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You are here: Home / Baked Elements / In the Oven: Bale Bars

In the Oven: Bale Bars

January 25, 2014 by Sheri

Posting date is February 2!

Yield: 24 bars

1 1⁄2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1⁄3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1⁄3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fleur de sel, divided
8 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon plus 1 1⁄2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided
3⁄4 cup crunchy peanut butter (see page 26)
3⁄4 cup (about 4 ounces) salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
3 cups (about 81⁄2 ounces) salted thin pretzel sticks, crushed into small pieces

Lightly spray a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper, allowing the parchment to overhang on two sides.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, cream, and 1⁄2 teaspoon fleur de sel. Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a low boil for about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the white chocolate and 1 tablespoon of the vanilla. Stir until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is melted. Add the remaining 1⁄2 teaspoon fleur de sel, remaining 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla, and the peanut butter and stir until the mixture is completely smooth and uniform.

Place the peanuts and pretzels in a large bowl and use your hands to toss together until mixed well. Pour the white chocolate mixture over the peanut mixture and stir to coat all of the pieces. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, then, using lightly oiled hands, press the mixture into an even layer. Refrigerate until hard, about 90 minutes.

Lift the bars out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang and cut them into squares. Bars can be served at room temperature, though we like them best directly from the refrigerator (or even the freezer). The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 3 days.

Excerpted from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copyright © 2012 by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Filed Under: Baked Elements, In the Oven Tagged With: bars, elements, peanut butter

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Comments

  1. Liz says

    January 25, 2014 at 7:29 am

    I made these last weekend-very easy and incredibly addictive!

  2. Mark - Neufangled Desserts says

    January 25, 2014 at 6:26 pm

    Just made these. In the fridge… grrrrross! All those peanuts. I can tell this won’t be a personal favorite. Yuck!

  3. Erin* says

    January 26, 2014 at 5:25 pm

    I’m making these for Super Bowl which means posting day is Sunday Feb 2nd yes?!

    • Sheri says

      January 26, 2014 at 7:17 pm

      Yep (fixed!).

  4. Robyn says

    January 29, 2014 at 10:52 am

    Just to clarify…all the recipes in the peanut butter chapter should use natural peanut butter (i.e. no sugar added), right?

    • Sheri says

      February 1, 2014 at 8:13 pm

      Good question – I used Skippy Super Chunk! All my food snobbiness goes out the door when it comes to desserts with peanut butter. :)

  5. SandraM says

    January 29, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    Well, I made these tonight. And they just fell apart when cutting into them. Not sure what I did wrong.

    • Mark ~ Neufangled Desserts says

      January 30, 2014 at 7:49 pm

      They’re kind of brittle. This recipe was just an overall NO for me. They’re not very attractive either!

      • SandraM says

        January 31, 2014 at 3:20 am

        But they are super awesome (if you like peanuts), broken up and mixed into ice cream!!

        • Sheri says

          February 1, 2014 at 8:15 pm

          I wonder if there are too many pretzels in the recipe. I only had 6.5 oz. of pretzels so that’s all I used. I held back on adding all of the white chocolate mixture, but ended adding it all because it seemed like it could use it. Mine held together great.

        • SandraM says

          February 2, 2014 at 6:02 am

          I was wondering about the pretzels too. It did seem like a lot.

  6. Yael Even says

    February 1, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Mine came out fantastic… no problems and everyone loves them!

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