pan-fried candy bars

I may have been cooking for more than a year now but when it comes to hot oil and frying stuff, I'm scared to use a deep-fryer or putting a ton of oil into a saucepan and heating that oil. Yet I've always wanted to know what a deep-fried candy bar tasted like. This is obviously not deep-fried candy bars, but this is the closest thing to it I can get without having to buy a deep-fryer- a good ole' frying pan.

Since there's a lot of more oil in a deep-fryer than a frying pan(which tends to be shallow), pan-frying food is slightly healthier than deep-frying it. But make no mistake: this recipe is not diet food! It's junk food with a lot less oil and grease.

It turns out even after freezing the candy bars for 2 hours, they still melt quickly in the frying pan, which is why you can't cook it for more than 30 seconds on each side. If you look at the picture on the left and in the video, the only bar that held its original shape and form was the 3 Musketeers Bars, which has no nuts in it, unlike the Almond Joy bars and Snickers bar I used. I don't know if the inclusion of the nuts in the bars caused it to melt.

Unlike most of my recipes, I bought the main ingredient for the dish(the candy bars) from a Rite Aid. In my odyssey to find the bars I wanted to use, I had my  hopes on obtaining a 100 Grand bar, which didn't happen, but if the inclusion of nuts has anything to do with it, a 100 Grand bar probably would've melted as well in a frying pan.

So I used a Rocky Road Snickers bar instead(the Rocky Road flavor is a limited edition flavor but any conventional Snickers bar will do for this recipe). This is a culinary experiment after all, considering that nobody on the Internet has tried pan-frying candy bars before, which is why the inspiration for this recipe(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/deep-fried-candy-bars-recipe2.html) uses deep-frying, not pan frying.

Based on my previous pan-frying experiences with other foods, if you're not making pancakes, I advise you to coat your desired food that you wanted to pan-fry in breadcrumbs. But I recommend you use unseasoned breadcrumbs(not panko breadcrumbs- those are too thick for candy bars) in this recipe because using the seasoned breadcrumbs you get from the supermarket(which typically use garlic, basil, and black pepper) would interfere with the taste of the fried candy bars.

I mixed my unseasoned breadcrumbs with a tablespoon of cocoa powder since the bars are chocolate bars after all.

When I told my dad I was having the fried Almond Joy bars & fried Snickers bar for dinner, he said I was joking, so he advised me to have a glass of milk with these fried bars. Milk actually goes great with fried candy bars. As for the taste of the fried candy bars, I tasted warm candy bars that literally melted in my mouth, combined with the crunchiness of the breadcrumbs.

It may be only February but the idea of fried candy bars and milk would appeal to Santa Claus(if he was real).

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

Wax paper
2 large plates
A medium bowl
A large bowl
A frying pan
Tongs
2 forks

For the bars:

4 candy bars(I used one 3 Musketeers bar, 1 Snickers bar, and 2 Almond Joy bars that come in one package)
All-purpose flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tbsp. of canola oil
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp. of cocoa powder
Unseasoned breadcrumbs
More canola oil for frying
A glass of milk to have with the bars

1. Wrap each bar in wax paper and put them in the freezer for 2 hours to better improve the odds that most of them will hold their shape during the battering and frying process.
2. After 2 hours, unwrap the bars from the plastic wrap.
3. Put the all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder on a large plate. Mix all of those dry ingredients together.
4. In a large bowl, crack one egg. Then add canola oil and milk. Mix all of those wet ingredients together.
5. In a medium bowl, mix unseasoned breadcrumbs and cocoa powder together until you get a breading that is light-to-medium brown in color.
6. Dredge each bar in the flour mixture and then the milk mixture. After that, coat the bars in the breadcrumb mixture. Use tongs so you won't get your hands messy.
7. Heat oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is heated up, put the battered and breaded bars into the frying pan, let them fry for 15-30 seconds on the bottom.
8. After 15-30 seconds, flip the bars over using two forks. Let the bars fry again for 15-30 seconds. During this frying process, make sure the bars don't melt too much.
9. After that, quickly remove the bars from the frying pan and put on a large plate.
10. Serve with a glass of milk. Bon appetit!