Pretzel Nutella Bars

Remember the nutella we made the other day? Well wouldn’t you know it I had some leftover. I know, sounds crazy. What, with my eating habits, and the awesome deliciousness of nutella, you would think it would have been gone the second I found a spoon. But it was still around. Truth be told, I blame it on my mother. You see my mom never had nutella in the house when we were growing up! I know! After I had it for the first time, I told her she’s lucky I love her, because depriving your child of nutella is grounds for child abuse.

Anyway, I saw this recipe on Dula Notes blog, and figured, what the heck, let’s do it.

Ok this recipe is really simple. Start by smashing some pretzels. You don’t want them too fine, but nice and chunky. Then melt a stick of margarine, and let it cool, while you get your brown sugar, white sugar, and nutella. When the margarine is l.l. cool-j, mix the sugars, nutella and margarine all together.

Add in your egg and vanilla, and then add in your flour and salt, and mix, until it just combines, but don’t over mix (you know, it’s the same old shpiel, mixing forms gluten, yada yada yada, gluten=toughness, yada yada yada, as we’ve seen before here, and here)

Now we’re ready to add le piece de resistance, the crushed pretzels. So go ahead, and mix in 1/2 of the crushed pretzels…now, and mix it gently, just to combine it all together.

Gather yourself your finest square cake pan, and spray it down nice and good with some pam, and put a piece of parchment on top of that, and spray it again! Crazy I know, but it’s better than the alternative.

Next pour the batter in your pan, and since the batter is pretty thick, you’re gonna need to nudge it to the edges

 

Then sprinkle the remaining crushed pretzels on top, and for good measures I also sprinkled on some more brown sugar, so do it…do it.

Do it.

Anyway, bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, and Bob’s your uncle, or Robert is your mother’s brother…v’hamayvin yavin.

Pretzel Nutella Bar

adapted from Dulla Notes

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted margarine, melted
• 1/2 C. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 C. granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. Homemade Nutella (or other hazelnut spread)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1 c. flour
• 1 t. kosher salt
• 1 C. crushed pretzels (break into smallish pieces, but not too small)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8×8 baking pan with pam, line with a sheet of parchment leaving a 2″ overhang on both edges. Pam the parchment paper also.
2. In a large bowl, whisk melted margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and Nutella until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 C. of crushed pretzels. Transfer batter to prepared pan and spread in an even layer with a spatula. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/2 C. of crushed pretzels, and brown sugar.
3. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-30 min. Set pan on a wire rack and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift bars from pan and transfer to a cutting board.