Salted Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Bark
No candy thermometer needed for this divine easy chocolate toffee pretzel bark with a little sprinkle of sea salt. It is easy and delicious!
You are either going to love me or hate me for this recipe.
Five ingredients.
Most of which probably reside in your pantry right now.
Five ingredients that result in some of the most addictive faux-candy known to man.
Super easy chocolate toffee pretzel bark (with a little sprinkle of sea salt) is closer than you can even imagine.
And guess what? Huge bonus here, because you don’t need a candy thermometer to make this chocolate toffee pretzel bark.
Yet you’ll still end up with a divine toffee that is made other-worldly by being baked on top of salty pretzels and furthered by a smothering of rich, dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt.
I’m not sure my life will ever be the same.
Neither will my postpartum hips, for that matter, but that’s a personal problem I’ll work out on my own.
Basically, to get this chocolate toffee pretzel bark from the web and into your kitchen, you’re going to simply line a large, rimmed baking sheet with foil and sprinkle it with broken mini pretzels (time to take out your aggression).
Then, a simple mixture of butter and brown sugar bubbles on the stove for a whopping three minutes before it’s poured over the pretzels.
If you are thinking this is very similar to the saltine toffee recipes floating around everywhere, you are a smart cookie.
You’re going to bake that pretzel/caramel combo, top it with chocolate, then spread the melty chocolate evenly over the top, and finish with a smattering of sea salt.
It’s almost too simple.
One Year Ago: Grilled Steak and Veggie Kebabs
Two Years Ago: Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Three Years Ago: Shrimp Stir Fry with Snow Peas and Coconut Curry Sauce
Salted Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Bark
Ingredients
- About 8-ounces (227 g) mini pretzels, (half of a 1-pound bag) broken into smaller pieces, more or less to cover the pan
- 1 cup (227 g) butter
- 1 cup (212 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 cups (340 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 11X17-inch rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Cover the bottom of the pan in a layer of broken mini pretzels. Set aside.
- In a small or medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and brown sugar. When the mixture starts to gently simmer and bubble, let it cook for 3 minutes without stirring. Immediately pour the hot caramel mixture over the pretzels in a back and forth motion to cover most of the pretzels (a few empty/dry spots are ok as the caramel will fuse together during baking).
- Bake for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top of the hot caramel and pretzels. Let the chocolate chips sit for 2-3 minutes until they melt. Use an offset spatula or rubber spatula to gently spread the melted chocolate over the toffee. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt.
- Let the toffee cool completely at room temperature then refrigerate if needed to help the chocolate set up. Break the toffee into pieces and try not to eat the whole batch.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from a recipe sent to me by Sara R. via Flower Patch Farmgirl
Love these- But they’re dangerous to have around! I have a simple remedy for those having trouble with chocolate chips not melting- lay another sheet pan on top right after spreading the chocolate chips out, will hold the heat in to melt the chips.
Either don’t use parchment or foil, or you MUST grease it! I just had to toss the whole batch because the parchment was absolutely stuck to the candy and was shredding on every piece. I’m still picking parchment pieces out of my mouth from sampling. And there’s absolutely no reason to use it. Spray the pan, and the whole thing will pop right out. The recipe really should be modified. It’s so easy to ruin if you follow the instructions and line the pan.
You must have used wax paper. Mine turned out fine with parchment paper.
For those who have a problem with the chocolate chips not melting : use MINI chocolate chips, they melt faster!
I made this recipe today using a store brand light brown sugar. I knew it looked wrong when I poured it on the pretzels… the sugar didn’t dissolve/caramelize within the 3 minutes and I ended up with a greasy, grainy mess. Went back to the store and got C&H, made again, and it worked perfectly this time.
Google is telling me it should be 300 degrees on a candy thermometer, so I might go by that from now on instead of by time. Providing a temp in the recipe might help some of the people who are not having success with the toffee.
Thanks for your feedback, Jenn.
I’m not a sweets person, but this combination of sweet, salty, and crunchy is amazing! I made this for a party a few weeks ago and I am making it right now to share with family for Christmas. I had some leftover graham cracker crumbs and sprinkled those on the pretzels before coating with the toffee mixture…can’t wait to see what if that adds anything to this already wonderful treat. Thanks, Mel!
I’ve been making this recipe annually for the last 5 years. I give it as a delicious, inexpensive supplement for my Christmas gifts. Everyone loves it and I never seem to make enough. I make it gluten free!
Awesome!
I found this recipe, thinking 5 ingredients, how hard cloud it be? I was so disappointed . The whole thing stuck to the foil! It never set, was chewy and sticky. There was no way it could have been broken into pieces. I followed the recipe exactly. Not sure why my batch turned out so bad. It tasted good, but we had to pull it apart by hand and it stuck to your fingers.
Will not try this again.
Sorry to hear that, Pam!
You may have undercooked the Caramel slightly. This has happened to me also, just once. The trick I found was to mix the sugar and butter well before it started to boil (to avoid the clump) then started timing when is was almost at a full boil. Hope this is helpful. I have to say, it’s worth it when it turns out perfect.
thanks for the tip!
