Peanut Butter Caramel Pretzel Brownies
- Yield: 16-ish brownies, depending on how you cut ‘em 1x
Ingredients
Scale
Brownie Layer:
- Renewal Mill Upcycled Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix
- 6 Tbsp (85g) unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup (170g) hot water
Pretzel & Caramel Layer:
- 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
- 5 Tbsp (71g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (114g) heavy cream, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 heaping cup (60g) mini pretzels
Peanut Butter Layer:
- ¾ cup (200g) creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter, melted
- 4 full sheet graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs
- ½ cup (57g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8" x 8" metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- Let’s start with the brownie layer! In a large bowl, pour entire bag of Renewal Mill Upcycled Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix. Add melted butter and hot water, stirring until thoroughly combined, then mix for an additional minute.
- Spread brownie batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 40–45 minutes.
- Place pan on wire rack and allow to cool completely before adding other layers.
- Next up is the pretzel & caramel layer! Pour sugar into a medium saucepan and, over medium heat, stir constantly with a wooden spoon. The sugar will clump together as it starts to melt, and then it’ll turn into an amber liquid after about 8–10 minutes.
- Once the sugar has melted, add butter, whisking to incorporate.
NOTE: Adding the butter (and the cream in the next step) will cause the mixture to bubble up quickly, so keep a close eye and be careful. - After sugar and butter are fully combined, slowly pour in the heavy cream, whisking constantly. Allow mixture to boil for about a minute.
- Remove caramel from heat. Mix in vanilla and salt.
- Pour caramel into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool and thicken slightly, roughly 30 minutes.
- Pour half of caramel evenly over cooled brownie layer. Press pretzels into caramel, then pour remaining caramel on top.
- Place pan in fridge to allow caramel layer to firm up.
- Once the caramel is firm, it’s time for the peanut butter layer! In a medium bowl, stir together peanut butter and melted butter until well mixed.
- Add graham cracker crumbs and confectioners’ sugar, mixing until fully incorporated.
- Plop blobs of peanut butter mixture atop the caramel, smoothing top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. (We used a cookie scoop to easily get even blobs.)
- Place pan back in fridge until peanut butter layer is set.
- Remove from pan by pulling up on the parchment paper. With a sharp knife, cut into 16 pieces.
Notes
- Homemade caramel is awesome, but if you want an even quicker dessert, you can use a good premade caramel, such as Postre Caramels sea salt caramel sauce or Fat Toad Farm goat milk caramel. You’ll need about 1 cup of caramel.
- We used Snyder’s Pretzel Snaps since their checkerboard shape provides easy, even pretzel coverage. Feel free to use mini pretzel twists or rods; just break ‘em up first.
- These brownies are delicious straight from the fridge, but we found them to be even yummier when they’re at room temperature and the caramel is a little softer.
Adapted from: Two Sugar Bugs
