Like any warm-blooded person with a penchant for sweets, chocolate + pretzels together is my weakness. If we’re grabbing treats for a movie, I always go for this combination. (Swedish fish and licorice for Nate. He doesn’t even know what tastes good.) I wanted to try my beloved go-to treat in a different form and bark seemed the perfect choice. It is easier and less time-consuming than making actual chocolate covered pretzels yet for some reason appears more elaborate. This is the perfect time of year for it, too, as bark can easily wrap up in parchment paper and twine for a delicious gift. I am completely obsessed now and want to try so many different combinations, although these dark chocolate + sea salt and milk chocolate + peanut butter flavors are refreshingly classic and simple. Just my kind.
And then, because the dark chocolate and sea salt combination turned out so delicious, I could not resist making a second round. This time I switched it up just a little with milk chocolate, creamy peanut butter, and pretzels. You guys, these were so good. I ate more than my fair share and couldn’t handle their presence in the house so gave both batches away immediately.
- Four cups chocolate chips (For the dark chocolate bark I used one cup milk chocolate, one cup semisweet chocolate, and two cups bittersweet. For the peanut butter bark, I used three cups milk chocolate and one cup semisweet chocolate.)
- Three teaspoons shortening
- 7-8 ounces pretzels
- Sea salt for sprinkling
- Eight ounces peanut butter
- Parchment paper
- Jelly roll pan
- Create a double boiler using a sauce pan and a heat proof bowl to place on top. Fill the saucepan with water and heat to boil. Place the chocolate and the shortening in the bowl.
- Stir the chocolate mixture frequently until melted. Meanwhile line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and scatter pretzels evenly on pan.
- When the chocolate is melted, pour over pretzels. Use a spatula to get all of the chocolate from the bowl and to spread it around over the pretzels. Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Refrigerate until cooled and hardened. Break the bark and enjoy!
- To make the peanut butter bark, place peanut butter in tablespoons onto parchment paper. Pour chocolate mixture over peanut butter and gently make figure-eights with spatula to create marbling. Place pretzels onto mixture and then refrigerate.