Friends and family just love getting this as a gift! Super easy and addicting. My Daughter took some to school with her and shared with her theater group, for a year or longer I had requests for this super easy and yummy treat!
Thank you,
Serene and GPHS students
Can you freeze this?
This may be a difficult question to answer but here it goes. My Mom is in a nursing home and I would like to make small gift bags of this for nurses and aides for Christmas. How many small bags would one batch make, generally. 6?
You could probably get 5-6 small bags out of this recipe (maybe more depending on how full you fill them). Sweet idea for the nurses!
I have made this several times and my family loves it! But I was wondering if the toffee is supposed to be soft and chewy or hard and crispy? Mine always turns out chewy.
Hi Terri – I’d say it’s right in between chewy and crunchy.
OMG, I found your recipe in 2015 and passed the candy around to staff at my Retirement Community. Hmmm, I wonder why they were being extra nice to me for Christmas 2016.
I cannot thank you enough. It is a fantastic recipe, I have everyone begging for more.
j
Made this today. It came out AMAZING. Beautiful, simple recipe. So gooooold.
I mean, gooooooood!
Its to much butter very greasy Use less butter and less chocolate. Going to try it again bought the stuff for Christmas grab bags. Trying to save first batch. Eat it myself very disappointed.
I posted earlier about my (Nestle) chips not melting. It turns out my oven was screwed up! Totally not the fault of Nestle chips! I tried the recipe again and it worked perfectly.
My sister brought these to Thanksgiving dinner this year. They are so delicious and addicting!!! Going to definitely make for my cookie exchange coming up. They taste like the expensive toffee you get on the boardwalk for $20 a pound!!!!
I’m in the camp of people who couldn’t get the chocolate chips to melt. I even stuck them back in the oven after to see if it would help. Unlike Mel, I used Nestle Tollhouse instead of Ghiradelli, so just wanted to mention that in case the brand of chocolate chips is the issue.
I make a version of this for passover using Matzah’s instead of pretzels or crackers. I’ve also added a bag of heath bar chips as the second step and baked for 5 minutes before adding the chocolate. Yummy
I made these with 1/2 peanut butter chips and 1/2 choc chips. I didn’t plan it this way but realized that in my baking plans, I didn’t have enough choc chips. This was a great “accidental” surprise..turned out amazing!!
I made these today and giving them out as part of my Christmas baskets on Christmas. Let’s just say, I had to stop myself from eating the whole pan haha. Soooo good.
How do I store these until I am ready to hand them out? I put them in pastry bags and tied them tightly with ribbon. Do I keep them in the refrigerator so the chocolate does not melt?
Covered at room temperature should do the trick!
Thank you!!! So easy and delicious! A new classic 🙂
Seriously sooooo yummy!! All my favorite things in one treat! I’ve got to give this away to neighbors fast or I’ll eat the whole pan!! Thanks for another winner!!! Hope your nose surgery is healing up quickly!! Merry Christmas to your sweet family!!
I sold these recently at a holiday pop up party. I made two sheet pans full and sold almost all of it. People couldn’t enough of the samples 🙂 thanks again for this recipe!
I was looking for a chocolate, caramel, pretzel confection that didn’t call for corn syrup. I didn’t measure the pretzels, and I added salted almonds to them, plus a mix of chocolate and white chocolate chips. Perfect! Thanks for sharing.
I’m just about to make this AGAIN!!!! I have one little twist: bacon. Yes: BACON. Butcher quality bacon. Don’t use packaged bacon from the grocery store as it has far too much water content. I use thick sliced bacon from the butcher. I pre-cook it, pat off any excess fat and let it cool. I cut it in to pieces and add it on top of the pretzels. My co-workers go absolutely nuts for this!! Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!
Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. Fanny!
You are a bad, bad, person….add bacon…genius or wicked super villain… can’t decide but I felt like I had been struck by lightning….I am sooooo going to make this again…with BACON
I totally agree. Bacon is genius.
And . . . Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. Fanny! is my new catchphrase.
About how many servings would this make? i need to make this for about 60 people, so how would i tweek this recipe
It all depends on how much people eat or how small/large you break it into pieces. If everyone is getting just a nibble, then you don’t need much but if you are filling up treat bags with it, you might need to make several batches.
Hello! Just wanted to say that I made these for a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house and they went down a treat. They were so easy to make and I had a lot of people everyone asking for the recipe afterwards. I’m always a bit nervous about making caramel, and I don’t have a candy thermometer but your step by step pictures were really helpful in judging the correct colour for the caramel. Thanks!
Easy, wonderful candy to make! I have a grandson with a tree nut allergy. He loved this candy and didn’t have to worry about eating it 🙂
If the butter and sugar aren’t supposed to be stirred at all how do you get it to integrate together? Mine had big glops of brown sugar at the bottom. It all came out ok but the caramel was a bit chewy. The flavors were awesome though, I would love to try it again. Thanks for responding to all our questions, it is so helpful!
The no stirring just refers to the mixture after it starts to simmer and bubble. I stir it gently while it’s melting (the recipe says “combine”) and leave it alone after that. Does that help?
