Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bark

I cruise the Pinterest site...occasionally ;) ...and found this tasty treat. The directions were more complicated than they needed to be so I changed them. I have a similar recipe in my stash so I just borrowed a method from there and it worked. Very yummy and pretty easy to make. I recommend storing the bark in your refrigerator. You can freeze it as well.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
bag of mini pretzels
12-oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

Directions

1. Wrap a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with nonstick spray. Do NOT substitute parchment paper instead of foil. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. As it melts, cover the baking sheet in an even layer of mini pretzels. (You may not use the entire bag.)
3. Once the butter is melted, add the sugar and stir to incorporate. Allow the sugar and butter to softly simmer and bubble, but don’t let it boil, so adjust the heat accordingly. Stir occasionally. The browning process should take about three minutes from when it starts to bubble.

4. Once the sugar and butter have caramelized, pour the mixture evenly over the pretzels on the baking sheet. Strafing it back and forth down the length of the sheet works well. The caramel hardens pretty quickly so it’s important to pour it as evenly as possible from the start. If you end up with any clumps, just use a spatula to spread the caramel as best you can. Bake the pretzel-caramel mixture in the oven for 5-7 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and immediately pour the chocolate chips over the pretzel-caramel mixture evenly. Let stand for a few minutes.
6. Spread chocolate with a spatula to coat evenly. Sprinkle sea salt over the bark. Place it in the fridge to cool and harden for about 2-3 hours.

Once it’s done, the tin foil should pull off easily and you can break the sheet into smaller, bark-like pieces. Store in refrigerator.