Sweet, Salty, Chewy, and Crunchy Brownies
I seriously have no idea what to call these things. If I listed all the ingredients in them, they’d become something along the lines of “Pretzel, Peanut, Salted Caramel Brownies”. But I kind of like describing them by the contrasting aspects of those ingredients. Hence “Sweet, Salty, Chewy, Crunchy Brownies”. My friend M preferred to just call them “Super Brownies”. Whatever you decide to call them, they’re awesome.
I whipped these up for a little gathering of friends and we could barely put a dent in them! They’re very rich and indulgent, so even though I had cut the 8×8 pan of brownies into 16 pieces, a bunch of us still prefered to share one brownie. Definitely plan to have a cup of cold milk nearby when you enjoy these.
Sweet, Salty, Chewy, and Crunchy Brownies
Yield: 16
Ingredients:
1 batch brownies (made from mix or scratch)
1 (11 ounce) bag Kraft Caramel Bits, or about 3/4 of a bag of Kraft Caramels, unwrapped
1/4 cup half & half
1/2 tsp sea salt
12 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp shortening
1 cup mini pretzels, slightly broken
1 cup lightly salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Directions:
Line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with foil all the way to the top and brush with oil. Make the brownies and cool completely.
Melt the caramels with the half and half in a large bowl in the microwave on high heat. Stir every thirty seconds until melted. Pour over cooled brownies. Sprinkle sea salt on top of caramel. Let cool until set.
Melt the chocolate and shortening in a large bowl in the microwave on high heat. Stir every thirty seconds until melted. Mix in the pretzels and peanuts. Spread over brownies. Cool and serve.
Recipe adapted from The Cooking Photographer










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 love, love, love how serious your distinction is between chewy puffy vs. chewy thin vs. crispy thin cookies. It makes me smile.
Like I said, I’m weird about cookies 🙂
I love molasses and chocolate chip cookies. Great idea to put them together. I like chewy thin cookies.
I don’t like flat cookies, either! i like fat, soft ones! (TWSS)
If f anyone is entitled to be weird abotu cookies it is you. these look yummy, I’m all about flat and chewy!
One of my co-workers makes a ginger chocolate chip cookie that I was surprised to find I liked. These seem like they’d be similar.
sometimes responses from friends and family is all you need! there’s always the next batch for you to love 🙂
Hmmm so I love chocolate chip cookies…and my husband LOVES molasses cookies…I wonder if this is our perfect compromise…
Great recipe!
These look and sound amazing–I’ll have to try these 🙂
These look great. It’s hard to find a good Molasses Cookie.
I love these cookies because I am the worst person at remembering to take butter out to soften and with these I don’t have to worry about that. I made my first batch with milk chocolate chips and my second with butterscotch chips (since my FIL can’t have chocolate) and they were both wonderful. The 8 year old finds them too tangy – so more for me 🙂
Best. Cookies. Ever. Making them for a 2nd time today and mailing half to my friend in Colorado who desperately needs a pick me up 🙂