Chocolate Chip Caramel Pretzel Blondies

 

Ok, look.  Chocolate chips, love ‘em, check.  Caramel?  Yes, yes please and thank you, check.  Pretzels?  Always been a fan, check.  Chewy cookie dough?  Uh huh.  Toss ‘em all together and now what have we got?  The Ultimate Blondie:   Chocolate Chip Caramel Pretzel Blondies.  Or Yum, for short.

Yeow, that is a mouthful.  And better get your mouth full of these, stat.  I am not joking. 

Uhhhh.  A-yup.

This recipe came to me quite recently via The Kitchn but as it turns out, I already had the recipe lurking in my collection, saved from Smitten Kitchen. 

Waaaaaiiiit.  Whaaaaaattttt……whyyyyyy had I not made these.  Why.  Beyond me.  I am an idiot.  Because…because these will change the trajectory of your life.  

You have not lived until you have eaten these.

And you will not ever need any other blondie recipe ever.

I am not a recipe developer but if I was, I’d be kicking myself mad for not having come up with this brilliance.

[gah, droooollling]

Ok ok, moving on.  So they are originally entitled Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies and honestly, that name, for me, doesn’t work.  Like uhhhh, hello, the chocolate?!  A very key aspect of this recipe. 

Too, the phrase “salted caramel” grates on my very last nerve.  Not sure why exactly, but it does.  

On top of that, salted caramel is not the main ingredient nor the focus of this blondie.  It’s the dazzling aggregate of pretzel crunch, pretzel salt, sticky caramel, luscious dark chocolate tossed together with a sublime chewy blondie aka oversized chocolate chip cookie……ooh, omg!  

So hence, heh, I’ve slightly retitled to Chocolate Chip Caramel Pretzel Blondies.

Mike wasn’t as big a’ fan as I am, so I think I’m gonna go ahead and get him checked out, he’s broken, something must be wrong with him.

Anyway, so these are easy to make.  And I heartily guarantee you, worth every last little bit of effort.  But truly, the only real effort exerted is in making the small amount of caramel.  Beyond that, you don’t need a mixer or any fancy pants tools for this.  Mostly just a bowl, a spatula, and an 8×8 pan.*

Now, normally I destroy sugar and everything in its path any time I attempt caramel on the stove.  Like literally every single time.  Which is why this Microwave Caramel Sauce is a lifesaver.

But, magically, somehow, I’m able to make the caramel for this.  So if I can do it, Destroyer of All Things Caramel Process, you can do this.

Start by sprinkling the sugar in the bottom of a pan and flipping heat to medium.  Let it sit there, don’t do anything, just wait.

Can you tell it’s been a bit since I’ve photographed process pictures?  Yikes, sorry.

Once the sugar starts melting, you can swirl the pan around a little bit, but don’t do anything else.  

The sugar melted, remove the pan from the stove, drop in the butter and whisk it in.  If you can.  I can’t always as usually the sugar seizes up.

Kinda hard to show you the dark copper color here in a dark pan.

Pour in the cream, which I like to warm up ahead of time so the temperature difference isn’t drastic causing yet more sugar seizing, then put the pan back on the stove.

Yeah, see, my sugar seized.  No mixing to be had here.  No big whoop though, it works itself out.

Onto a lightly cooking-sprayed parchment-lined little tray (I use our toaster oven tray), pour out the caramel and pop it in the freezer.  Whew.  You did it!  Hot tip:  crush the parchment up into a ball then flatten out the piece, it won’t curl up on you anymore.  Freeze that caramel until it sets up like a sheet of plastic.

Tada!  Woooot, I did it!

Ok!  Blondie time!  Supremely easy, goodness gracious!

Go grab your set-up caramel and bust it up into pieces.  

In a big bowl, melt the butter but not all the way, just a good portion of the way.  This way the butter won’t be too hot to continue, see.  Stir that around to melt it completely.

Only partway now, don’t melt it completely or it’ll be too hot.

Add in the brown sugar and whisk it about.

Dark or light brown sugar; I used light but next time I may go dark for extra chew.  Whooo!  Oooh, so good.

