Thursday, March 19, 2009

Sweet & Salty Frito Candy

I saw this on the linked blog a few months back and thought it looked interesting and delicious - Frito's and chocolate? Not your usual pairing. It's a super easy recipe to make and is a real treat. I can't think of anything appropriate to compare it to - it's not quite like peanut brittle, not quite like toffee. I'll probably add a touch more Frito's and a bit less pretzels next time I make it, as I enjoyed the Frito bites the most. Also, I may reduce the amount of filler ingredients - the pretzels, Fritos, pb cups - a bit because I didn't feel there was quite enough of the butter/brown sugar mixture to go around. Overall, this was a successful and unusual treat!
Sweet Salty Frito Candy

2 cups pretzels
1 cup Fritos
8 mini peanut butter cups
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional: Chopped peanuts for the top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 13×9 inch pan with parchment paper or no-stick foil. Crush pretzels. You can use a food processor to chop, or just throw them in a ziploc bag and crush with your hands or a meat tenderizer. Add Fritos to processor/bag and break them up with pretzels. Dump into pan. Chop peanut butter cups into quarters and throw them in the mix. Place butter in a non-stick saucepan and melt over medium heat. When butter is melted, stir in brown sugar. Bring mixture to a full boil and boil for one minute, stirring once or twice. Pour over Frito mixture and bake for 8 minutes.Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over hot candy. Return to oven for 1 minute to soften chips. Spread softened chocolate chips over bars. Add chopped nuts if you would like to.Cool at room temperature until you feel the pan is cool enough to be transferred to your refrigerator, then transfer to refrigerator to set the chocolate. When chocolate is set, lift from pan and break the candy up as you would almond toffee. You can eat it cold or let it come back down to room temp.

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