chocolate peanut butter pretzel bars.

I know the chocolate-peanut-butter-pretzel combination has been done over and over again and some of you may even yawn at the sight of the name of this post but what can I say? Classics never die.

I usually don't hanker after chocolate but sometimes I just have to have a little bit of it. Really. Just a little. So I quartered the recipe and chilled the bars in a mini loaf pan. Because too many of these chilling around is way too dangerous.

At first, these seem really sweet but after a few moments, the saltiness of the pretzels start to kick in. I made a mistake and only halved the amount of cream needed for the chocolate topping so mine isn't really firm, even after freezing. Dang.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars
recipe taken from The Craving Chronicles

Makes 9 medium or 16 small bars

Peanut Butter Base 

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups pretzels crushed in a food processor but not too fine, you want some chunks

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Chocolate Ganache

1 heaping cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

Line 8×8 pan with foil. Spray with baking spray.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt peanut butter and butter together in microwave (about 1 minute on HIGH). Stir in pretzel crumbs, confectioners’ sugar and salt. Spread evenly into prepared pan and refrigerate at least 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan or microwave-safe container, heat heavy cream to near boiling (1-2 minutes on HIGH, depending on your microwave). Pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. (If needed, microwave on DEFROST 10 seconds at a time to finish melting.) Pour chocolate over chilled peanut butter base. Chill.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting. Store in refrigerator.