Add in that one egg and whisk it about.

Whisk in that egg.

Add in the vanilla and salt and yep, whisk that about.

Add, whisk.

Then add in the flour and ah, stir that about with a spatula* just until the flour has mostly disappeared.

Flour!

Now, dump in all those nummy mix-in’s save a few chunks of caramel, try not to snack on everything as it goes in, and lightly fold everything together.

That is a celebration of life right there, my friends.

In a buttered or cooking/baking sprayed pan, spread out the batter then sprinkle on the remaining chunks of caramel.

Ready to bake, we are.

Bake.  

I go for the max amount of time; the well-browned edges are ugh [eyes rolling into the back of my head]….chewy and crunchy and add yet another breathtaking layer of texture….omg.

Freshly baked and it is nuts.

Ok.  Cool for a min.  Remove.  Slice. 

Yeah.  Uh huh.  You know it.

Pour milk and oh my, you, you, yes…oh my these are so good.  SO good. 

To. Die. For.

Like you-will-be-dreaming-about-these-incessantly good.

[shaking my head]

Wow.

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Chocolate Chip Caramel Pretzel Blondies

Yield

16 bars

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

30 Min

Total time

50 Min

What do you get when you mash up chocolate chips, pretzels, and caramel with a chewy blondie? Why, only the best darn blondie ever.

Ingredients

Caramel

• 1/3 cup (66 g) granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter
• pinch or two sea salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 m l) heavy cream, warmed slightly

Blondies

• 8 tablespoons (113 g) unsalted butter (1/2 cup; 1 stick)
• 3/4 cup (149 g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon (5 g) vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt
• 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (113 g) dark chocolate chips or chunks
• 1/2 cup (64 g) salted pretzels slightly broken

Instructions

Caramel

1. Place a piece of parchment paper on a small tray that is both heat and freezer safe. Spray the paper lightly with cooking spray.
2. Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly across the bottom of a saucepan and place the pan over medium heat on the stove. Let it sit untouched. Once the sugar starts to melt, the pan can be swirled a bit to melt any remaining sugar. This will take 4-8 minutes depending on pan size and type.
3. Once all the sugar has melted, it will be a dark copper color and might smoke (this is fine). Remove the pan from the stove.
4. Add the butter and whisk in. If it seizes up, that’s ok. Pour in the cream plus a pinch or two of the salt and stir.
5. Place the saucepan back on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Let this bubble for 3 minutes.
6. Remove the pan and pour the caramel onto the parchment paper lined tray. Place the tray in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes, until the caramel has completely set up.

Blondies

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (176° C) and spray an 8x8 baking pan with baking spray, butter it liberally, or line the pan with parchment.
2. Remove the now-set caramel from the freezer and break it up into smaller pieces.
3. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the 1 stick of butter to 2/3 of the way melted, about 30-45 seconds on high. Remove the bowl then stir the butter with a spatula to melt it completely.
4. Add in the brown sugar and whisk.
5. Add in the egg, vanilla, and salt then whisk to combine.
6. Pour in the flour and with a spatula, gently stir it in until just barely combined.
7. Add the chocolate chips or chunks, the broken pretzel pieces, and about 3/4 of the broken caramel pieces then gently fold everything together.
8. Scoop the batter into the baking pan and spread it out level. Sprinkle the remaining caramel pieces atop and place the pan in the oven.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are nicely browned and the remainder looks set and slightly dry.
10. Remove the pan from the oven, set atop a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Using a knife, loosen the edges away from the pan and remove the whole thing to a rack to cool completely.
11. Slice and serve.

Notes:

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen by way of The Kitchn.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

146.95

Fat (grams)

5.46

Sat. Fat (grams)

3.19

Carbs (grams)

22.81

Fiber (grams)

0.76

Net carbs

22.04

Sugar (grams)

14.46

Protein (grams)

1.80

Sodium (milligrams)

146.74

Cholesterol (grams)

20.02

The nutritional information is based on the entire amount. Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

blondies, bars, caramel, pretzel

recipes

American

*The 8×8 baking pan and spatulas are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.