Take 5 Brittle

One of my favorite candy bars is a "Take 5", a delicious combo of pretzels, caramel, peanut butter and peanuts covered in chocolate! It is the perfect salty sweet combo! While experimenting with making my own, this was the result... I knew something about making caramel, but instead of the ooey gooey goodness of the Take 5's caramel, it came out more like a brittle. Still delicious! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
approx 3 cups of pretzels
12 TBS of crunchy peanut butter (I eyeball it)
1/2 cup peanuts
15 oz dark chocolate chips (1.5 bags of Nestle brand)
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Over medium/high heat, melt butter and brown sugar in a non stick pan, whisking until the butter is melted.

Once the butter has melted, stop whisking and let it come to a bubble. This happens quickly. Reduce the temperature to medium and set your timer for 5 minutes. Let the mixture bubble WITHOUT WHISKING for the entire time. While it's bubbling away, set up your pretzels on a foil lined rimmed cookie sheet (10X16).

Caramel starting to bubble.

Caramel near the end of 5 minutes.

When the timer beeps, remove the caramel from heat and slowly whisk. Then pour it as evenly as you can over the pretzels. You can carefully spread the caramel if needed, but the next step really spreads it all on its own.

Bake the pretzels for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and turn it off. Glob the peanut butter evenly across the surface of the hot caramel pretzels. Let it sit for about 2-3 minutes and it will start to melt from the carryover heat. Once it starts to melt, spread it over the entire surface of the pretzel/caramel mixture.

Sprinkle peanuts on top.

Sprinkle Chocolate Chips on top and then put the pan back in the oven for no more than 2 minutes. I have found the peanut butter isn't quite hot enough to melt the chocolate chips so that's why I throw it back in the (cooling) oven.

Spread the melted chocolate chips over the top. They will come out shiny and still look whole, but as you spread them they will mix in and melt. The peanut butter will mix slightly with the chocolate, but as you spread the chocolate will start to cover the peanut butter.

Sprinkle with Kosher Salt and cool on cooling rack for at least a half an hour. Once cool to the touch, place it in your freezer for at least two hours. Once frozen, remove from the pan by lifting out the aluminum foil. Cut into 1.5 inch squares and store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Happy Holidays!

~eem