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’ll take any leftovers! They sound amazing. I keep saying dessert recipes with bacon and bookmarking them, but I haven’t tried any yet. Adding this one to the list now too. 🙂
These look so terrific. I love the flavor combinations!
I’m intrigued!
interesting! I have a recipe for chocolate bacon fudge or maybe pb bacon fudge but I’m afraid to try it
The frosting sounds amazing. I honestly still can’t bring myself to get behind bacon in desserts. Maybe someday I’ll try a bacon cupcake if I’m given one though. 🙂 I can only resist so long.
YUM! These look so good! I haven’t tried the bacon / sweet combo yet, but I’m sure I would love it!
This looks delicious but I’ve got to ask….what is a pirate party?
Fun and Fearless – It’s exactly like it sounds… Everyone dresses up as a pirate (or something related – Hubby and I went as Treasure maps last year). They even hire this guy who looks like Captain Jack Sparrow to come and there’s a prize for best costume. One of the best parties of the year!
Sounds great! The problem I’ve seen with bacon is that sometimes it is chewy in cupcakes. That’s not good. I like that this recipe says to cook until crispy. Extra crispy for me!
My favorite candy bar is bacon chocolate!!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Wow, those look and sound amazing!
oh yum. after putting bacon in last years cookies this might need to be next 🙂
I’m so curious to try bacon in baked goods, but do you think turkey bacon would work?
Corrine – I’m sure turkey bacon would work if you could get it nice and crispy. I’ve heard that if the bacon isn’t super crispy, it has a really weird chewy texture in baked goods.
Thanks Jen! I’m going to give it a try!
This has just about everything that I would want to go together. Awesome recipe!
This is certianly a unqiue mixture of tastes and textures, but it comes together nicely. Definatly a must try!
Chocolate..caramel…bacon…PERFECTION.
I am infatuated with the perfect smoky/salty addition of bacon into sweet baked goods. So delicious. Of course, I’m kind of a fan of adding bacon into just about anything.
Great pics, def wanna try these out!
Sorry the cupcakes didn’t turn out like you wanted. Have you ever tried the bacon/chocolate cupcake at Cherry Bomb Bakery in Brighton? They are fantastic!