Perfect Snack Bars

By lucylox on September 25, 2025

A close-up view of homemade popcorn bars drizzled with chocolate, showcasing a combination of crunchy pretzels, caramel, and crispy cornflakes on a parchment paper.

I had wanted to recreate the Pret popcorn bars as they always look so light and tempting, but on tasting one I found it teeth achingly sweet with the heavy reliance on white chocolate and sugar. So, I decided to go left-field and make my own type of popcorn snack bar.

A close-up view of homemade snack bars made from popcorn, pretzels, and a mixture of caramel and chocolate, displayed on parchment paper.

Instead of using white chocolate which is both so very sweet and can be difficult to come by if you're dairy-free, I've used a combination of caramel and Biscoff to give a yummy, very moreish base. This is used to coat an interesting and rather surprising combination of light airy popcorn, salty crunchy pretzels, sweet crumbly biscuits, and light crispy cornflakes. It may have been an accidental combination but oh my, it really works!

Homemade popcorn snack bars drizzled with chocolate, showcasing a combination of popcorn, pretzels, and caramel, arranged on parchment paper.

These bars evolved , as some of the best recipes do, from using up what was hanging about, and have involved into something of a legendary snack option. There is nothing mundane about these bars, they full of contrasting salty and sweet flavours, along with a myriad of textures to excite the palate.

A tray lined with parchment paper filled with a mixture of popcorn, pretzels, and drizzled chocolate.

In this recipe you can easy swap around the ingredients: a seed or nut butter, or even a chocolate spread could replace the Biscoff spread; or how about using other cereal or biscuits in the base. I'd be sure to keep the popcorn and probably the pretzels too as I feel that they give the essence of the bars.

A bowl filled with a mixture of popcorn, crunchy pretzels, sweet biscuit pieces, and crispy cornflakes, showcasing a variety of textures and colors.

Perfect Snack Bars

Makes 6 bars

2lb loaf tin, lined

14 g salty and sweet popcorn (one small multipack bag)
20 g small pretzels (lightly crushed)
2 digestive biscuits (30g – roughly crushed)
15 g cornflakes
80 g caster sugar
120 g golden syrup
60 g Lotus biscoff spread
30 g dairy-free chocolate

Pour the popcorn, crushed pretzels, roughly crushed biscuits and cornflakes into a bowl Toss together and set aside
In a saucepan melt together the sugar, syrup and Biscoff spread. Pour over the popcorn mixture and mix well to combine. It will set fast, so work quickly! If you add the popcorn mix to the hot caramel mixture in the saucepan you'll get a bit more time to play with!
Press into the lined tin and place in the fridge to firm up
Melt the chocolate and then drizzle over the top. Leave to fully set and then cut into 6 bars.

Snack