Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies – Salty-and-sweet, soft and crunchy. If you enjoy contrasting flavors and textures, these easy blondies are just for you.
Salty and sweet, soft and crunchy. A jackpot of contrasting flavors and textures.
And since I’m a caramel fanatic, these are my sweet, sticky heaven.
In case you haven’t noticed, salted caramel is pretty trendy right now, and the salty-and-sweet craze shows no signs of weakening. So I hopped on the trendy train and made these in five minutes. They’re so easy.
From a time and energy invested perspective, this recipe has an exceedingly high return on investment. One bowl, no mixer, no dough to chill, nothing to knead, and just minutes after starting, the pan is going into the oven. I wish all recipes were like this.
Make them by melting a stick of butter, stir in brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, flour, and then fold in two cups of pretzels. I crush them slightly in my hand with a gentle squeeze before folding them in. Some are more crushed than others, but I didn’t want them to look too uniform. Rustic is nice.
Transfer the batter to a lined 8-by-8-inch pan and then drizzle about one-third cup salted caramel sauce over the top in a zigzag pattern. I used Trader Joe’s Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce but any thick, dense, good-quality caramel sauce will do. Don’t use a thin, lackluster ice cream sundae topping, many of which aren’t even real caramel sauce.
Making your own (Dark Rum) Caramel Sauce is also an option option.
Or, rather than making Seven Minute Microwave Caramels, undercook the mixture by a couple minutes and rather than 7-minute caramels, you’ll have 5-minute caramel sauce.
Bake the blondies for about 30 minutes. If you’re an oven door-watcher, you’ll notice the caramel bubbles up at points during the baking process, creating big bubble-gum style bubbles. It was like Hubba-Bubba in the pan.
After removing the pan from the oven, drizzle a bit more caramel sauce over the blondies. This covers up the little bubbles that formed on the caramel sauce that occurred while baking, provides more caramel flavor intensity, and adds the element of both baked-in and freshly drizzled caramel sauce. I told you I’m a caramel fanatic.
Allow the bars to cool and for the freshly drizzled caramel to soak in for at least one hour before slicing them so you don’t have a hot, buttery, mess on your hands. Literally.
They’re dense, not at all cakey, and so buttery and rich. Brown sugar is used exclusively, which keeps them so soft and moist. The brown sugar caramelizes while baking, adding even more caramel flavor depth.
The bars are pure comfort food and make you feel at peace while devouring one. The butter, the caramelized brown sugar, and the caramel sauce are so soothing. You just want to close your eyes while you bite in to savor all those luscious flavors and different textures.
The little bits of pretzels add crunch and texture and if I didn’t know better, I would swear they were cashews.
I asked my husband if he liked the cashews I put in the bars and he said, “Yes, they’re great. Normally you don’t put nuts in things though.” Right, and I don’t.
And I didn’t add cashews to this recipe, but while baking, the pretzels morphed into cashew-like bits and these could have easily been called Salted Carmel Cashew Blondies.
It’s good that this is a small batch recipe, making just 9 squares, or we’d be in trouble. My husband told me these are some of the best bars I’ve ever made. He does say that about once a month, and I don’t always take him seriously, but these were a hit with my family.
Salted caramel and salty-and-sweet may be trendy, but they’re trends I sure appreciate.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups mini pretzels, measured loosely and crushed slightly
- about 1/3 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling before baking (I used Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce or make Caramel Sauce](https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/06/dark-rum-caramel-sauce.html) or make [5-Minute Caramel Sauce
- about 1/4 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling after baking
- coarse sea salt or Kosher salt for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute. To the melted butter (allow it to cool slightly so you don't scramble the egg), add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk vigorously to combine. Add the flour and stir until just combined, taking care not to over-mix or the blondies will be tough. Fold in the pretzels (I crush them in the palm of my hand by squeezing them). Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula or offset knife. Drizzle about 1/3 cup caramel sauce over the pan in a zig-zag pattern. Bake for about 28 to 32 minutes, or until center is just set. Watch the actual blondies/dough, not the caramel sauce, because it won't fully set. A toothpick should come out mostly clean if you can find a patch of dough to test without hitting a pretzel or caramel sauce. Don't overbake; these are meant to be gooey and firm up as they cool.
- Immediately after removing pan from oven, drizzle about 1/4 cup caramel sauce over the top in a zig-zag pattern, following the original zig-zag pattern if possible. Optionally, sprinkle with coarse salt to play up the salty-and-sweet contrast. Allow blondies to cool completely in pan and for caramel sauce to soak in somewhat before slicing and serving, at least one hour. Blondies may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- To keep gluten-free, use your favorite gluten-free flour blend, taking care that all other ingredients used are acceptable for your dietary needs.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Related Recipes:
Browned Butter Caramel and Butterscotch Bars – Nutty and aromatic browned butter is paired with dark brown sugar, sweet butterscotch chips, and creamy caramel to create a dense, moist bar, with incredible depth of flavor. Between the butterscotch chips and the caramels, there’s some texture in these easy-to-make, buttery bars
Coconut White Chocolate Chip Blondies – A dense, rich, almost fudge-like blondie that has notes of caramel, and incorporates coconut, white, and semi-sweet chocolate. Easy, fast, and ready in under 30 minutes
Funfetti Cake Batter Blondies – Full of sprinkles, white and dark chocolate chips, soft, moist and easy. My daughter’s eyes light up when she sees these
Cookie Butter Brown Sugar Streusel Bars – Easy, fast, and combine three things I love: Cookie Butter, brown sugar, and streusel topping. They’re soft, tender and moist in the center with lots of chewiness around the edges. The streusel topping adds tons of texture
Cookie Butter Funfetti Triple Chip Bars – Not exactly a blondie but close and if there’s one sauce I love as much as caramel, it’s melted Cookie Butter
Caramel and Chocolate Gooey Bars (GF with Vegan adaptation) – Caramels, more caramels, and plenty of chocolate and oats are combined in these gooey, sticky, sweet, and texture-rich bars
Dark Rum Caramel Sauce (gluten-free) – A step-by-step guide for easy at-home caramel sauce that can be used on everything from ice cream to apples. Can be made with or without rum, although I recommend it
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars – All the flavor and texture of peanut butter-chocolate cookies, but much faster and easier. The batter comes together in minutes by hand and in one bowl. In under 30 minutes, from start to finish, you can be eating one
Seven Minute Microwave Caramels (gluten free) – Almost too good to be true. The best caramels I’ve ever had and will be the only recipe I’ll ever use or need again
Do you like salty-and-sweet desserts? Caramel or salted caramel?