Man, this was such a bummer! I have loved many Mel recipes and thought I could handle this one despite the limited directions and negative reviews. But, i am a novice candy maker and the guidance here, even after reading all the reviews, was just too vague for me. I kept wishing for a hint about how much the toffee should bubble or color or how it should smell, or a temp, or something to let me know when it was done. I cooked it extra time in the pan and in the stove, but still ended up with rubbery, rip your filling out, toffee instead of the nice crisp buttery bite I was hoping for. The flavors are so promising though.
Sorry this didn’t work out for you, Jill. The recipe is meant to be a simpler version of candy-thermometer-required candy which is why there isn’t a specific temperature given.
Have you ever had an issue with th chocolate chips not melting? The first year I made it, everything turned out amazingly. The following year was a total disaster because the chocolate wouldn’t melt, even after being left in the oven for 10 extra minutes. I used name-brand chocolate chips each time. I’m almost afraid to try again! Someone once mentioned to me that chocolate chips aren’t supposed to melt easily so they keep their shape in cookies. So why did it work once and fail twice? Your photos make me so want to try this again!
That’s strange, Sandy! Sorry you had those issues. I’ve never had that happen where the chocolate chips wouldn’t melt. I always use the Ghirardelli brand in case that helps.
I found the butter and brown sugar kept separating and when I took it off the stove I stirred it hoping it would come together. Still a bit of separation so some parts were mainly melted butter while other pieces were more brown sugar. As a result it didn’t get hard and I ended up sticking it in the freezer. Great taste but gets all gooey if it comes to room temp. Any suggestions?
Hi Beverly – sometimes caramel/toffee separates during the cooking process because of a sudden shift in temperature or if it’s being stirred too vigorously. If it’s overly gooey – it might not have cooked long enough.
I used margarine (canola/soybean) to make this and had no problems. I kept it in the fridge because I was worried about the chocolate getting soft at room temp., but maybe that helped the margarine set as well?
I made this and it tastes delicious! However, 8 oz of pretzels is too much. I measured 4 full cups of pretzels and there’s not enough caramel or chocolate to cover them. Next time I’m going to use 6 oz of pretzels.
I made this and the caramel didn’t set up AT ALL. It tastes amazing, but it isn’t the right consistency. I used margarine, is that my problem?
Yes, I’m afraid using margarine instead of butter will drastically change the results.
We made these and they are so delicious! Unfortunately, I’m out of sea salt so I’ll have to use regular salt the next time I make it!
DO NOT use foil or parchment. Twice I made this and had to toss it because the paper/foil stuck to the toffee. So disappointing as I needed them for a party that night.
Spray the foil with cooking spray before you put the pretzels on it. Made this today and we can’t stop eating it!!
Mel, made this when we got back from our trip this afternoon. Ended up using unsalted butter since that’s what I had. We love it!!!! Thanks for the recipe!
Mel, can’t wait to try these! I know you use salted butter in your recipes. Did you here as well, or would that make it too salty with the pretzels and sea salt? Thanks!
NRS – I used salted butter here, too – you could always cut back the additional salt but we loved it as is. Hope you like it!
This looks soooo YUM! I need to see if I can tweak it to make a dairy free recipe.
oooo…ymmmmmm… i love your Salted Chocolate Toffee its looking soooo tasty …i will try this soon..
Yes…I screwed up the recipe by not cooking the caramel correctly. It’s been in fridge over an hour and still soft. Thank you for having tips for people like me! Will try again Saturday.
Hiya Mel, I have a technique question. Spreading the chocolate out is proving neigh on impossible- the pretzels move about and stick to the spatula. What to do?!?
William Graham – you can try adding a bit more chocolate – but as long as it’s spreading into a mostly smooth layer, it should be ok. You can see from my pictures that it’s not a beautiful, thick even layer. It’s thin in some spots. Do you have an offset spatula? I find it works wonders.
I just made this and they are divine! I am trying to hold myself back from devouring the whole pan. Simple to make and delicious. Think I might try adding peanut butter like another poster mentioned.
I only had about 1/4 of the pretzels called for, so I cut the recipe down. I am seriously candy-making challenged so I was nervous. I loved the way the toffee turned out–solid but not totally rock hard. The pretzels provided the crunch. It was easy and delicious and I felt successful! (Even though I just realized I forgot to put the salt on top!) Thanks for helping me through my candy making fear.
Mel,
This is a tasty treat! I have also made the saltine version, which is also nice. For another variation, try adding 6 Tablespoons of melted peanut butter after removing from the oven, before the chocolate chips are added. I put it back in the oven for one additional minute. YUMM!
DELICIOUS and EASY!!!
Jenah – if the texture wasn’t like crisp toffee, then, yes, I’d suggest cooking for another minute.
I made these last year, they tasted so good! Mine never quite caramelized though. The texture was sugary, grainy. Do you think I didn’t cook it long enough? I did three min. I’d really like to make them again this year!
This was amazing! I baked it a couple minutes longer than it said and the toffee was perfectly crunchy and delicious! Thanks for the awesome recipe, this is definitely going on my Christmas treat plates this year!