Frito Candy
As I previously mentioned, I went a little overboard with food for our Beirut finals. In addition to the pizza roll that I made, I also made this Frito Candy.
When you say Frito Candy, people look at you kind of funny, like what the heck is Frito Candy. But, if you have a piece in your hand to give them to try, they will love you. I have always enjoyed mixing sweet and salty together so I knew it would be a hit. I opened the candy container and this stuff was gone within 5 minutes.
Sweet Salty Frito Candy (from Cookie Madness)
2 cups pretzels
1 cup Fritos
8 mini peanut butter cups
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips – I used dark chocolate chips
Optional: Chopped peanuts for the top
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a 13×9 inch pan with parchment paper or no-stick foil.
Crush pretzels. You can use a food processor to chop, or just throw them in a ziploc bag and crush with your hands or a meat tenderizer. Add Fritos to processor/bag and break them up with pretzels. Dump into pan. Unwrap peanut butter cups and throw them in the mix (I broke them in half first).
Place butter in a non-stick saucepan and melt over medium heat. When butter is melted, stir in brown sugar. Bring mixture to a full boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring once or twice. Pour over Frito mixture and bake for 8 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over hot candy. Return to oven for 1 minute to soften chips. Spread softened chocolate chips over bars. Add chopped nuts if you would like to.
Cool at room temperature until you feel the pan is cool enough to be transferred to your refrigerator, then transfer to refrigerator to set the chocolate. When chocolate is set, lift from pan and break the candy up as you would almond toffee. You can eat it cold or let it come back down to room temp.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I’m so glad you posted this! Aarti’s kale salad is on my list of dishes to make, and it’s good to know that you guys enjoyed it.
I saw this on the first episode of Aarti Party and it looked so good to me! Kale is something I’ve also never worked with in our kitchen so I definitely want to give this recipe a try!
I love kale, and I was intrigued by this as well – I really want to try it now! Great picture!
I picked up all of the ingredients this morning to make the salad, and it is now sitting in my fridge waiting to be devoured for lunch. It’s GREAT! Who knew raw kale could be so good?!
Kale is one of my favorite foods but I haven’t had it raw yet. I am bookmarking this!
Wow sounds interesting! I’m very curious to try it myself. I love kale.
I saw this on Aarti Party too – looks good – glad you tried it!
I love kale and am on a new-found mango kick, so I’m sure this is absolutely wonderful 🙂
Sues
I don’t know if I could get anyone in my family to try this, but it looks so interesting! I have never tried kale, but I would like to!
I made a massaged kale salad once but it was just “eh”. I don’t think I massaged enough. But I might have to try it again, and do it the right way, since you both loved it!
I LOVE massaged kale – love, love, love it. It tastes completely different than “regular” – not as “green” if that makes sense. 🙂
I also love the next food network star. I should check out Aarti’s show since this recipe sounds like it’s right up my alley. 🙂