I survived the first day of school, and only messed up my schedule once! (Didn’t realize which period I had lunch and went to eat, not realizing my kids were lined up outside my room. OOPS) Fortunately I was corrected quickly and only missed about 3 minutes of actual class time.
My pre-back-to-school activities involved stress baking these brownies, and getting up way too early to squeeze in 5 miles before the day started. My parents are here right now so Mike and I got to run together in the morning, which was awesome.
I knew I couldn’t show up empty-handed on the first day of work, and these quickly disappeared in the staff room. I’m really excited about all the teachers I’m working with this year (although I am missing my old school a lot too.)
I pinned (and made) this recipe last week, but wasn’t in love with the bar part of it, so I just switched to a brownie base and loved the result. Just the right mix of chocolate, salty, and sweet!
Ingredients
- Brownies!
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter
- 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Toppings!
- 4 oz milk chocolate, melted
- 3/4 cup roughly chopped thin pretzels
- 14 caramels, unwrapped
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
- Grease a 13 x 9" pan and preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together in the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water. Stir until smooth.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl and stir in the sugars.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- Gently stir in the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
- Sprinkle the pretzels over the brownies and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Set the pan on a rack to cool.
- Drizzle the melted milk chocolate evenly over the pretzels.
- Combine the caramels and heavy cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the brownies and let rest for at least an hour before cutting into squares.
(base adapted from the Joy the Baker cookbook, toppings from The Hungry Housewife)
I need to make this ASAP! Starred!
Wow! These look like just the kind of treat teachers LOVE on those high pressure days. So glad your new school is off to a good start.
I bet the kids would have loved having a free period while you lunched!
These look amazing…labor day baking, I think!!
I must try this recipe – and SOON!!
I must try these brownies, they look marvelous!
Nom nom nom, sweet and salty is the best combo!
I love the idea of these but had trouble with them. Any tips on keeping the pretzels crunchy? They were great until I cut them and stored them and then they went soft.
Might be like cookies brendajos. Stick a piece of bread inside before you close them up and see if that helps.
I need to try these
I have these in the oven right now! I used a boxed brownie mix instead.
was definitely wondering if the boxed brownie idea would work the same. Simply add the pretzels on top. and maybe even carmel sundae topping to avoid the melting of the carmels. Donna, how did the box brownie work?
Drizzle with white chocolate for my favorite pms craving
I am baking these right now and these brownies are taking more like 45 min to bake and not 25! I am using the recipe not a boxed mix. :/ was hoping for a preggo snack by midnight but might be later than that now! Either way they do smell wonderful and I can’t wait to dig in!
[...] Caramel Pretzel Brownies {Cate’s World Kitchen} [...]
The box brownie mix worked well. It came with the frosting, so instead of using the melted chocolate I used the frosting. Tasty treat!!!
[...] love chocolate covered pretzels, so I am 100.000% but that’s not a thing sure that these Caramel Pretzel Brownies will be our sort of thing. Will. Have. To. [...]
Wow! These look awesome. So pinning this. Thank you for the recipe!
kari/sourdoughnative.blogspot.com
These were delish! I cheated and used a brownie mix. I also changed it up by using white chocolate instead of milk, b/c I love white-chocolate-covered pretzels. That was a good swap too! I think I will use more pretzels next time – we love the salty-sweet combo.
I LOVE the idea of white chocolate!