There’s just something about the combination of salty and sweet that’s just so addictive; I can’t describe it. I’m not really into anything like chocolate-covered potato chips (my tastes often veer towards the traditional) but anything that involves salted caramel, or anything like these tasty bars below is totally my jam. Or my salt. Or whatever.

Pretzel-Shortbread Bars (makes about 2 dozen)

3 1/4 cups salted miniature twist pretzels

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg yolk

Preheat oven to 325F. While it’s pre-heating, pulse 1 ¾ c. pretzels in a food processor until powdery. Transfer 1/2 cup to a bowl; discard any remaining pretzel powder. Stir in flour and baking powder. Transfer remaining 1 1/2 cups pretzels to food processor, and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped.

B’s Tip: Don’t have a food processor? Do it the old-fashioned way like I did and crush the pretzels a handful at time by placing them in a sealed Ziploc bag and grinding them down with a potato masher. To make the powder, strain crushed pretzels through a sieve. Just return any remaining pretzel pieces to the bag and repeat the process until you have enough pretzel powder to mix in with your flour.

In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk, then pretzel-flour mixture, bit by bit until well combined. Mix in 1/2 cup chopped pretzels. Grease a 4 1/4-by-13 1/2-inch fluted tart pan or pie plate and line the bottom with parchment. Press dough evenly into pan and top dough with 1/4 cup chopped pretzels, pressing slightly. Discard any remaining pretzels. Bake until pale brown and firm in the center, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack, and let shortbread cool for 1 hour. Remove shortbread from pan, and cut into 1/2-inch-wide rectangles using a serrated knife.

B’s Tip: If you’re super organized and want to get things done ahead of time you can store these babies at room temperature for up to one week.

I have to admit- this was my first time making shortbread and it actually ended up being way easier than I thought. Sure, this recipe requires a fair amount of assembling, but the most difficult part was keeping them out of my mouth long enough to let my photographer shoot them for the blog!

Happy baking!

B

Baking with B appears every other Monday on the Keeping Busy with B Blog. Find out why I like baking so much here. For more of my baking, click here. And for even more recipe inspiration, check out my Pinterest full of food eye candy that will have you licking your computer. Promise.