Gluten Free Double Decker Recipe
I don’t think I need to describe my “Gluten Free Double Deckers” to you… just look at this… yum!! Haha
Admittedly, a regular double decker doesn’t have the caramel bit ontop so this is a TRIPLE DECKER!!! 😉 But I couldn’t resist this cheeky addition! Toffee crisp base, mars middle, caramel top, all coated in your fave chocolate.
Gluten Free Double Decker Ingredients
Everything for my gluten free double decker recipe can be dairy free too – as long as you pick a dairy free chocolate!!
I thought I might give you a bit more info about two of the ingredients below.
(1) “Liquid Glucose”
The only one you might not recognise but you’ll find it in the baking aisle of all major supermarkets (and actually most of the small ones too!).
(2) The Caramel Bit
You’ve got two choices for the caramel element of this recipe:
>Make your own – here’s my Gluten Free Chewy Caramel Recipe (with dairy free option). Making caramel can be a challenge but its fun and rewarding!
>OR Shop Bought Caramel – I’ve found a way to make it wayyyy easier for you!!! This gluten free toffee crisp recipe works perfectly with shop bought “soft caramels”. What I mean by that is something that is soft enough to mould with your fingers.
- Perfect brand I’ve found: Werther’s Original Soft Caramels (in the picture above). You can pick either up from almost all supermarkets, Poundshops or even petrol stations.
- Second best: Werther’s Creamy Toffees will work too (similar packaging but its a blue band, rather than pink) – just not quite as soft.
- Dairy free: haven’t tried these yet but Kuhbonbon Caramels look perfect (via Amazon or tons of vegan online stores)
My Mould
I think the mould makes the whole process a bit easier – from shaping the crispy base to adding the caramel and coating in chocolate. It does prevent the rice crispy lumpy shaped bar but I think its worth it!
Its particularly good if you’ve made your own caramel, especially if the caramel is slightly too soft and isnt holding its shape very well.
There’s tons online but this is the one I have from Amazon (not an affiliate link – just trying to be helpful!!)
Do I need a thermometer?
Yes, unfortunately for my gluten free Double Deckers, you really need to know when your sugar mixture has hit the right temperature to get the perfect fluffy gluten free nougat. You could guess based on my cook-a-long videos (see my story highlights on Instagram), but its never going to be perfect.
I think digital thermometers are the best and you can pick them up for as little as £10. I use a Thermapen – more expensive but I use it all the time and absolutely love it. Perfect for anything from making sweets to checking the temperature of your meat. (I’m not working with them on this recipe, just sharing the love haha).
Gluten Free Double Decker Recipe
Ingredients
Nougat
- 70 grams of Liquid Glucose - half a Dr Oetker tube
- 200 grams caster sugar
- 5 grams cocoa powder
- 1 egg white
Crispy Bit!
- 4 soft caramels or 25 grams or My Chewy Caramel Recipe - see "The Caramel Bit" in the blog post above
- 10 grams spread/butter
- 20 grams chocolate
- 20 grams Rice Crispies - make sure yours are gluten free
Caramel Topping & Chocolate Coating
- 250 grams chocolate – your choice!
- 8 soft caramels or 100g of My Chewy Caramel Recipe - see "The Caramel Bit" in the blog post above
Instructions
- If you're making my Chewy Caramel Recipe, do that now and let it cool for 20 mins before moving onto the next step.
Nougat
- Place the caster sugar & liquid glucose into a saucepan. Add 60ml of water.>Tip: Cut the end off the tube and pour out from that side
- Turn the pan to a low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved. At this point, you won't see any grains of sugar in the mix and it will have changed from a bit of resistance when you stir it, to more of a water-like consistency (although it will still be a bit cloudy).
- Increase the temperature so the mixture is simmering. Do not stir it anymore!! Leave it simmering until it reaches 132-135oC. >The pic shows what it will look like at this stage – the metal skewer is just my thermometer
- Whilst the mixture is reaching temperature, place the egg white in a large, clean mixing bowl and beat until they reach stiff peaks. >Here is a pic I have taken from google images to show what stiff peaks looks like!
