These simple, 4-ingredient Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars will quickly become your new favorite sweet and salty treat! No bake and no candy thermometer needed.
Salted chocolate caramel seems like the latest trend, and honestly, I am completely on board! Chocolate plus caramel with a little sea salt- i'm not sure it gets much easier, or TASTIER. These Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars are the best homemade candy bar ever! And the best part is that it's only FOUR ingredients, and you don't need a candy thermometer or any special equipment. It's pretty much fool-proof, and fail-proof.
How to make salted chocolate caramel pretzel bars:
First, melt your chocolate. Good quality chocolate chips are a must! I like the ghiardelli brand of chocolate chips, for melting, or you could even melt a a couple of Hershey's chocolate bars. Next, Smooth the melted chocolate onto parchment paper. Throw on some pretzels (they don't need to be in an even layer). Then, drizzle the pretzels generously with melted caramel and top the bars with some more melted chocolate and a little sprinkle of sea salt–YUM!
The caramel is what makes everything stick together! I like to use these Kraft Caramel Bits rather than wrapped caramel cubes because you don't have to unwrap them (thank goodness)! The melted caramel is also the perfect texture. There's nothing worse then hard, sticky caramel, right?! ALSO, if you prefer to make the caramel FROM SCRATCH, use this homemade caramel recipe.
These are the perfect treat for pretty much any occasion. I sent them with my husband for his work cookie exchange during Christmas and his office friends went crazy for them. (Kind of embarrassing considering how EASY they are, but they didn't need to know that 🙂 )
They'd also be perfect for Valentine's day. But let's be honest, you really don't need any excuse at all–just a sweet tooth and a few minutes of your time. Enjoy!
CONSIDER TRYING SOME OF MY OTHER FAVORITE DESSERT BARS:
- Butterfinger Cookie Bars
- M&M Cookie Bars
- Perfect Lemon Bars
- Oreo Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars
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Recipe
Salted Chocolate and Caramel Pretzel Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips , good quality chocolate divided into pieces (I like ghiardelli best for melting)
- 8 ounces mini pretzel twists , half of a regular 16-ounce bag
- 11 ounce bags Kraft Caramel Bits , or homemade caramel
- sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt 8 ounces of the chocolate chips gently in the microwave (on low heat, stirring every 15 seconds) until smooth.
- Spread the chocolate evenly over the parchment. Immediately add the pretzel twists over the top (it's ok if they overlap!) and gently press them into the chocolate.
- Add caramel bits to a microwave safe bowl with 2 tablespoons water and melt according to package instructions (on high for 2 minutes). Stir well and drizzle the melted caramel over the top of all of the pretzels.
- Melt remaining 4 ounces of chocolate and drizzle over the caramel. Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Refrigerate until hardened.
- Cut or tear into pieces, Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
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I wanted to love these but found that the semi sweet chocolate wasn’t quite sweet enough to give that good sweet and salty taste….perhaps the water added to the caramel could be reduced more than the instructions on the packaging too? I’ll try a different brand of chocolate chips next time and maybe use less water in the caramel. Otherwise, I didn’t have trouble with anything sticking or cutting these!
I loved this recipe, so easy and tasty. Using premium chocolate definitely makes a difference. I layered mine and cut into thick pieces right after chilling then I got a little creative and used Oreos instead of pretzels.
I’ve made this multiple times. It’s super easy, and everyone loves it!
I did leave a question but it seems to have been lost. I cannot find Krafts carael bits? Can I use skor bits or Hersheys sea salt caramel chips?
Skor bits would not work to melt. I’d grab wrapped caramel candy squares if you can. The Hershey’s sea salt caramel chips don’t see like real “caramel” but would be fine.
These are excellent! I thought they may be hard to cut into nice pieces but I took them out of the fridge for about 20 minutes and they cut with no problem. I will definitely be adding them to my Christmas goodies list.❤️
Is there a way to have the chocolate not melt at room temp? I keep them in the refrigerator but when I put them out for Thanksgiving on our dessert table once they were out for 30 minutes or so they were messy to try and eat because of the chocolate sort of being “melty”. Can I add something when I melt the chocolate? I used the Hershey bars melted because my son has nut allergies so can’t use Ghirardelli brand. These were delicious by the way and even completely worth the mess.
Hi Carol, yes, you can temper the chocolate, which will help. Reserve a little of the whole chocolate off to the side. Melt the rest of the chocolate and then once it’s warm and melted, stir in the whole chocolate pieces and allow the warm chocolate to melt them. That will temper it and help it to hold up better at room temperature.
I made these last year for the first time and fell in love with them. We decided to make it our Christmas thing. Such an easy and yummy recipe. I do prefer the whole caramels though. I feel like the ones we made using the bits the caramel got hard and biting into them wasn’t as pleasant. But using the wrapped square caramels it was like a soft caramel that you could pull. So good.
Is it ok if I used fudge? I didn’t have caramel 😬😬
Roughly how much of an area do you spread the chocolate? Looks like a 9×13″ or a jelly roll pan? Thanks
I used a bakers half sheet and it didn’t quite fill it all the way.
How well do these freeze???
I haven’t tried it but I think i would work well.
Can you use wrapped caramels
Yes you can. Follow the package directions for melting caramels. This may include diluting with a bit of water or milk.