Foodie Non-Friday: Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark REPOST BY REQUEST

For those of you who read my blog with any degree of regularity, you will already be quite familiar with the Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark and the numerous references which it has been given.

And so for that I apologize. Kind of. 

And if you haven't made this recipe yet, I suggest you try it now. Or at the very least bookmark it, pin it, or copy and paste it into a Word document for future use.

I mention the copy and paste into a Word document because that may be what I do with recipes I want to save for later use. 

I don't do Pinterest because this blog takes up enough time and Pinterest might just suck up the rest of it.

My family does like to eat and have clean clothes so I better not get onto Pinterest.

So, since I have shameless pandered this recipe for weeks now, why do I presume that it is worthy of a repost? Well, Stephanie at Life, Unexpectedly is doing a Christmas Cookie Recipe Swap and she asked me specifically to post this recipe.

So now that you are writhing with anticipation, I give you:

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

If you listen closely, you can hear the choir of angels singing.

Have you ever heard of such a glorious thing?

I had all of the ingredients and it is highly likely that you will too (assuming you eat an inordinately large amount of pretzels such as we do…you’ll have those on hand...everything else I would venture to guess you have.) So are you ready for the big reveal? Here we go:

• 2 sticks of butter (for my friends across the pond, that would be 226.81 grams) 
• 1 cup of light brown sugar
• 1 regular-size bag of small-twist pretzels (you'll use about 3/4 of the bag)
• 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips
• Sea salt or coarse Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Line a large bar pan with parchment paper (I’m pretty sure you’ll want to do this otherwise you’ll have most of the bark stuck to the pan, and whole adventure will be for naught) and cover with pretzels.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.

When it begins to bubble, add the brown sugar. Stirring occasionally let the butter/sugar mixture meld together and brown. This should take about 3 minutes. Do NOT let it boil, you will have sticky goo that is no good.

When you have a nice, brown caramel, pour it over the pretzels, slowly and evenly. FYI: It hardens fast so even pouring is the best method (versus trying to spread it).

Bake the sheet for 5 minutes.

Remove the sheet from the oven and sprinkle the whole bag of chocolate chips evenly over the mixture.

Place back in the oven for about 45 seconds. If you put it in longer, the chocolate will burn.

Remove from the oven and use a silicone spatula to evenly spread the chocolate over the top.

Sprinkle with sea salt and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour. The bark should easily pop off the parchment paper; break into pieces and enjoy (and trust me…you will enjoy!)

I apologize for the subpar quality of the personal photo. I was concerned that the melted chocolate and/or the sea salt on my fingers would be detrimental to my phone/camera (I don’t have a separate camera anymore…that’s why I always make sure my favorite photographer accompanies me to the majority of my children’s sporting events, vacations, and any photo-worthy event in general.)

And if it wasn’t the chocolate or the salt, it might possibly have been the saliva from me licking the aforementioned items from my fingers.

Don’t judge.

But yes, I did take this photo with my phone...and it's not fabulous but don't judge. I am certain that you will make your own bark and if so, please feel free to send me the photos if they are better than mine. I will gladly use them.

In case you're missing the point of this post, don’t pass this recipe by…it just might blow.you.away.

NOTE: Also makes a good ice cream topping…you know, for when you get down to the dregs of the batch and eating those with a spoon out of the bowl seems more than slightly wrong. Put it on ice cream and I assure you there’s no shame at all.

Now...be sure to visit Stephanie and see what other lovely Christmas treats people are whipping up this Christmas!

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