- Once the egg white is at stiff peaks and the sugar has reached temperature, add a tiny bit of the melted sugar mix to the egg and whisk in. Repeat until you have whisked in all of the mixture. >I pour in approximately 3 tbsp at a time. It takes 2 mins to add all of the sugar mixture to the egg white.
- Use an electric whisk to beat the mix on high speed for a full 6 minutes.>Don't cut this time short!!! Its difficult to overwhisk, but if you underwhisk you won't have a fluffy nougat.>It will go from looking like melted marshmellows to a dough like consistency and then to a reallyyy sticky, almost chewing gum like consistency.
- Add the cocoa powder and whisk in, making sure to get right to the bottom of the bowl. Set aside.
Make the "Crispy Bit"
- Add about 1 inch of water to the bottom of a saucepan.
- Place a mixing bowl on top of the saucepan. Make sure the water in the pan doesn't touch the base of the mixing bowl otherwise it'll burn the ingredients in the next step>If it does, get a bigger mixing bowl, smaller pan or use less water
- Place all of the "Crispy Bit" ingredients EXCEPT the rice crispies into the mixing bowl and keep stirring until its all melted.
- Add the rice crispies and mix in. You can be heavy handed with this – dont worry about crunching them up.>I find its easiest to do this whilst the mixture is still on the heat. The mixture hardens very quickly when its off the heat!!
CONSTRUCTION: NO MOULD
- Remove the mixing bowl from the heat and quickly shape the crispies into bars (approx 1 heaped tbsp of mix per bar).>If the mixture goes cold and its difficult to shape into bars, just return it to the heat for 30sec-1min
- Add a spoonful of nougat to the top of the crispy bars.>It will be very sticky and messy – use cold spoons and don't worry about making it perfect!
- Take 1 soft caramel. Stretch it out so it will roughly cover the top of the bar. Place the caramel ontop. Repeat for the rest of the caramels.>If you've made your own caramel, that equates to approx 10g per bar.
- Melt the chocolate. Wait for it to cool slightly to make it easier to work with (around 1 min should be enough)>Ideally the chocolate needs to be "tempered". If you don't, when the chocolate has cooled down it will be a bit sticky. The cheats way to do this is to melt 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove it from the heat and add the remaining 1/3 in tiny chunks. Stir stir stir until its completely melted.
- Coat the bars in chocolate. My favourite way:1. Scrape the chocolate into a small bowl – ideally only just bigger than the size of a toffee crisp so the chocolate is as deep as possible to make it easier to dunk the whole Double Decker bar into2. Cover a baking tray/chopping board/plate with tin foil.3. Place one of the Double Decker bars into the chocolate, making sure its fully coated and then lift it out with a fork. Let some of the excess chocolate drip off into the bowl.4. Place the Double Decker onto the tin foil and repeat for the rest of the bars.
CONSTRUCTION: WITH MOULDS
- Melt the chocolate. Wait for it to cool slightly to make it easier to work with (around 1 min should be enough)>Ideally the chocolate needs to be "tempered". If you don't, when the chocolate has cooled down it will be a bit sticky. The cheats way to do this is to melt 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Remove it from the heat and add the remaining 1/3 in tiny chunks. Stir stir stir until its completely melted.
- Pour your melted chocolate into the holes of the mould and tip out any excess. Set aside any spare chocolate to cover the tops of the bars in a minute – don't eat it!!!
- Place into the fridge/freezer for 5 mins to firm up.
- Take approx 1/2 tbsp of the rice crispy mix. Push into the mould (filling it to around half full).>If the mixture goes cold and its difficult to shape into bars, just return it to the heat for 30sec-1min
- Repeat for the nougat.
- Take 1 soft caramel. Stretch it out so it will roughly cover the top of a bar and place it ontop. Repeat for the rest of the caramels.>Extra tip: If you've got spare soft caramels, you can double up here! Squish two together and just use as though its 1>If you're using my caramel recipe, you can just pour on the caramel if its still warm. If its already too firm, you need approx 10g per bar.
- Pour the rest of the chocolate over the top of the bars to cover them.>If the chocolate is difficult to pour, return it to the heat for 20-30 seconds to make it runny again.
- Place into the fridge for 10 mins to set, then pop the bars out of the moulds and eat!!
