I feel like I need to have a t-shirt made saying “I survived the move!” All 1,400 employees moved into our new building today. It’s been very exciting and very busy. I actually worked all weekend troubleshooting building issues with our core team to make sure everything would be as perfect as possible when everyone arrived this morning.
As exhausting as working a 50+ hour week, and all day Saturday was, I found myself in the kitchen late Saturday night making brownies. For me, that was my personal break. I had a ton of left over pretzels from a corporate holiday order and I wanted to find something to do with them. I decided to make brownies with a pretzel crust and to give the brownies a little extra pizzazz, I add a caramel swirl on top.
I will fully admit that for this recipe I used a (gasp!) box mix. I did want to make something creative, but I also wanted something that was super simple and I was a little too tired and achy to chop chocolate. As much as I like making things from scratch, I also like to keep a box mix around for just such emergencies.
The brownies were awesome! I loved the crunchy, salty, buttery bottom that combined with the gooey chocolate brownie and salted caramel. I highly recommend this recipe if you want a tasty dessert that looks pretty and tastes just as good!
Caramel Brownies with Pretzel Crust
For the crust
- 1 ½ cup crushed pretzels
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- ½ cup butter melted
- Your favorite brownie recipe
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce
Make the crust
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9 in baking pan with parchment paper.
- Using a plastic bag with a rolling pin crush the pretzel until fine. You can also use a food processor (that’s what I did). In a small bowl combine the pretzel crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Press firmly into the baking pan and bake for 8 minutes. Remove pan and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Prepare brownie batter according to package instructions. Pour the batter on top of the pretzel crust. Drizzle the top of the batter with the salted caramel sauce and using a toothpick swirl the caramel into the brownie batter.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the brownies comes out clean. Remove and set on a cooling rack to cool. Brownies are always best served at room temperature as they are easier to cut!
