Ballpark Samoa Bars

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Ballpark Samoa Bars

One of my favorite cookies from last years November cookie marathon was the Easy Samoa Bars recipe that featured toasted coconut and caramel on a shortbread like base with a drizzle of chocolate. While I love coconut, I know that others are not so fond, so I wondered what else might work in this recipe. I've seen so many cookie recipes on Pinterest lately that use pretzels I decided to use those ...and what goes with pretzels? Peanuts of course! The result was crispy, crunchy, caramely delicious!

Ballpark Samoa Bars

Recipe by Barry C. Parsons

Ballpark Samoa Bars - a new take on delicious caramel samoa bars that replaces the toasted coconut with favorite ballpark snacks peanuts and pretzels.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Yield: About 3 dozen cookie bars.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 12 oz good quality chewy caramel candies
• 4 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups dry roasted unsalted peanuts
• 2 1/2 cups broken pretzel pieces broken pretzel pieces
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Directions

1. Cream together sugar, butter and vanilla until well combined.
2. Beat in the egg until fluffy.
3. Slowly fold in the flour.
4. Press into the bottom of a parchment lined 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees F for bout 25 minutes or until it gets golden brown at the edges and is well baked through the center of the pan.
5. Cool completely on a wire rack before adding the top layer.
6. For the top layer, melt together the caramel candies, milk and vanilla extract over low heat. You can also do this in the microwave. Just check it every 30-60 seconds and stir.
7. Stir in the peanuts and broken pretzel pieces.
8. Spread the peanut, pretzel and caramel mixture over the cooled shortbread base and cool in the fridge for a couple of hours before cutting into squares.
9. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. You can dip the bottoms of the squares in chocolate if you like or just drizzle the chocolate over the top of the squares, or both. Place dipped squares on parchment or waxed paper to cool completely until the chocolate hardens.