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Oh and yes, there is so some brown butter in that cookie dough too.
Is anyone else so excited for Halloween?
Because I am! I have always loved Halloween, but not for the reasons you think. I was “too cool” for tricker treating by like seventh grade, but for me it was, and still is, not all about the candy.
Yeah right! Like anyone believes that. It’s maybe a lot about the candy. I mean anytime I get to buy Reese’s in the shape of pumpkins is a happy time. I am such a sucker for holiday gimmicks. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are my true weaknesses. Well, Thanksgiving does not really have any candy or super fun decorations, but there is the food. I kind of go all out with the Thanksgiving feast, so that is always yummy to look forward to.
Halloween though is all fun.
Fun food, fun costumes, fun Halloween movies. Little kids dressed up in the cutest costumes and of course, the excuse to eat Halloween candy all month… I mean all night, long. It’s good holiday.
Speaking of cute kids and their Halloween costumes, Asher has the world’s cutest costume this year.
Seriously, parents of young girls, listen up.
The Batarina.
You guys, I love this costume!
Where was this costume when I was younger?!? I think I was a witch for three years in a row, a pumpkin one year and then one year my cousin, Matt who is the same age as me, my younger brother and I were Oompa Loompas. Being an Oompa Loompa was the highpoint of my Halloween costumes. Kind of lame, I know.
But anyway, Asher looks so incredibly cute in this costume. She got striped purple tights to go underneath and little black heels that are the true topper to the outfit.
Yeah, I did say little black heels. That was all her idea, the girl is crazy and only five and she wants to wear heels already? My parents are in for a real good time with this one. I am telling you, she is going to be a wild one.
So seriously, if you guys are looking for a cute costume you have to check out the Batarina. SO cute. I am still dying over it, and also a little jealous that I am way too old to pull this costume off. Sometimes I so want to be five again!
Oh and another highlight of my Halloween’s past?
Avalon Drive and the houses that gave out the Malley’s Bars. Possibly one of the best parts of Cleveland, Ohio. Malley’s rules and jeez, I miss it! Actually, I don’t really since we actually order chocolate off their website and have it sent all the way out to Colorado. Yes, it is THAT good. Check them out too!
Unfortunately, I am currently out of Malley’s Chocolate Bars, the one and only thing that would have made these bars better.
These bars are insanely good. You are going to love them. It is everything you love about a Snickers bar, the nougat layer, the caramel and all the chocolate. But then I went and added a nice big layer of browned butter cookie dough. Yup, yup, yup! Cookie dough Snickers!
It’s incredible.
But then I went to take photos and they just needed a little something on top. Something fun and crunchy and maybe salty to go with all that caramel.
Enter the pretzels.
Pretzels, chocolate, caramel, nougat, COOKIE DOUGH! Guys, there are no words. Just so good.
There is a total of five layers, plus the pretzels topping so they take a couple of hours to fully come together, but the steps are simple and they are the perfect fall treat. And this may sound weird, but they are really good with a side of crispy honeycrisp apples. It’s like a Snicker cookie dough caramel apple. Oh man, does that just sound awesome? Ah huh, it does.
Happy Friday, indeed!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pretzel Snickers Bars
Servings: 20 bars
Calories Per Serving: 395 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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Ingredients
Bottom Layer
- 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips or can sub dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Nougat layer
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup canned coconut milk or regular milk
- 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff
- 1 cup salted peanuts chopped roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Caramel
- 1 (14 ounce) bag of caramels
- 1/4 cup coconut milk or cream
Brown Butter Cookie Dough Layer
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream or coconut milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 -3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Top chocolate layer
- 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips or can sub dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup pretzels twist or sticks
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips melted
Instructions
- Thoroughly grease a 9x13 inch-baking pan. Melt 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips with 1/4-cup peanut butter in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into the baking dish and spread until even. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- While the chocolate hardens make the nougat layer. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in marshmallow fluff and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes or 15 minutes in the fridge.
- Make the caramel. Combine the caramels and cream in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth, this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely, about 10 minutes.
- Make the Cookie Dough. In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat until just browned. Butter will melt, foam, and froth, then begin to brown along the bottom. Whisk browned bits off of the bottom of the pan and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl. Allow to cool 10 minutes.
- To the bowl add the brown sugar, cream or coconut milk and vanilla. Beat until combined, fluffy and light in color. Beat in the flour and salt until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread the cookie dough over the caramel layer, be carful not to press too hard into the caramel. You don't want to mix the two layers.
