Tort(e): Salted Caramel Pretzel Brownies

This past weekend was the first that we were home and had few plans. I decided to capitalize on this by having some friends over for dinner on Saturday. Of course dinner with friends is always an opportunity to make some sort of big batch dessert that otherwise would mean a 10 pound weight gain by yours truly. [Note to self: get back on My Fitness Pal and start working out!]

I knew the hubs had to go to work for much of the day and that we were planning an early dinner. So I opted for a simple dessert that tastes much more complicated than it is: salted caramel pretzel brownies. You can make these bad boys using the brownie recipe I showed you all a while back or you can use a box of brownie mix. But seriously, brownies from scratch are so easy, and you probably have everything at home for them so why would you use a boxed mix? Why??

These brownies are especially good when warmed up a little bit and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I would stick with vanilla because these are pretty rich on their own...

Let's get baking!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Brownies

Ingredients:

brownie batter (either from scratch or a box)
1 jar caramel topping
pretzels
sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13 or 9x9 pan. My directions said to use a 9x13 pan, but I think this recipe would come out better in a 9x9 pan. With the smaller pan you will get thicker brownies and better brownie to pretzel to caramel ratio, in my opinion. But I did make this with the 9x13 and it came out okay, so use that if that is what you have.

Prepare brownie batter according to recipe or box directions (but really use a recipe, its just as easy and comes out better!).

Pour 1/3 of brownie batter in the bottom of a pan. Layer pretzels on top of batter in two layers. Carefully spoon the rest of the batter over the pretzels and gently smooth.

don't flip the pretzel directions like I did. Put them in the same direction (unless you do the 9x9 pan. Then flip away)

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the brownie pan. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Carefully spread caramel topping over the brownies. If it is too thick to spread, spoon it into a bowl and then microwave the topping for 30 seconds before spreading.