Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies

 

Ingredients

Salted Caramel Sauce

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature or slightly softer

½ cup heavy whipping cream slightly warmed up

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Blondies

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 large egg room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

1 cup mini pretzel twists roughly chopped (optional)

1 cup chocolate chips plus more for garnish

Garnish

16 mini pretzel twists for topping

chocolate chips optional

sea salt for garnish (optional)

salted caramel sauce recipe below or store bought

Instructions

Salted Caramel Sauce

In a medium sauce pan, preferably not non-stick, heat the granulated sugar over medium heat. While the sugar is heating, make sure you are continuously stirring with a rubber spatula so that the sugar is moving and not sticking to the pan.

1 cup granulated sugar

The sugar will begin to clump up after a bit, continue stirring and it will begin to melt. The sugar should slowly start to turn to a light golden color.

Grab your whisk and once all of the sugar has melted and turned a golden amber color, turn the heat to low and add the butter while whisking quickly. Whisking quickly will help to calm the bubbles and achieve a smooth consistency.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

After the butter is whisked in, slowly stream in the slightly warm heavy whipping cream while continuing to whisk.

½ cup heavy whipping cream

Whisk in the sea salt and turn the heat up to medium once more while whisking to smooth out the sauce until it starts to bubble.

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Once the sauce begins to bubble remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for about 1 minute. You can then pour the sauce into a heat proof container and allow it to cool.

Blondies

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Spray an 8×8 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and then line the pan with parchment paper. This will allow you to easily remove the blondies from the pan.

In a small sauce pan, melt your butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, set the pan aside and allow the butter to cool slightly.

1 cup unsalted butter

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients of flour, baking powder and salt and set the bowl aside.

1 cup all purpose flour,¼ teaspoon baking powder,¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

In a large sized mixing bowl, whisk together your melted butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla bean paste until well combined.

¾ cup light brown sugar,1 large egg,2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Add in your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until combined.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in your roughly chopped mini pretzels and chocolate chips.

1 cup mini pretzel twists,1 cup chocolate chips

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly with your spatula.

Bake for approximately 35 to 45 minutes. Oven times do vary so check the blondies at 25 minutes to make sure they aren’t browning too fast on top. If they are, cover loosely with a foil tent and continue baking. You should be able to insert a toothpick or knife in the center and it should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

To Serve

Drizzle the caramel sauce over your cooled blondies.

salted caramel sauce

Top the blondies with 16 whole mini pretzel twists and sprinkle with additional chocolate chips and sea salt.

16 mini pretzel twists,sea salt,chocolate chips

Using the parchment paper, lift the blondies from the pan and cut evenly into 16 pieces.