Tell me all about your favorite recipes and links welcome.
Thanks for the entries in the Canon Rebel T3i Camera Giveaway {$580 value}
Oh, how I adore sweet and salty!! I’ve been eating GF pretzels lately and was thinking about dipping them in PB&J, but caramel sounds better. I made blondies for Dustin the other day; these outdo them by a mile! YUMMMMMM :D
Oh and these are very easy to make GF. Use an general GF flour for the dough (and b/c it’s dense and in a pan, i.e. not cookies) whatever you use will be fine. And then with the GF pretzels, you’re set! Easy and GF!
I’m literally drooling. Every single things about these is screaming “SALLY! Make me now.” I have a feeling you made these with me in mind, no? ;) Just kidding. But you know I love my sweet and salty Averie! And blondies. What a killer combination. And you know I love nuts in my baked goods (our only difference!) and the pretzels aka “cashews” sound like heaven to me. Geez girl, you are on a roll this week!
These ARE so you! The whole time I was making them, I was thinking Sally would love these! I actually liked them tons (despite the pretzels turning into cashews..lol) and Scott LOVED them!
I can absolutely get on board with the sweet-and-salty trend, too, and these look PERFECT. They also give me a nice excuse to buy pretzels, which I usually don’t allow myself to indulge in. ;) Blondes do it best!
I don’t even know how you read blogs on all your cleanses or post-cleanses! But yes, if your biggest indulgence is pretzels, I think you’re safe and can buy some :)
Salted caramel is one trend I will never get tired of. And I LOVE that they make only 9 bars, because that is always my big problem with dessert recipes–they make too much!
Exactly! And as bloggers, we need NEW content. Not 24 pieces of the same content :)
Oh my goodness, this is such a gorgeous creation! My mouth is watering right now looking at this perfect blend of flavors.
I wish I could have given you some! :)
I can’t look at your blog without my mouth watering– thanks for the wonderful pinterest worthy recipes and great pictures of the goodies you make!
Referring to your comment about how the pretzels end up tasting like cashews…Do you imagine that one could actually substitute roasted salted cashews for the pretzels?…Or would it mangle your exquisite recipe?!…I love pretzels…but unfortunately my hubby is NOT a fan…yet he loves salted caramel and salty cashews!…Thanks for any insight!
Go for it with subbing cashews. They’re just about 10x the price, ounce for ounce, and readers balk at things like that sometimes…plus I am not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods but if you are, they’d be wonderful in here!
Or make these with cashews! They would be amazing!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/12/peanut-chewy-payday-bars.html
MMMM!! These are like the ultimate sweet/salty treat!!! Love em!
Wow! These look so good! Love the salty and sweet combo, so I definitely need to make these soon!!
Yum this looks DELISH! Will definitely be adding this to my lunch ideas. :) Can’t wait to try them!
Wow, these look so good. I’m a sucker for bars and salty and sweet just do it for me :)
Salted caramel is my ultimate weakness! And I actually have a bag of pretzels just waiting to be used up!
So excited to try making these!!! Do you think I could try subbing browned butter for the melted butter? I can’t imagine browned butter being bad in anything, but I’m just wondering if it complicate them too much. I was also considering using browned butter in your Cranberry Bliss Bars (which I love).
Browned butter would be AMAZING in these! I didn’t call for it because sometimes that scares people off from making a recipe (they think they’re going to burn it or something) but it would be fabulous in these! Go for it!
In the Cran Bliss Bars…I would probably use melted just b/c I really want the delicate flavors of white choc and cranberry to shine rather than the nuttiness of the butter, but it’s a judgment call and you can’t go wrong either way.
Please LMK what you end up making!
These look perfect Averie! I love this blondie, pretzel, caramel combo you created!
Thanks, Jaclyn! I wish we could taste-test each other’s desserts. You have so many things I want to try!
Mmm I usually don’t love blondies because they’re typically cakey, but these look so dense and fudgy and yummy! Caramel and pretzels together are my weakness, so clearly I need to try these. How convenient I just bought a jar of that caramel sauce! :) Pinned!
Cakey comes from leavening agents, IMO. Either baking soda/powder and I use neither so they stay dense and ‘fudgdy’ like a brownie would!
And thanks for the Pin and enjoy your caramel sauce!
Sweet salty deliciousness!!