Family Friendly Fridays: Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bars

November 12, 2010

Family Friendly Fridays: Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bars

Posted by Julie / 48 Comments » / Dessert, Family Friendly Fridays, Other, Other Sweet Treats

Hold on to your hats. This recipe is good. Really good. So good that once you taste one you’ll want to take the entire batch and hide them in your “I don’t want to share” food corner and not come out until you’ve licked up every. last. crumb. And lucky for me, my husband isn’t a big fan of caramel so I was able to enjoy these tasty little treats without the added fear of them being snatched away when I wasn’t paying attention (I don’t count the kids as competition. They’re still height challenged which provides me with a huge dessert hiding advantage).

The original idea for these bars came from Jenny over at Picky Palate. She had created these A.mazing Shortbread Candy Corn Kissed Brownies for Halloween and the second I saw them I knew I had to try the recipe out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find candy corn kisses. I didn’t want to give up on the idea of the dessert so I scavenged through the remaining Halloween candy bags at the Target and stumbled upon one lonely bag of caramel apple kisses. Caramel is one of my all time favorite desserts. Better than pretty much anything else you can put in front of me. Well, except maybe chocolate covered pretzels. So why not combine the two and send myself to dessert lovers heaven?

Gear yourself up. It’s about to get mighty tasty over here.

Ingredients Needed:

For the Crust:

11/2 Cup of Mulched Pretzels
1 Stick of Butter, Melted
1/4 Cup of Sugar

For the Bars:

1 Pkg of Either Caramel Apple or Caramel Kisses
1 Stick of Butter
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
1 tsp of Vanilla
1/4 Cup of Evaporated Milk
1 Egg
3/4 Cup of Flour
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 tsp of Milk

Start out by making up your crust. Throw a few handfuls of pretzels into your food processor and mulch them up until you have 11/2 cups worth.

Dump them into a 9×9 inch baking pan and add in 1 stick’s worth of melted butter along with 1/4 cup of sugar. Combine it well and press your crust into the pan.

Throw it in the oven and cook it at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Pull it back out and let it cool.

While your crust is cooling, grab up your bar ingredients. Melt up your second stick of butter (I knew there was a reason these bars were so dang good) on low heat. Once it’s melted, remove it from the heat and add in your brown sugar, vanilla, and evaporated milk.

Next up, you’ll mix in your egg.

Finish it off by adding in your flour and baking soda.

Grab your cooled pretzel crust and, here comes the genius part that I borrowed from Jenny, lay your kisses down in rows on top of your crust. Look how pretty!

Next up, you’ll grab your batter you just cooked up and pour it over the top of the kisses.

Pop the bars back into your oven at 350 degrees and cook them for another 25 minutes.

Once they’re out and cooling, the final touch will be to take any leftover caramel kisses, throw them into your double boiler along with your tsp of milk and melt them down.

Spread the melted kisses over the top of your bars and put the finished dish in the fridge to set for three or more hours; if you can wait that long. I apparently couldn’t and tried to pull one out of the dish while they were still warm. Delicious, but not smart (as witnessed by the pretzel crumbs on the tops of the bars below) . They do much better when allowed to cool down completely.

Ok, they’re cool, they’re cut and they’re ready to eat. I’ve even set up a plate for you. Just try to resist these beautiful little bars.

I shared this recipe over at And Baby Makes Five Homemade Recipe Swap and Kim’s Quit Eating Out Saturday Swap.

Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bars

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

11/2 Cup of Mulched Pretzels
1 Stick of Butter, Melted
1/4 Cup of Sugar

For the Bars:

1 Pkg of Either Caramel Apple or Caramel Kisses
1 Stick of Butter
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
1 tsp of Vanilla
1/4 Cup of Evaporated Milk
1 Egg
3/4 Cup of Flour
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 tsp of Milk

Directions:

Start out by making up your crust. Throw a few handful of pretzels into your food processor and mulch them up until you have 11/2 cups worth.

Dump them into a 9x9 inch baking pan and add in 1 stick's worth of melted butter along with 1/4 cup of sugar. Combine it well and press your crust into the pan.

Throw it in the oven and cook it at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Pull it back out and let it cool.

While your crust is cooling, grab up your bar ingredients. Melt up your second stick of butter (I knew there was a reason these bars were so dang good) on low heat. Once it's melted, remove it from the heat and add in your brown sugar, vanilla, and evaporated milk.

Next up, you'll mix in your egg.

Finish it off by adding in your flour and baking soda.

