How to Make a Candy Bar: A Step-by-Step Guide

Candy bars are a favourite treat for millions worldwide, offering a delightful combination of textures, flavours, and ingredients. It’s a candy category with a lot of potential, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the candy bar market is projected to grow at approximately 5.08% between 2024 and 2032.

But how exactly are they made? The process of creating a candy bar involves several key stages, from ingredient preparation to packaging. Let’s dive into the details and explore how the various machines and techniques work together to bring these delicious confections to life.

How to Make a Candy Bar: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ingredients

The Foundation of a Candy Bar

The starting point for any candy bar is its ingredients. Depending on the recipe, candy bars can include a wide range of elements, such as nougat, caramel, chocolate, nuts, and more. Each of these components adds to the overall texture, flavour, and enjoyment of the bar.

Key Ingredients:

Nougat: A sweet, fluffy mixture made from sugar, syrup and whipping agent and optionally mixed with a fat phase to create creaminess.
Caramel: A smooth, flavourful filling made from milk, sugar, syrup and butter.
Chocolate: A blend of cocoa, sugar, and fat, often used to coat the candy bar.
Add-ins: Ingredients such as nuts, fruits, rice crisps and other toppings that provide additional flavour and texture.

The quality of these ingredients significantly affects the final product. Thus, choosing high-quality raw materials is a crucial first step in candy bar manufacturing.

Mixing and Cooking

Transforming Raw Materials into Delicious Layers

Once the ingredients are sourced, they must be mixed and cooked to perfection. This is where specialized equipment comes into play. Different components require different methods of preparation.

Nougat Preparation

Nougat, a key element in many candy bars, is a whipped mixture that requires careful aeration when producing continuous. The Tanis kitchen features a two-phase system aerator that employs two mixing heads. The first mixing head prepares a low-density foam, which is then combined with a cooked sugar mass in the second mixing head. This process results in a a fluffy nougat mass, allowing for the incorporation of various additives such as fat, powdered sugar, milk, and cocoa powder.

Caramel Cooking

Tanis has developed an all-stainless steel dynamic heat exchanger specifically designed to improve the process of cooking caramel for candy bars. This film cooker efficiently heats caramel mixtures, including those with high viscosity, to the required dry matter content by quickly reaching and maintaining the necessary cooking temperature. When combined with a Maillard reactor, the system enables precise control over the caramel’s colour and flavour development, ensuring consistent outcomes in the final product.

Chocolate Tempering

Chocolate, whether it’s used as a coating or as part of the base, must be melted and tempered correctly to achieve the desired consistency and shine. Chocolate tempering machines ensure that the chocolate remains at the perfect temperature throughout the process, remaining at the required quality for adding it to the candy bar.

Other delicious ingredients

Prepare additional ingredients that can give your candy bar a distinctive flavour, texture, or experience. These could include nuts, fruits, or other ingredients that, when combined with nougat, caramel, or chocolate, create the perfect balance. Consider incorporating active ingredients like protein, transforming the candy bar into a delivery system for muscle recovery after exercise.

Forming and Shaping

Crafting the Candy Bar

After the ingredients have been prepared, they need to be shaped into bars. This step requires specialized forming and shaping equipment, which ensures uniformity and precision.

Layering

Many candy bars consist of multiple layers—such as a base layer of nougat, a middle layer of caramel, and a top layer of chocolate or other toppings. To achieve this, Tanis uses slab formers or other layering machines.

Slab forming

The Roll Slab Former is designed for the consistent production of high-quality nougat and other candy bar layers. It features a heated infeed hopper that efficiently manages various ingredients for smooth operation. With one or two hard-chromed steel drums, it offers adjustable speed and temperature control, allowing for precise layering without compression. Whether for small or large-scale production, the Roll Slab Former ensures each layer is crafted to perfection, making it essential for modern candy bar manufacturing.

Cooling and Conditioning

Essential for the desired candy bars

Once the slab is prepared, it moves on to the cooling and conditioning phase.

Cooling and conditioning

Candy bars need to cool before they can be coated or packaged. Cooling tunnels are used to bring the bars down to the appropriate temperature. These tunnels are designed to prevent the bars from becoming too hard or too soft during the cooling process, ensuring that they right temperature for the next process step.

