Cookie Butter Nougat and Pretzel Candy Bar

This is a mashup of some of my favorite flavors. I’m a dark chocolate fan (not so keen on how sweet milk chocolate is), love marshmallows and loooove salty and sweet together. If you’re needing a fun and different treat to serve your kids on a picnic, or give your friends and family on a game night, these are the perfect dessert!

So, I don’t know if any of you have seen the super awesome cooking show Girl Meets Farm featuring Molly Yeh, but I love that show. While watching it the other day, I was inspired by a recipe of hers, called Candy Bar Salad. Soooo unique and different…and looked amazing! But, the problem was, I really didn’t like any of the ingredients that she chose to use in her candy bar. So, I figured, why not come up with my own!

Hence, the Cookie Butter Nougat and Pretzel Candy Bar!

I had a blast making these today. They’re really simple to make and taste divine! Sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy! Mmmmhmm!

So, keep reading and try them out!

Step 1: Ingredients

You’ll need crunchy cookie butter. Let me just say, if you’ve never had cookie butter, you are missing out. It’s splendid!

When I first heard about it, I was confused about what on earth cookie butter could be. But then I tried it and frankly I didn’t really care what it was! (PS: Still don’t really know!)

Well, I think you get how much I love cookie butter. Moving on. You’ll also need some marshmallow fluff, dark brown sugar, dark chocolate chips, powdered sugar, pretzels, butter and milk (sea salt if you want).

Step 2: Pretzel Layer

This candy bar has four layers. The first layer you’ll need to make is the pretzel layer. To start, you’ll need to break up four cups of pretzels and mix the pretzels with butter and brown sugar. Then pour the mixture it into your pan (I used a 9 by 12 inch pan but it really doesn’t matter the size. The smaller it is, the thicker your candy bars will be. The bigger it is, the thinner your bar will be).

You’ll need to line the pan with parchment paper and leave part of it sticking out so you can pull the pretzel layer out once they’ve cooled.

Pour the pretzels in the pan and pat them out to fill the pan. Then cook for 10 mins at 400 F. After removing from the over, you’ll need to stick the pan in the fridge for 30 mins so it can harden and stay together. Make sure you remove the pretzels from the pan using the parchment paper to get it out. Reline with parchment paper—-with wings again.

Step 3. Dark Chocolate Layer

Mmmmhmmm, I love dark chocolate. You’ll need to melt three cups of dark chocolate chips with a tablespoon of oil and pour it into the pan you’d used for the pretzels—-with the new parchment paper. Smooth the chocolate out and then carefully place the pretzel layer on top of the melted chocolate. Gently press down so that the pretzels will adhere to chocolate as the chocolate solidifies in the freezer. Stick the pan in the freezer for at least an hour. (Now, when I made it I didn’t put the pretzel layer on the chocolate until after the chocolate had frozen but I found that to be a problem later on!)

Step 4: Cookie Butter Nougat

So, yeah. I’m not going to lie. This is my favorite layer. It is so fluffy and chewy and tasty! Stir together 2.5 cups of marshmallow fluff, 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and 2/3 cup of crunchy cookie butter. The crunch in the cookie butter adds such a beautiful dimension to the nougat layer. Beware, it’ll be a bit difficult to stir together at first but just persevere and eventually it’ll look something like this.

Step 5: Combine The Layers

This is best part! Melt another 1.5 cups of dark chocolate chips and set aside to pour over the top. Grab the now solidified chocolate pretzel dish out of the freezer. You’ll need to wet your hands and then use your hands to press out the nougat mixture over the pretzel/chocolate layers. Once the nougat is evenly distributed, pour your melted chocolate over the top and spread evenly. Now, I like sea salt, so I sprinkled a bit of that over the chocolate.

And voila! Stick the pan in the fridge and let it harden together for about 2 hours.

Step 6: Eat!

Now you can eat it! When you pull it out of the fridge, use the wings from your parchment paper to pull your BIG candy bar out and cut into strips and then little squares. Trust me, this stuff is rich. You won’t need more than a square or two!

I had a blast making and eating these and I hope you do as well. Comment below if you have any other ideas or just to let me know how you like them!

Recipe

Servings: 24

Cook time: 4 hours

Prep time: 1 hour

Ingredients

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4 cups of crushed pretzels

1 cup of melted butter

4 tablespoons dark brown sugar (you can use light, I just prefer the caramel richness of dark)

4.5 cups of dark chocolate chips (you can substitute semi-sweet if you prefer)

1.5 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2.5 cups marshmallow fluff

2/3 cups of crunchy cookie butter

3 tablespoons milk

3 cups powdered sugar

Directions

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1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Crush up 4 cups of pretzels (not too much, but until the pretzels are small little bite size bits). Mix together the pretzels, butter and brown sugar. Pour the pretzels onto a 9 by 12 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Leave wings so you can pull the pretzel layer out! Make sure to press the pretzels out to fill the whole bottom of the pan. Stick in the fridge for 30 mins, then remove the pretzels with parchment paper out. Put new parchment paper in for the chocolate layer.

2. Melt three cups of dark chocolate and oil in pot. Pour into pan, spread it out and then place the pretzels on top of the melted chocolate. Press down gently so the two layers will stay together once solidified. Stick the pan into the freezer for at least one hour.

3. In the mean time, for nougat, stir together marshmallow fluff, crunchy cookie butter, milk and powdered sugar.

4. Press nougat layer (with wet hands) into your now solidified chocolate pretzel layer.

5. Melt the remaining dark chocolate and pour over the top of the nougat. Spread evenly and sprinkle with sea salt. Stick in the fridge for at least two hours. Then remove, cut into 24 little squares and enjoy!!!