Easy No Bake Mars Bar Slice
It’s a back to the 80’s festival in our little town this weekend with roller derby, live music, art exhibitions, and an outdoor screening of one of my favorite movies, “Footloose” tonight. It’s been a jam-packed weekend! What better time to bring back an 80’s and 90’s classic. This one graced many lunchboxes, school bake sales, and all the birthday parties back then. A no-bake, iconic, Aussie kid’s favorite… The humble no bake Mars Bar Slice.
What is Mars bar Slice?
Basically, It’s when Mars bars are melted down and mixed with rice bubbles and then topped with a layer of melted milk chocolate. As I remember it, there was always the addition of golden syrup when melting down the Mars Bars and butter. Personally, I’m not a huge fan, so I don’t add it.
Like this White Christmas slice, a good no-bake slice largely depends on good quality ingredients. Rice bubbles past their best will give a sub-par slice. The same goes for the chocolate layer on top. Lindt chocolate is my go-to as it’s super easy to melt in the microwave and it’s deliciously creamy. It’s also readily available in supermarkets and specialty food stores.
Here’s why you are going to love these Mars bar squares
This is a super easy, no-bake recipe. It’s a great one for the kids to make on a rainy day. Aside from melting the chocolate on top of the stove, the rest of this Mars bar slice recipe can be done in the microwave. Great for those little fingers wanting to learn how to cook!
The hands-on cooking time is minimal. Yay! Nothing better than some cooking bang for your buck.
Who doesn’t love a slice disguised as your favorite chocolate bar?
What you need to get started
- Mars Bars – Yep, the chocolate bar kind. After years of Mars Bars decreasing in size, this recipe calls for 8 chopped Mars bars. While it may seem like a lot, think about this… In the 1990s a Mars bar was 65g. Today it’s 47g. That’s shrinkflation for you! As such, over the years, more chocolate bars are required for a tray of chocolate slice.
- Unsalted butter – As with nearly all baking, I always used unsalted butter because it allows me to control the salt content
- Melted chocolate. For this recipe, I use a combination of dark (58%) and milk chocolate is used. As someone who isn’t an overly sweet person, I like to cut down the sweetness with dark chocolate.
- Rice Bubbles or Rice Krispies (if you don’t live in Australia), although any type of puffed rice cereal will work.
- Sea salt flakes. Murray River salt flakes is my everyday kitchen salt. It’s a lovely mild Australian pink sea salt. I seriously sprinkle this stuff everywhere!
The details
- Prepare the baking tin by greasing it with baking spray, lining it with parchment paper, and finally lightly coating the lined pan with baking spray again.
- In a large bowl, add the rice bubbles and pop them aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine the Mars Bars (roughly chopped up) and unsalted butter. Melt on low heat, stirring continuously until the Mars bar mixture is melted and incorporated. Add the salt and stir in. Add the Mars bar mixture to the rice bubbles in the large mixing bowl and gently stir through, being sure to fully coat the rice bubbles. Pop the rice bubble mixture into the prepared tin and smooth it over with the back of a spoon. Make sure it’s quite compacted, otherwise, it will fall apart when it’s cut up. Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to settle.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, place both dark and milk chocolate broken up into small chunks. Pop in the microwave and melt in 20-second bursts until the chocolate is fully melted. Be sure to stir in between to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn. Add the pinch of sea salt flakes and stir in. Spread the melted chocolate in an even layer over the slice. Pop in the fridge to cool for 1 hour.
- Slice and serve
Equipment
A small saucepan to melt the Mars bars and butter is essential. As is a sharp knife and cutting board to chop up all the chocolate bars. As I always melt chocolate in the microwave, I have a small 18cm bowl that I use for melting in the microwave. You’ll also need a large mixing bowl and a slice tray to set your slice in.
I baked this easy Mars bar slice recipe in a USA Pan 31 x 14cm biscotti pan.
Cook’s Notes
The easiest way to melt the chocolate for the top layer is in the microwave. Alternatively, you can also melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl via the double boiler method.
To cut up a chocolate-topped slice, ensure your knife has been run under hot water for a minute and wiped clean. By doing this the chocolate topping will melt under the heat of the knife, giving a clean cut.
Storage
You can store this Mars Bar traybake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Although this should be stored in the fridge, I always remove it 20 minutes before serving to let it come to room temperature.
Love an easy-to-make slice? Here are a few to try…
- Chocolate chip banana brownies
- Baked Biscoff cheesecake slice
- Strawberry jam crumble bars
- White Christmas Slice
- Maple Caramel Slice
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PrintMars Bar Slice
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Fridge + bench time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Yield: 18 pieces 1x
- Category: Sweets
- Method: No-bake
- Cuisine: Australian
Description
A no-bake, iconic, Aussie kid’s favorite… The humble Mars Bar Slice.
Ingredients
Mars bar base
- 140g rice bubbles
- 8 Mars bars
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp sea salt flakes
Chocolate Top
- 150g dark 58% chocolate
- 150g milk chocolate
- 30g unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt flakes
Instructions
- Prepare the baking tin by greasing it with baking spray, lining it with parchment paper, and lightly coating the lined pan with baking spray again.
- In a large bowl, add the rice bubbles and pop them aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine the Mars Bars (roughly chopped up) and unsalted butter. Melt on low heat, stirring continuously until the mars bar mixture is melted and incorporated. Add to the rice bubbles in the large mixing bowl and gently stir through, being sure to fully coat the rice bubbles. Pop everything into the prepared tin and smooth it over with the back of a spoon. Make sure it’s quite compacted, otherwise it will fall apart when it’s cut up. Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to settle and set a bit.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, place both dark and milk chocolate broken up into small chunks. Pop in the microwave and melt in 20 second bursts until the chocolate is fully melted. Be sure to stir in-between to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn. Add a pinch of sea salt flakes and stir through. Spread the melted chocolate in an even layer over the slice. Pop in the fridge to cool for 1 hour.
- Slice and serve.
Notes
This recipe should be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 5 days.
To cut up a chocolate-topped slice, ensure your knife has been run under hot water for a minute and wiped clean. By doing this the chocolate topping will melt under the heat of the knife, giving a clean cut.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 square
- Calories: 239
- Sugar: 19.4 g
- Sodium: 195.8 mg
- Fat: 13.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 26.3 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 15 mg
An easy recipe to make, very moorish, can’t just stop at one
I love this – my kids are always begging me to make this for them and this recipe is one of the best I have followed- so easy
Thats so sweet thank you Julie x