Slitting, Cutting and Decorating

Finalizing the Product

Now that the bars are cooled and coated, the final steps involve cutting them to size, adding any decorations, and packaging them for distribution.

Slitting & Spreading

The Tanis Slitter transfers candy slabs from the conveyor and slits them into ropes using rotary discs with built-in scrapers for precise cutting. The number of ropes can be adjusted to match the slab width. Teflon ropes prevent sticking by spreading the product, with speed control to fit different conveyor setups. Available in flat and high-low versions for varied production needs.

Cutting

The product ropes are guided to the Ultrasonic knife for precise, clean cuts to the desired length. Ultrasonic technology prevents sticking, ensuring smooth, consistent cuts. The ropes are then ready for finishing, such as enrobing with chocolate or other coatings.

Coating and decorating

To elevate the appeal and flavour profile of candy bars, various decorative toppings are commonly added at this stage. These can include a variety of options but we mainly see chocolate and yogurt toppings, providing not only a visually attractive finish but also enhancing texture and taste. This final layer contributes to creating a premium product that engages the senses and adds dimension to the overall experience.

Among these, chocolate coatings remain the most popular choice, offering a smooth, glossy appearance and contributing richly to flavour. However, achieving the perfect finish—characterized by a shiny surface and satisfying snap—requires precise tempering of the chocolate. Properly tempered chocolate ensures that it crystallizes perfectly, preventing common issues such as dullness or fat blooming (the white streaks seen on chocolate).

To control this process accurately, specialized tempering equipment is used, which regulates the heating and cooling cycles. This ensures that the chocolate solidifies with the ideal texture, resulting in consistently high-quality candy bars. Whether it's used for enrobing entire bars or adding decorative layers, correctly tempered chocolate is crucial to producing candy bars that not only taste delicious but also meet the highest visual and quality standards.

Packaging

Finally, the candy bars are wrapped and packaged for sale. Packaging machines quickly and efficiently wrap each bar, ensuring that it remains fresh and protected during transportation and storage. Some packaging systems also apply labels, barcodes, or other branding elements. At Tanis we understand the value of high quality packaging, therefore we work with trusted partners to ensure consistency and alignment with our own equipment.

Quality Control

Ensuring Consistency and Safety

Throughout the entire process, quality control plays a critical role. Manufacturers must ensure that each candy bar meets strict standards for taste, texture, appearance, and safety. This involves regular testing and inspections at every stage of production.

Tanis Innovation Center

During the recipe development and product testing phase, our food technologists can play a crucial role in ensuring the consistency and safety of your final product. By precisely fine-tuning the production process, we can help avoid significant adjustments during actual production. Our dedicated colleagues, with their passion and expertise, are ready to assist you in developing the candy bar of your dreams at the Tanis Innovation Center.

Taste and Texture Testing

Before the bars are packaged, samples may be taken for taste and texture testing. These tests ensure that the candy bars meet the desired flavour profile and consistency. If any issues are detected, adjustments can be made to the recipe or production process.

Food Safety

Ensuring food safety is another important aspect of candy bar manufacturing. Equipment must be regularly cleaned and maintained to prevent contamination. Additionally, ingredients must be stored and handled in a way that complies with food safety regulations.

Conclusion

The Art and Science of Candy Bar Making

The process of making a candy bar is both an art and a science, requiring careful attention to detail, precise equipment, and a passion for creating delicious confections. From the selection of ingredients to the final packaging, every step plays a crucial role in ensuring that the candy bars we love are consistently high-quality and enjoyable.

Decades of expertise from the Tanis family in the confectionery industry have culminated in a specialized team focused on all aspects of candy bar production. Crafting these versatile treats requires precision at every stage to achieve the perfect end product.

During the critical phases of recipe development and product testing, our food technologists ensure consistency and safety in every batch. By fine-tuning the production process early on, we help prevent costly adjustments later. Our passionate team stands ready to collaborate, bringing your candy bar vision to life while meeting the highest standards of quality and efficiency. Together, we'll transform your ideas into market success.