Take 5 Bars

Heaven....pure heaven.  These bars have it all....sweet, salty, peanuts, and beloved caramel.  I ran into this recipe over at Bittersweet and have never been happier that I did.  ;)

I tinkered with the recipe a bit....it still needs a little further work, but that just gives me the excuse to make it again...ehehehe.  Ahem.  The chocolate top was a little too thick......my beloved hubby loudly insists thicker is better....how can I not love a man who appreciates chocolate like that?   

Part of my tinkering involved using a syrup to hold the pretzel crust...which really needed to be a little thinner...together instead of the usual butter, sugar, bake scenario.  I adore pretzel crusts, but those bishes flake apart on me at the drop of a hat leaving half the good stuff behind in the pan or serving plate. 

Even though this has plenty of the salty factor with the pretzels and the peanut butter some coarse sea salt across the top might be fun.....or some bacon....ok I drooled a little....next batch must have some bacon garnish.

I did use my own caramel for this recipe, but a good substitute is caramel ice cream topping or regular caramels melted and thinned with milk.


Take 5 Bars

Pretzel Base:
2 cups pretzels, crushed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tbls butter

Combine the brown sugar, water, and butter in a saucepan.  Stir over medium heat until mixture boils.  Continue cooking for 5 minutes without stirring.  Remove from heat.  Stir in crushed pretzels.  Press mixture firmly into a greased 9x9 pan.

Peanut Butter Layer:
1 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbls skim milk

Combine peanut butter and butter together in a bowl.  Melt in the microwave, stirring often, until mixture is smooth and creamy.  Stir in powdered sugar.  Add in the milk to make the mixture spreadable.  Layer over pretzel base.

Caramel Layer:
14oz thinned caramel 
1 1/4 cup salted peanuts, roughly crushed

Heat caramel slightly to make it easy to pour and spread.  Spread across top of peanut butter layer.  Top with crushed peanuts.  Press nuts down into the caramel.

Chocolate top:
12oz Dark Chocolate Chips

Melt chocolate in the microwave, stirring often, until smooth and creamy.  Spread across peanuts.  Chill in fridge until candy cools completely.  Turn candy out onto a cutting board and slice into pieces.  Nom!

Look at those layers and know joy!  Seriously...I'm glad the tray of goodies left the house this morning because I would have decimated them.