Grab your cooled pretzel crust and lay your kisses down in rows on top of your crust.

Next up, you'll grab your batter you just cooked up and pour it over the top of the kisses.

Pop the bars back into your oven at 350 degrees and cook them for another 25 minutes.

Once they're out and cooling, the final touch will be to take any leftover caramel kisses, throw them into your double boiler along with your tsp of milk and melt them down.

Spread the melted kisses over the top of your bars and put the finished dish in the fridge to set for three or more hours until completely cooled.

Dessert, Family Friendly Fridays, Other, Other Sweet Treats

48 Comments / Leave a Comment »

48 Responses to “Family Friendly Fridays: Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bars”

1

ava — November 12, 2010 @ 6:38 am

Those look so good! I need a food processor.
2

Brenda — November 12, 2010 @ 7:02 am

Oh wow Julie, these look absolutely amazing! I just love caramel and I bet it pairs great with the salty pretzels. Delicious!
3

Sarah @ Mum In Bloom — November 12, 2010 @ 7:15 am

Oh my mouth is watering! Julie these do look “dang delicious”. I’m gonna make these today and try them with cinnamon chips and chocolate maybe as I don’t have any of those kisses. Love love love your new blog set-up and am so happy for you!
4

Kim @ Quit Eating Out {Recipes to Make Dining Out a Choice, Not a Chore} — November 12, 2010 @ 7:55 am

Ok these look SOOO good. Definitely going on our list of things to make this weekend!!!
5

Louanne — November 12, 2010 @ 8:53 am

Oh wow, these look amazing! I linked up my cookies, thanks!
6

Amber — November 12, 2010 @ 9:52 am

I knew this was going to be a great looking recipe!!!
7

Katerina — November 12, 2010 @ 10:35 am

Those bars are absolutely decadent. I love them. I linked with my chicken drumettes.
8

Joey @ Big Teeth & Clouds — November 12, 2010 @ 10:42 am

This one had me at the title. Yum!
9

Faith — November 12, 2010 @ 10:50 am

Wow. Julie.. wow. Those bars look divine! I love caramel chocalte so much and with the addition of a pretzel bar will make a perfect combo. Great recipe.
10

Liz @ Blog is the New Black — November 12, 2010 @ 11:42 am

These look divine!
11

Pattie @ Olla-Podrida — November 12, 2010 @ 11:51 am

Boy do these l ook delicious. Thanks for the great tutorial.
12

Lyndsay — November 12, 2010 @ 12:03 pm

These look so, so GOOD! I’m collecting recipes right now for my Christmas baking and these are going on the list!
13

Biren @ Roti n Rice — November 12, 2010 @ 1:24 pm

Those look really good. Definitely can’t stop at one slice
14

Cindy — November 12, 2010 @ 2:28 pm

Oh my… those look so sinfully good!!
15

Annie — November 12, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

OMG, do those look sinfully delicious! I know my son would love whipping these up with me. Thanks!
16

Suzanne — November 12, 2010 @ 6:27 pm

Oh Julie those bars look so yummy I have to make them! Glad to participate on your link party:)thanks
17

Emily Z — November 12, 2010 @ 8:50 pm

OMG my mouth totally watered at all of your pictures. These look sooooo yummy. I am so bookmarking this.
18

Celeste Jenkins — November 12, 2010 @ 10:13 pm

Oh, this is just SINFUL! I love it!
19

Monet — November 13, 2010 @ 1:33 am

As everyone has already said…WOW! I’m going to a craft party tomorrow night, and these might just need to happen tomorrow morning. We just love pretzels around here. Thank you for sharing…here’s to a beautiful weekend! You deserve it.
20

anne — November 13, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

our power was out yeserday and I could of so used this recipe last night!

anne
21

Summer — November 13, 2010 @ 2:07 pm

Oh u brought together these goodies to come up with an absolutely delightful treat!!
22

Jacqueline — November 13, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

These look divine. I would eat the whole pan. I love the whole kisses inside and then topped with kisses – I could just kiss you! I am printing this off now. I love new and creative cookies.
23

Ameena — November 13, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

The photo of the Hershey Kisses all lined up in a row just blows me away! These are absolutely delectable. I can’t wait to buy some pretzels and give it a try.

