If you have a Pinterest account, then you have no doubt seen similar recipes floating around. All of them are a little too Mama and Papa Bear for me: too much chocolate, not enough crunch, not enough chewiness. Being a salty and sweet person, I appreciate a balanced pretzel/candy ratio. For this recipe, I decided to make bars with four layers of pretzels adding a different sweet for each layer. The result? Scrumptious Baby Bear deliciousness – it’s juuuust right!
Ingredients ::
- 1/3 lb of pretzels (I purchased a 1 lb bag of Rold Gold Thin Pretzel Twists and used about a third of it.)
- 1 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (I used Nestle Toll House.)
- 1 12 oz. bag of white chocolate morsels (I used Nestle Toll House.)
- 1 11 oz. bag of caramels (I used Kraft.)
- 12 Fun Size Milky Way bars (Cut into 12 pieces each.)
- 4 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (Cut into 8 pieces each. You can easily eliminate this ingredient if you are nut-free home or are making these for school.)
- Approximately 1/4 cup of M&M’s (I purchased a large bag and picked out the orange M&M’s so that the bars would be Halloween themed. For different holidays you can select other colors: red and blue for the 4th of July, red and green for Christmas, yellow for a Saints game, etc.)
Instructions ::
- Cover a pan or tray with non-stick parchment paper. {I used a 13×13 plastic tray, but a cookie sheet would work just as well.}
- Line the tray with a single layer of pretzels.
- Melt the semi-sweet morsels in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Drizzle the chocolate over the pretzels. Add another layer of pretzels.
- Distribute Milky Way and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pieces evenly throughout the layer. Make sure to press the candy and the pretzels into the melted chocolate so they stick.
- Melt the white chocolate morsels in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Drizzle the white chocolate over the pretzels and candy. Add another layer of pretzels and the orange M&M’s.
- Melt the caramels in a sauce pan. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the sauce pan to help melt the caramels. Stir constantly. Drizzle the caramel over the top layer. Add another layer of pretzels and orange M&M’s, making sure to press them into the melted caramel so they stick.
- Tell yourself that this looks super delicious and convince yourself that you’ll only eat 2 pieces.
- Put the tray in the refrigerator for approximately 20 minutes or until the caramel and chocolate have hardened.
- Using a large knife, cut the recipe into 2 inch pieces.
- Eat 3 more pieces than you were supposed to. Give the rest away so you don’t blow your Weight Watchers points for the week!
Tips ::
- If you immediately rinse the sauce pan with hot water after using for the semi-sweet morsels, it is easy to clean and you can use the same pot for all three ingredients (semi-sweet morsels, white chocolate morsels, caramels).
- When you press down the middle layers so the ingredients stick to the chocolate, press firmly so that the pretzels break into smaller pieces. That way you’ll get lots of crunch in each bite. For the final layer, press the pretzels carefully so that they remain in tact and look appealing.
You can make this recipe before Halloween to serve at a party or to hand out to your children’s friends. {Perhaps wrapping the treats in cellophane bags and decorating them with one of these labels.} You can also make it after Halloween using candy from your children’s Trick-or-Treat loot. No matter when you make this recipe, it is sure to be a crowd-pleaser!