These chocolate caramel pretzel bars are soooo good. And you only need 4 ingredients — so they’re really easy to make! The sweet chocolate and caramel goes so perfectly with the salty crunch of the pretzels. Yum!
Have you heard of Christmas crack? It’s a super popular recipe that tends to fly around Facebook at Christmas time. And it’s pretty much exactly what we’ve made here, except I used pretzels instead. And it tastes SO GOOD. I made the original recipe a few years ago for Valentine’s Day using saltine crackers and it was amazing. I’ve also seen it made with Ritz crackers.
Any time you mix together butter and sugar, you really can’t go wrong. I’m not sure if we can officially call the mixture caramel, but whatever it is it’s DELICIOUS! You simmer it for a few minutes into this golden, bubbly caramel (caramel can’t be this easy??), then you drizzle it over top of your pretzels. So. Good.
This is such a quick, easy and yummy treat! I know it’s technically Christmas crack made with pretzels, but there’s nothing Christmas-y about this recipe, so you can go ahead and make them any time of year. With the perfect balance of sweet and salty, they’re a super addictive dessert.
Oh! And I finally figured out why they call it Christmas crack! It’s because when you’re done, you can “crack” it into pieces! I feel silly for not realizing that sooner!? I’m sure it also has something to do with them being so addictive…
Check out our video for how to make Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars:
If you’re looking for even more sweet treat recipes, here’s a few of our favourites:
Chocolate Saltine Cracker Toffee
How to Make Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars:
The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
- Mini Pretzels (twisted)
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Chocolate Chips
You only need 4 simple ingredients – I love how simple this recipe is! I used semi sweet chocolate chips but you could definitely use milk chocolate if you prefer.
You can use any brand of pretzels. I got mine at the dollar store… don’t get me wrong – I usually don’t like dollar store food. But I feel like pretzels are pretzels? And they were way cheaper than the ones they sell at the grocery store.
Cover your baking sheet with a single layer of mini pretzels. Get as many on there as you can without overlapping them.
If your pretzles are overlapping, your bars will end up being uneven. Which will make it hard to spread the melted chocolate later on. I mean, it’s not the end of the world, but I think it’s worth the effort to keep them in a single layer so you end up with consistent, thin chocolate caramel pretzel bars at the end.
See what I mean about that creamy butter and brown sugar mixture?! Yum!
When you’re simmering the caramel, make sure you let it boil rapidly (over medium-low heat) for 3 minutes. Once your caramel is ready, you can pour it over your pretzels!
Try to pour it over the entire baking sheet as best you can.
It’s okay if you miss a few spots like I did in the photo below. It will even itself out when you pop it in the oven.
See the difference before baking (above) and after baking (below)? The caramel spread out to cover the entire pan.
Make sure you bake it until the entire pan is bubbling – you need it to bubble so it sets properly. I baked mine for just under 10 minutes.
If there’s a stubborn spot in the middle of your baking sheet that isn’t bubbling, give it another minute or two. You want the whole pan to be bubbly.
Now it’s time to add the chocolate! Remove your baking sheet from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top of your mixture.
Pop everything back into the oven for another 1-2 minutes so the chocolate has a chance to soften.
After a minute or two in the oven the chocolate is really easy to spread. Use a spatula to spread the chocolate evenly over top of the caramel mixture.
Finally, place your baking sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes to cool.
When it comes out of the freezer, it should be completely solid.
You can lift the entire sheet of pretzel bars off of the pan and peel off the aluminum foil.
Place them on a large cutting board and cut them into pieces with a large knife.
Or you can “crack” them into smaller pieces! (Hence Christmas crack!)
I found that the cuts were a lot cleaner with the knife. When I cracked them, they broke at the edges of the pretzels, rather than breaking through the pretzels. So I still recommend cutting them into squares.
They’re soooooo good!
You can store them in an airtight container for about a week.
Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bars
Ingredients
- 4 cups Pretzel twists (mini pretzel twists)
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup Brown sugar packed
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil then spray it with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place the pretzels onto the baking sheet in a single layer until it's completely covered.
- In a small pot, melt the butter and sugar over medium low heat. Bring it to a boil, then continue boiling for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Pour the bubbly mixture evenly over the pretzels. The caramel mixture will even out when it bakes, so don't worry if you missed some spots.
- Bake it at 325F for 8 to 10 minutes until the caramel is fully bubbling on the entire sheet.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven then sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over top. Return the baking sheet to the oven for another 1 to 2 minutes to soften the chocolate chips.
- Use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate evenly. Then place the baking sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pretzel bars from the baking sheet and peel off the aluminum foil. Break it apart or cut it into squares with a large knife.
Notes
These chocolate caramel pretzel bars are SO GOOD and they’re really easy to make! They only have 4 ingredients! The salty pretzels are coated with creamy caramel and covered in chocolate. This Christmas crack recipe with pretzels is DELICIOUS (and addictive)! A salty, crunchy and sweet holiday treat!
Here’s a few more delicious dessert recipes:
Chocolate Saltine Cracker Toffee
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Made these tonight- unfortunately, my caramel never got to the “crack” stage. I followed the directions to a T but perhaps next time I’ll leave them in the oven to bubble for a couple minutes longer. They still taste delicious, the caramel is just soft and must be refrigerated. Thanks for the recipe!
I used 1/2C butter and 1/2 cup margarine. I’m wondering if that affected the caramelization of the bottom layer? The bottom was soft and sticky, and very hard to get off the foil (even though I spayed it). I think I would use parchment paper next time. Also, I find that the chocolate flavour dominates; I don’t get as much of the pretzel flavour as with other recipes I’ve tried. This is much easier than doing individual pretzels, caramel’s and chocolates, but the results aren’t as good, in my opinion.
Hi there!
What size baking sheet did you use?
Hi Ayanna – my baking sheet is roughly 12 x 18 inches.
These are amazing. I used parchment paper so everything pulled apart nicely. Your timing for everything was right on target. I will be making these frequently.
So glad you enjoyed them, Inez!
My colleague brought this in to work last week and it is delish! I tried making it but the chocolate stick to my spatula when I tried to spread it. How can I avoid this? Thx!!
Hi Min! Did you put the tray back in the oven for the chocolate to soften for a couple of minutes? That’s my only immediate thought — that the chocolate wasn’t warm enough.
I read “comments” before I make anything-i see several comments about freezing these but no answer has been given – SOOOO wondering “Can you freeze these”?
Hi Jane. We’ve never frozen it before, but I think you would be fine to keep it in the freezer up to 3 months in an airtight container.
I froze mine Jan 1. Still tasty today Mar 5. The reason I froze it was to get it out of sight; I could eat the whole pan in a single day!
Haha, I hear you, Tami! Glad they were still good. 🙂
Hi! I´ve been struggling with this recipe and tried it three times already but it doesn´t work out. My butter seems to separate every time or sometimes it becomes grainy. What am I doing wrong? Can you help me?
Hi Monika! The butter separating can happen when there’s too quick of a temperature change (eg. getting too hot too quickly). Make sure to melt the butter and sugar on medium-low at the beginning and stir to make sure one part isn’t hot and melted before the rest — then make sure you keep stirring all the time while it’s boiling.
Sometimes separation issues can also happen if the saucepan you’re using has a thin bottom – try to use a heavier pot if you have one. Hopefully this helps!
Butter sugar mixture did not spread out to fill in the gaps. Chocolate chips didn’t melt and were hard to spread. Even after putting back in oven for 2 more minutes.
My chocolate chips never melted. Tried this more than once. And put them back in for longer period of time. Still never melted. It was like a messy soup.
I typically use Hershey bars because they melt and spread better. This time I didn’t have any so I melted the chocolate chips separately in a double boiler instead of the oven. This made it much easier.