In the latest instalment of her Pretend Cooking Show, Jennifer Garner has warmed hearts with her homemade version of Snickers bars.
The 13 Going on 30 star took to Instagram on Saturday where she shared her two-day recipe for homemade gooey chocolate coconut caramel bars, or basically, Snickers. The 50-year-old actor filmed herself making the dessert in her kitchen – breaking out into a few dance moves, singing breaks, and outfit changes along the way.
In the video, Garner began the Half Baked Harvest recipe at 7.36pm by melting six ounces of chocolate and two tablespoons of peanut butter in the microwave, before pouring it into a baking dish. “Does a 9x13 Pyrex just come with becoming an adult? I don’t remember buying this,” she joked.
Garner then let the layer of chocolate cool in the freezer, but not without licking the leftover chocolate off the parchment paper. Next, she ground cashews, coconut and dates in a food processor but got a bit spooked by the whirring of the machine.
To make the vegan caramel, Garner combined a mixture of coconut milk, brown sugar and honey. But when things started to get messy, the Love, Simon star took off her fuzzy orange pullover and got down to business. “You’ve seen the cute sweater, right? ‘Cause it’s time for it to go,” she said. “There’s always a time when we get serious. Commit. Drop in. Here we go.”
The mother of three continued with the homemade Snickers recipe, but admitted to her fans that she finds “making any caramel really nerve-wracking”. However, Garner left her baking abilities up to chance as she sang the lyrics: “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be.”
The Juno actor then told the camera, “This could be VERY good,” as she looked over her final creation.
After finishing her homemade Snickers bars at 9.46pm, she returned to the kitchen the next morning at 6.55am to take them out of the fridge. “It was a lot of effort, I wouldn’t do it all the time,” she said as she took a bite. “This is a success!”
It appeared that Jennifer Garner’s chocolate coconut caramel bars also received the stamp of approval from another fellow celebrity, The Office alum Ed Helms. “I took some to work and @edhelms loved them, so yay! Worth it!” she captioned the video.
Garner’s makeshift cooking show also received praise from fans in the comments section, including actor Hilary Swank who wrote: “YESSSSSSS, PALEAAASSSSE!!!”
“I feel like you might be the most wholesome person on the planet,” commented someone else.
“Best cooking show around,” a third user said.
Another fan wrote: “She is a national treasure and must be protected at all costs.”
Jennifer Garner has become somewhat of a maven in the kitchen after launching her Instagram cooking series, Pretend Cooking Show. Last year, the Party Down star told People that she has no plans on creating her own recipes, despite her love for cooking.
“I have a real love affair with my cookbooks,” she said. “And some of them, I have double copies because whenever I go on location, I want to take it with me, but I still need it home.”
“I want to follow recipes. I want to follow other people’s recipes and screw them up.”
One of those recipes includes fellow actor Emily Blunt’s roasted potato recipe, which the British star first shared with Ina Garten during an episode of Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa in 2018.
Although Garner admitted that “50 per cent” of what she makes doesn’t turn out as planned, her children are still supportive of her hobby. “Sometimes I really do think about 50 per cent of what I make works out. It doesn’t deter me,” she said. “Honestly, my kids are pretty patient with me. I’ll bake cookies or I’ll bake bread and I’ll forget and leave it in too long or I won’t pay attention and I’ll pull it out too early.”
Jennifer Garner shares three children – Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10 – with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck.
