Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark

This is a recipe I stumbled upon and HAD. TO. TRY.  The original came from Pinterest, and following the links out, I came across the blog it was posted in.  I tried it, I liked it, but I plan to tweak it a bit for the next time.  Because there will be a next time.

I absolutely adore salted caramels, and this was right up my alley.  It seemed simple (it was), and sounded divine (it is), and I decided to give it a go on my recent day off.

The recipe came from the blog, "Mama Say What?!" and the link to the recipe is here.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark

2 sticks butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 - 11 1/2 oz bag of milk chocolate chips
1/2 bag of small pretzel twists
sea salt

1. Cover a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper (original recipe called for using foil, but I had to literally peel and scrape foil off the back of the candy - not cool).

2. Cover parchment paper with pretzel twists (you can line them out or just spread them on the sheet).  Do not have the pretzels overlap if you can avoid it.

3. Melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat until well mixed.  Bring to a boil and continue to stir until caramel is formed.  The caramel will start to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Cooking your caramel until it is a bit thicker is a good thing.

4. Pour caramel over pretzels.  Don't worry if you don't cover every bit of every pretzel.

5. Put pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.

6. Melt chocolate chips in microwave in a microwave-safe container. (This is a change from the original recipe as well.  I found it hard to get the chocolate chips melted enough to spread with the way the original recipe is written).

7. Pour chocolate over hot caramel/pretzels and spread.

8. Heat an additional minute in the 350 degree oven if needed.

9. Generously sprinkle sea salt over the candy.

10. Let cool slightly at room temperature, then place in freezer for 2-3 hours until hardened.

11. Peel bark off the parchment paper and break into smaller pieces.

12. Store in refrigerator for best results.  Enjoy!

This is by far one of the easiest, fastest, and tastiest recipes I have found.  My boys LOVED it.  It will become a regular at our house, I'm sure.

Do you have any suggestions on what could be done differently?  Be sure to share!  I've had suggestions on changing up the chocolate chips  (semi-sweet or white chocolate anyone?), add peanut butter chips, mix in popcorn, break it up into ice cream (I will have to try this), add mini M & M's.  What do you suggest?