Sweet and Salty Chocolate Carmel Bark

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Carmel Bark

Making bark candy is an easy and delicious treat.  I love it for the holidays or as a hostess gift because you can put it in a nice box or on a pretty plate and it looks beautiful and tastes sweet.  You also don't need a candy thermometer for bark - which is always nice.  We like sweet and salty combinations in my house, so I thought I would combine my grandmother's cracker candy recipe and a holiday bark recipe I have, but do it with an added twist - instead of using saltine crackers I used pretzels and I added peanut butter chips and a chopped heath bar to the top just to make it look nice.  These additions made for a great salty and sweet combination!  This is an awesome bark, it only took me 15 minutes to make and then my recommendation is to allow it to cool over night before cutting.  This will make cutting easier as well as make sure your candy has completely hardened.  A must try for the holidays!  Wrap this one up for your office party, neighbors' gifts, or a sweet treat on that cookie plate.

Here is how I did it:

Ingredients:

1/2 large bag of pretzel sticks

3/4 c butter

4 squares of chocolate almond bark

1 package of Caramels (approx 50 squares) melted with 2 T of water

1 bag of milk chocolate chips - I like Hershey's, they melt smooth and taste amazing

1/2 bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

1 Heath Bar - crushed for topping

Preheat your oven to 350.  In a small sauce pan melt your butter.  While doing this, line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.  Line the cookie sheet with pretzel sticks.

Pour the butter over the pretzel sticks.  In a separate sauce pan melt the caramels and water.  During this time melt the almond bark in the microwave for 1 min and 30 seconds, then stir - it will be a creamy chocolate - spoon this over your pretzel sticks - this adds just a little extra chocolate to your bark.  Once the caramels have melted pour them over the almond bark and the pretzels.  Now take your chocolate chips and peanut butter chips and pour them over the pretzel mixture.

Place this mixture in your preheated oven for 4 minutes - watch closely because you do not want this to burn.  Once you remove from the oven, immediately use your rubber spatula and smooth out the chips, completely covering pretzels and caramel.

Now crush your Heath bar and sprinkle it over the bark.  Allow these to cool completely then slice and serve.

This is SO easy and SO delish!  Highly recommended.