musketeers or a Reese Peanut butter cups. I would still highly recommend that you freeze the chocolate bar before wrapping and baking.
Can I make the pastry in advance?
Yes, absolutely. In fact, you should ensure it is nice and cold before rolling out. Just make sure it is wrapped tightly so that it will not dry out.
Can I change the butter for margarine in the pastry?
The butter adds an amazing flavour, so I personally wouldn’t really suggest this. However, yes you can in principle switch them. However, and this is a bit point, make sure you are using baking margarine (the stuff that comes in blocks), not the spreadable stuff. The spreadable stuff will not harden the same way, so will impact the pastry and make it more like a cracker than a pastry.
Do I need to make the pastry, can I just buy it?
YES! This recipe has a version of a rough puff that is easy to make but does take time. Instead, you could cut through most of these steps by buying ready-made puff pastry. Just make sure you still use frozen chocolate bars and give it an egg wash.
You might like these other recipes
Pairings
Drinks
Ok, milk is a good call. However, might I also suggest a good beer. If we are talking Scottish than maybe BrewDog?
Music
Hmm, something that is Scottish….. Oh come on, you know what it is going to be. I’m gonna be…..
Recipe
The totally awesome Baked Mars Bar {Bake Milky Way Bar}
Ingredients
- 2 Cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4 sticks cold butter
- 3/4 Cup cold water
- 6 Mars Bars individually frozen
- 1 egg
Instructions
Rough puff pastry
- If you don't want to make your own pastry, then buy some ready made puff pastry and jump to the next section.
- Make your pastry dough but chopping the butter into small chunks and mixing with the flour. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour, or use a pastry cutter to make this job MUCH easier. Once done, add 2/3 of the water and mix, continue to add water only until the dough comes together. Chill for 30 minutes.
- Turn out dough on a floured board. Knead gently, you don’t want the butter to start to melt, and shape the dough into a rectangle. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough in one direction only, roll the dough until 3 times the width, about 20 x 50cm. Do this quickly, again we want the butter to stay cold. Place back in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Time for the turns! Fold the dough by taking the top and bottom third and fold over each other. Rotate (or turn!) the dough by a quarter and repeat previous step. Place back in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up the butter.
Making baked Mars bars/ baked Milky Way bars
- Place the bars into the freezer, and ensure the chocolate bars are fully frozen before you use them. When ready, turn the oven to 400F. It needs to be at this temperature before you start to prep the bars.
- Roll the pastry into rectangles, enough to wrap around the bar. Brush the inside of the pastry with beaten egg, and wrap up the pastry around the bars. Seal the pastry, and brush the outside with remaining egg wash. Place directly onto a parchment-lined sheet, and shove immediately into the oven. Bake until crispy golden brown. Let cool, dust with icing sugar.
Notes
Man, everything about this sounds incredible! Hot (ok, maybe warm) chocolate and caramel coated in a flaky pastry dough? Uh, yes please. I love Scotland! My wife and I went to Fringe a couple of years ago, and I just loved every second of it. In fact, I want to go back! But, yes, I was also surprised to see the amount of fried food there. However, fried pies for breakfast are kinda epic. I mean, you can only justify eating that on vacation…but it was still quite awesome. Oh, and somehow I didn’t realize the Proclaimers were from Scotland. It makes sense now listening to them again…but man, I feel dumb. Haha! Great song!!
Deep-fried pies for breakfast.. you have to love the Scots for their ingenuity!
Hi Matt, love the story and the happy ending to your baked mars bar. I don’t know too many people that enjoy foods from Scotland, although I heard they make a mean pot pie. As for your mars bar, brilliant. I love that you didn’t waste the left over pastry dough and I know that the frozen mars bar melted slowly in that pastry would be delicious. Great work on this one Matt.
Cheers
Loreto
Thanks Loreto! I must say, the Scots also make a mean broth too!
Wow this is such a unique idea. I love Mars bars and now you’ve peaked my interest. I’m going to have to try these.
Thank Vicki, let me know if you do!
I am glad to learn something new here. didn’t know people in Scotland love deep fried food that much. 🙂 This is definitely a unique recipe. When pastry and candy bar got into the same sentence, it’s gotta be something good!
It is Amy! That said, yes the Scottish people adore deep fried foods!
Love that these are baked instead of fried – great idea!
Thanks Lily
This is incredible! I’ve never had any kind of a candy bar fried, but now I want one! I also want to plan my next vacation to Scotland.
Do both!!
I’ve never been to Scotland, and I’m surprised to have read you can try a lot of deep fried food in here. These bars…well, it might sound a little peculiar at first, but on the other hand, it sounds good. Caramel and chocolate covered in dough – it’s kind of Scottish version of lava cake or a donut:) Interesting!
Thanks Ben, basically they are a great excuse to have some very unhealthy food!
OMG! A baked mars bar – this is just too good to be true! What a genius idea! I love snickers and I can imagine that it would work very well with a snickers bar too … Would love to visit Scotland one day – high up on my list of places to see! Have a great weekend!
Miriam
http://www.londonkitchendiaries.com
Thanks Miriam, oooh, I like the idea of Snickers. Might have to give that a go!
I’ve never been to Scotland, but it sounds amazing! I mean, they DID come up with the baked mars bar. Clearly I need to get over there ASAP. These look all sorts of delicious! My husband would definitely eat about a million of these. Cheers!
Thanks Cheyanne
Unique fried foods are popular at American fairs, but I would prefer to have mine baked like you did. Will have to substitute Milky Way bars…
Mmm, good call on using milky way, they would be good too!
I have been in Scotland many years ago but I still have a great memory! Your recipe It is awesome, and I like your baked version! Thanks for being at FF!
Thank you!
Very creative! I’ve never been to Scotland either but it sounds like a fun place.
Thanks Julie!
Can’t wait to try this…just stumbled on the recipe. One question..how many times should the dough be folded…is it once or a quarter turn and fold 4 times for all 4 directions?
Hi, I just do one turn, but there is no reason why you could turn, chill and then turn again for more layers!
I’m so glad you reposted this one, Matt. A baked Mars Bar sounds amazing – even if the naming conventions of candy bars is enough to drive you crazy. Freezing that bar first was nothing short of genius! I would’ve probably shrugged and thought “Oh well, I guess I have to fry it.” Putting Mars Bars on the list for whenever I go out to a store again…
Its true. A lot of things are deep fried here. Especially fast food availability wise. I’ve never tried the deep fried mars bar myself but I have had a sausage supper (deep fried sausage with chips). As a relatively healthy person my excuse for having that at the time was I was drunk and hungry! That may also be a reason there’s a lot of deep fried food available here! I don’t honestly think there’s a lot of deep frying that goes on in peoples homes. A baked Mars bar is definitely much healthier anyway!
Baked MARS!? You’re a genius! At the Calgary Stampede here every year they have all sorts of crazy things deep fried. I’ve had the deep fried Oreos but never a Mars. I desperately need to try this one! Hope you had a good Easter, Matt!
I wouldn’t have thought that baking these would work out! It’s nice to be able to make these at home when we won’t be able to have carnival food any time soon.
OMG MATT!!! What have you done? I’ve already been eating loads of bread, pasta, and pastry and now you’ve gone ahead and made me add this to my list too. Ha!
Where has this recipe been all my life? I have actually enjoyed deep fried Mars bars several times. Plus it was my favorite bar when we lived in Belfast when I was in middle school. Luckily I know where to order them from to Colorado. OMG, so excited that these are in my very near future!