Pretzel Brownies

Salty and Sweet....is a subject that has divided my household.  I am HUGE fan of the combo, but my husband wrinkles his nose like I have just offered him something off of that Bizarre Foods show.  I think that there has been no better "trend" in desserts than the salty/sweet combination - Salted Caramel, Potato Chip cookies, Chocolate covered Potato Chips, Bacon and Chocolate...really there is whole salty/sweet following these days!!  But I still cannot convince my husand that I am normal ;)

This recipe and post comes courtesy of Rachel at The Avid Appetite.  This month, I was matched up with Rachel's blog through the Secret Recipe Club.

Curious to know more about the Secret Recipe Club? Each month you are assigned to another member's blog and you get to choose one recipe from it to make and share. The fun twist is that you can't tell anyone whose blog you have - it's a secret, shhhh - until you finally post about it. You can read all about it out here.

Rachel at The Avid Appetite describes herself as "Determined to be a kick ass wife who not only watched football, but who could make a mean meal anytime, I taught myself how to cook. Now I write recipes, sample local eats & blog about it all!"  Rachel's blog has a lot of tempting recipes, I love that she includes little snippets about her life (and love of the Giants). 

It was tough to choose just one recipe from her blog!  But my salty/sweet craving zero'd in on this....

Pretzel Crusted Brownies with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

for the crust:
4 C pretzels
¾ C unsalted butter (1.5 sticks)
½ C sugar

for the brownies:
*you can use a simple boxed mix or your own favorite brownie recipe

for the buttercream frosting:
½ C unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
3 C confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk

Directions:

We are going to start by making the pretzel crust. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.  Line a 13x9 inch pan with a foil, letting some of it hang over the edges (this will allow us to lift the brownies out of the pan for easier cutting and presentation).  Be sure to spray the foil with cooking spray or butter and flour.

Process the pretzels in a food processor (or crush them in a sealed ziploc bag), until small but not to powder. 

Melt the butter.

Mix the crushed pretzels, sugar and melted butter in a mixing bowl until combined. 

Press the mixture into the baking pan.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust has set.

WARNING:  Do NOT taste the pretzel mixture before baking...you might end up eating the whole bowl!!

Cool the baked pretzel crust in the refrigerator.  Rachel recommends to put down a layer or two of dish towels under the pan to avoid breaking any glass or melting plastic while in the refrigerator.

Now on to the brownie batter...

I have to confess that I took a shortcut and used a boxed brownie mix from my cupboard.  Normally, I am all for making things from scratch, but lately I have been on a quest to use up those random things that have been sitting in my cupboard for too long.  If you would like to use Rachel's brownie batter recipe, click here.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Mix the brownie batter per the box directions or according to your favorite brownie recipe.

Carefully, spread the batter over the cooled pretzel crust with a spatula or icing knife.

Bake the brownies for 35 to 40 minutes, checking occasionally with a toothpick in the middle for doneness.  Once the toothpick comes out fairly clean, remove the brownies from the pan by lifting the foil out and set aside to cool.

The next layer of goodness is the Buttercream frosting!  As with the brownies, you can use whatever buttercream recipe that you would like.  I used Rachel's recipe (amounts shown in the ingredient section of this post).

Make sure that the butter is room temperature.  Beat the butter with a mixer until fluffy.

Add the powdered sugar, once cup at a time, until combined.

Mix in the vanilla and milk.  You can add more milk as need to get a nice consistency.

Frost the cooled brownies and top each with a whole pretzel.

I am so glad that I won't have to share these treats with the hubby!  The flavors really work well together and it is such a nice change from the traditional brownie.  I am going to freeze half of them now, otherwise I will probably demolish the entire batch in no time at all!

Enjoy the salty/sweet goodness!!


Recipe from The Avid Appetite