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. 
Yum! And festive… I’m glad there’s another Boston blogger out there that loves making cupcakes as much as I do!!!! 🙂
These cupcakes look amazing!! I love white chocolate, and the tart cranberry flavor sounds like a fantastic accompaniment :).
While I adore pumpkin, I think it is great that you did something different from the norm. The cranberry sauce filling looks really good!
These look great! I have some cranberries I have been debating what to make.
These are so beautiful! I love the idea of white chocolate cupcakes…. and cranberry sounds just perfect. Yum!
Sues
They’re beautiful and sound amazing!!
Those look delicious! Love the flecks of color, and it is nice to step outside of pumpkin paradise once in awhile. Yum!
These look amazing! I like that you did a recipe with cranberries…delicious! I have two frozen bags in my freezer calling my name 🙂
What a great idea! I love this flavor combination. I agree that this is the best way to fill a cupcake…I’ve used it a few times now!
These cupcakes look gorgeous! Now I want to order Fiori di Sicilia from KAF. I did so good not letting myself buy it when we were there!
How fun! These cupcakes look delicious.. I don’t know why but I would have never thought about cranberry and cupcakes!?
these sound fabulous, love the flavor combo!!
Great pics! These sound delicious 🙂
For some reason I am not seeing the recipes for the cranberry filling or mousse. Can you help me find them? Thank you!