Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

This is a holiday favorite of mine. It's not a "holiday" dessert but I can never justify making this without having several people to share with. Great to stick in tins and give to coworkers!

THE INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup brown sugar

2 bags chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate but pick whatever you like)

1 bag of salted pretzels

Sea Salt

THE RECIPE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay your pretzels in a single layer.

Melt butter in a saucepan with brown sugar. Stir until it starts to bubble. Before its thickened completely, pour over your pretzels. The spoon or whisk should leave a trail in the caramel, but you don't want it thick enough to stick to the spoon.

Bake pretzels and caramel for 5-7 min, until the caramel has spread out over the bottom of the pan. Remove and poke any shifted pretzels back into place with a fork.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until completely smooth. Pour over the pretzels and smooth out with a spatula.

Sprinkle sea salt over the top of the chocolate.

Refrigerate 2 hours or until completely firm. Remove from pan and break apart into pieces (you really shouldn't eat the entire sheet whole, people might judge you).

Enjoy!

Belated Banana Bread

So. As I do with most projects I start, this one fell to the wayside. Like the way, way, wayside. Oops. Anyway, I've recently started baking A LOT (thanks, holidays) and I just made the most delicious banana bread ever. 

THE RECIPE

3 overripe bananas - I personally prefer when they're spotted brown, not completely

1 egg

1 tap vanilla extract

1 stick of salted butter

Dash of salt

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup flour + extra

3/4 cup sugar

Chopped pecans or walnuts

Smash bananas with a fork. Stir in egg, butter, and vanilla. Add salt and baking soda. Mix in sugar. Slowly fold in the flour. If the consistency is too runny, add a bit more flour until it's a batter consistency. Mix in the nuts. 

Bake at 350 in a ceramic bread dish for 25-35 min or until knife comes out of center of break clean. 

THE REVIEW

So, this was actually my third try at banana bread. I tried a couple of recipes and picked out the hints I liked. The first one was moist but rose WAY too much in the pan, which caused some unnecessary anxiety and required me to put a baking sheet under the pan which left my top a bit over-brown. I decided to cut out the baking powder and leave just the baking soda. My second bread came out good as well (I think it's just impossible to ruin banana bread) but it was a bit too dry for me. I reduced the flour and upped the butter for the third and final try and this one is perfect! It's so deliciously buttery and moist. The outside browned awesomely and is just sticky enough to leave you licking your fingers. Or fork. Or plate.

You can swap whatever nuts you prefer (or none, if you swing that way), but I found the flavor of pecans most complimentary to this mix. 

There's no picture because my family ate it all. So, sorry about that -- but I'm not complaining!