Oh, and just as an aside, I recently bought caramels from Trader Joe’s and they are phenomenal!!
24

Anna Johnston — November 14, 2010 @ 7:34 am

You had me at caramel But how do you stop yourself gobbling up the whole pan? Looks awesome.
25

Rick — November 14, 2010 @ 6:41 pm

Epic win! It is like a magical Take 5 bar.
26

Nuts about Food — November 16, 2010 @ 8:34 am

Those bars look fabulous…unfortunately I can’t get Snyder’s here and when I carry a bag over from the States on every trip they are a prized possession…
Here is my Family Friendly recipe

http://nutsaboutfooditaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/fall-in-bite-pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls.html
27

M @ Betty Crapper — November 16, 2010 @ 1:34 pm

These look like they were lots of fun to make.
28

Holly L — November 17, 2010 @ 7:23 pm

OMG! Are yo kidding…I wonder how long these would last in my house…my family freaks for this kind of yumminess. We adore chocolate covered pretzels.
29

Heather — November 17, 2010 @ 10:50 pm

That looks fantastic. I must try them.
30

Maranda — November 18, 2010 @ 11:16 am

Seriously??? I’m on my way over!
31

bj — November 19, 2010 @ 8:27 am

These look great. Gotta make them soon.

It’s 7:25 am here and it says Mr. Linky is closed..so, guess I can’t link. Will try another time…:)
32

Jami @ freckled laundry — November 19, 2010 @ 9:37 am

Haha! My husband said, “Why don’t you go to your mommy friend’s blog and get a recipe tonight.” I think he’s trying to tell me something. So…looking around for dinner tonight. These look DELICIOUS, too!
33

Tara — November 19, 2010 @ 10:12 am

I am so sad that I am at work right now and cannot make these delicious looking treats immediately!! Sounds so delicious – there’s no WAY I’m not making these tonight!
34

Summer — November 21, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

Omg, these are way too good, bookmarked and must make these for the holidays!!
Very pretyy and love ur clear instructions and step by step pics too:-)
35

Summer — November 21, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

Can i please ask u for a fav too:-)
36

Summer — November 22, 2010 @ 12:29 am

Hi ,please eeee ,pinky promise pleaseee ,help mee….and tell ur frens about this too:-)))
and post on ur wall too , if u can :-),voting ends in a day or 2!
Can u please take a moment or 2 and vote for me , i so muc want to win this and have acess only to 3 connections and only 1 vote is allowed per computer:-(
here are the details will be so gratefull for this!!

……Mia Summer Sunday Rose
Says
hullo to all her sunshine Pals….please vote for me
Hi happy sunshine
Pal , im here today coz i need ur help, ur votes to win a hamper @
holiday exchange and if u wanna join in next week ,lemme know and i
will vote for u too!!!I have loved having u over at my blog and would love and be grateful for ur support now,…
if i make it it will only be coz of u guys!

For voting please hop here

– http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2010/11/vanilla-salted-caramel-hot-chocolate.html#comments

21. BLUSHING VANILLA SNICKERDOODLES

have 2 entries but please vote for the blushing Vanilla Snicker doodles
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37

Lisa — November 22, 2010 @ 11:05 am

One word. WOW.

I’d LOVE to pig out on these right now!
38

val — November 22, 2010 @ 4:39 pm

Yummy, These will be on my to do list. Thanks for sharing.
39

Baking Serendipity — November 23, 2010 @ 10:04 pm

Holy Moly! I love the chocolate/pretzel combination, but can only imagine the caramel brings it to a whole new level!
40

mamabear — November 26, 2010 @ 8:03 pm

ohmygodIneedtoeatthoseRIGHTNOW!!!
41

Lamb — November 27, 2010 @ 12:20 pm

I just stopped by to say that I made these and they are AWESOME! Thanks so much for the yummy sweet/salty recipe
42

Laura — November 27, 2010 @ 8:31 pm

Oh, man . . . These are so my speed. YUM!!!! Pretzels, chocolate, caramel. These are so yummy looking it just isn’t right.
43

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44

Nathalie — February 9, 2011 @ 7:43 pm

SOOOO YUMMMMMY! C :
45

Missy — April 13, 2011 @ 1:48 pm

Making these today….baking right now actually….they look SOOOOO scrumptious!!
46

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48

Maines — August 16, 2012 @ 7:45 am

So I made these last night, BUT I only went by the recipe and not the blog… so I accidentally completely left out the chocolate. I am soooo upset. I couldn’t find caramel kisses, being a 16wk pregnant blonde I could only find caramel filled kisses, so I used caramel balls… I am bringing this to a function on Friday so tonight I plan to melt choc frosting over the bars to give them chocolate… oooppppsss!!! Learn and leave… I hope they still taste amazing…