- Melt 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips with 1/4-cup peanut butter in a saucepan, or just microwave them, pour over caramel and spread until even. Sprinkle with the pretzels and drizzle with the remaining melted chocolate. Let cool and harden completely.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, then cut as desired. These can stay at room temperature, but they do get soft and gooey. My family personally likes them best kept in the fridge, but left out for 15 minutes or so before eating!
Notes
Snicker's base adapted from How Sweet It Is.
So Halloween? You guys down?
Do these freeze well? Or does the nougat become tough?
Hey Emma,
The nougat will become hard, so if you want to freeze you will also want to thaw before eating:) Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
it Isn’t safe to eat raw flour. Shouldn’t it be cooked?
Hi! I have not heard it is unsafe to eat raw flour, but if you are concerned I would recommend using an equal amount of almond flour. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan ??
Amazing dessert. Had a little trouble with the caramel but super delicious. It is dangerously rich however.
Thank you so much! xTieghan
This were so disappointing… look great on the site, but after reading the comments regarding the nougat layer, made sure we had the right ingredients… fluff not creme. Even put the cookie dough layer second from bottom and moved nougat layer over caramel to reduce weight… end result was way too runny. Unpresentable. A challenge to cut. Froze to reduce nougat melting, but then caramel got too hard. Taste good, but very labour intensive for a disappointing end product. I’d use another nougat recipe or remove the nougat all together.
Hi Carmen! I am so sorry to hear that! I hope you love some other recipes on my site and please let me know if you have any questions about this one!
My sister, a fairly strict vegan, ate these on two separate occasions…that’s how good they are. They may not be vegan but she said they were the best thing she had eaten in a looong time!
YES!! I am so happy to hear you all enjoyed these! Thank you Molly!
This was really delicious! Definitely very sweet. Like… Really. Haha. But really good! Took it to a church potluck and the few small bits that were left got attacked by the paws of 4 small children as they crowded around and picked at it like vultures to a carcass. Haha. One woman literally dragged her two kids away from it and one of them started wailing and cried “but I want iittt!!!”
I kept freezing each layer as I made it and had no problems, which makes me think this would freeze well! I might add some crushed pretzels onto the bottom/first chocolate layer next time too and use semisweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate. But overall it went well and it was very easy and not too tedious at all despite having 5 layers. Plus I like that nothing was an exact science like baking things tend to be. It’s very forgiving. Would definitely make again! =)
P. S. I had no problems with the instructions. They were very clear to me =) The dough was not oily for me at all; it was definitely an eggless cookie dough texture. And like I said I just put the dish in the freezer for a while after adding each layer, and even the caramel in the fridge before pouring. So a suggestion for people making this: after you finish each layer, put the dish in the freezer until that layer has become kinda solid. Typically by the time I was done the next layer I could take it out again… Like 10 minutes usually. So not completely frozen but definitely stiff, which made spreading the next layer on much easier and prevented the messy merging of two layers.
I am so happy you enjoyed these bars and they turned out amazing! Thank you Kat!
This sounds amazing. The pictures make it look amazing!!
Is there a step missing? 3/4 cup butter (that is browned)…
“While the caramel layer cools make the cookie dough. In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan add the remaining butter, melt butter over medium heat until just browned.”
Was there supposed to be a dividing of the butter for the cookie dough layer? My cookie dough layer looks like I used oil (which browned butter is) and mixed it with sugar and flour – not as appetizing as cookie dough.
Hi Naomi! I am so sorry for any confusion. This cookie dough recipe uses 1 1/2 sticks of butter that you melt and turn into browned butter. I fixed the recipe that is a little more clear. Let me know if you have questions. Hope you love the bars! 🙂
and i dont understand…
“While nougat layer cools make the caramel layer. Combine the caramels and cream in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth, this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely, about 10 minutes.” where we will cool? a refrigerator? freezer? room temperature?
Every layer I chilled in the fridge. They’ve worked fine except I’m having issues with the cookie dough layer. And I chilled some layers longer than the recommended times without issue. I so want this recipe to work great. I’ll be trying it again.
I think I’ll brown 1/4 cup of the butter, and use the 1/2 cup as softened butter.
Good luck.
So sorry for the trouble. I am not sure why your dough is turning out so oily. Did you by chance burn the butter? This can cause it to not incorporate properly into the dough.
Hope these ended up working out they way you did it!