Pretzel Bark

Welcome to Baking Extravaganza Day 5! Seriously, who doesn’t love a good salty sweet combination? Chocolate and salt are amazing together, and personally I think it’s even better when you use dark chocolate. This recipe is ridiculously simply for all the amazingness you get out of it on your taste buds. Chances are you probably have half the ingredients already, so it’s another winner in the holiday budget battle as well.

If anyone asks you if this was hard to make, lie your ass off. You spent hours slaving over a hot stove to make caramel from scratch. The rest of it was too difficult to even describe. But it was worth it in the end to see the smile on their face. And if they call you on it?

Well, aren’t the holidays all about giving anyway?

Pretzel Bark

From Live Love Pasta 

This is a great recipe for gift-giving – there’s minimal active cooking time, it keeps well in the fridge and tastes amazing. Hope you pass this one along to friends and family!

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 bag mini pretzels (eat the other half)

12 ounce bag of chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark chocolate work best

Sea salt to sprinkle on top

Equipment

Cookie sheet, aluminum foil, medium pot

Preheat oven to 400. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

Melt two sticks of butter in pot over medium heat. While it melts, place enough pretzels on baking sheet to form a single, even layer. Once butter has melted, add the brown sugar and stir well to incorporate. Allow brown sugar and butter to simmer and bubble, but don’t let it boil – this may require turning down the temperature to low. Stir occasionally until it caramelizes,  about 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it because caramel can burn in the blink of an eye and that smell takes forever to get out of your kitchen.

Once our caramel is ready, pour it over the pretzels as evenly and as quickly as you can. It will harden quickly, so use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon to smooth it over. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes.

Place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and heat for 30-second intervals until melted and smooth. Make sure to stir well in between each interval. It should melt in a few minutes. Once the pretzel-caramel mixture is out of the oven, pour the chocolate over it moving quickly and evenly. Again, use the offset spatula or the back of a spoon to smooth over any clumps of thick spots. Sprinkle with sea salt before the chocolate hardens.

Place sheet in refrigerator for at least an hour. Once it’s cool, pull the foil off and break the bark into irregularly shaped pieces and serve! It’ll keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week.