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.

Corn Candy Bark

I dislike Candy Corn. Enough said.

While browsing Pinterest, an addictive website, I came across this recipe for Candy Corn Bark.

I'm trying to be a fun, holiday Mom, decorating the house for my 4 year old. Making footprint ghosts to hang on the wall and trash bag ghosts for the front lawn. You'd have to see photos to understand how cute these crafts are. And, since my little guy has been recently exposed to candy corn, I decided to give this recipe a try.

Ingredients

• 16 Halloween-colored chocolate sandwich cookies, chopped (Oreo brand)
  
• 1 1/2 cups broken small pretzels
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1 1/2 pounds white chocolate, broken into squares
  
• 2 cups candy corn
• orange and brown sprinkles (optional)
  

Directions

1. Spread the cookies, pretzels and raisins evenly onto a lightly greased small baking sheet. Melt chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from the heat while there are still a few chunks, and stir until smooth. White chocolate burns easily.
2. Drizzle chocolate with a spoon over the goodies in the pan, spreading the top flat to coat evenly. Top with candy corn and sprinkles. Let cool until firm. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

I made a few changes to the recipe...

Ingredient change: I used white chocolate chips instead of chopping up bars.

Direction changes: I used parchment paper to line a 13x9 pan. It made it easy to pull out of the pan. I also do not have it stored in an air-tight container. I have it in a glass bowl (the one in the photo). After 4 days it's still fresh.

This recipe came out really well. The sweet of the raisins and the salty flavor of the pretzels combined nicely with the creamy flavor of the white chocolate. The taste of candy corn disappears and therefore you can have a fun, colorful Halloween treat that tastes really good.