Cubicle kitchen: Sweet and Salty Blondies

Knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Because now that I know the only thing needed to make caramel is a microwave and a can of sweetened condensed milk, which is something I pretty much always keep in stock in my pantry in case I need to make some fudge.

I had heard that I could make dulce de leche sauce by boiling the can itself, but I also read that there might be some reasons not to, like the risk of the can exploding if the water level became too low, or that the can itself might impart some not-nice things.  So when I found some examples of people taking the condensed milk out of the can and using the microwave, that seemed the best place for me to start.  I don't know why, but I still avoid double-boiling.  I'll get there eventually.

Now that I've hooked you with the caramel, let's take a step back to the true start of this treat: chocolate-covered pretzels.  Hmm, I could probably have hooked you with those as well, couldn't I?

A package of chocolate-covered pretzel rods were the first ingredient I had decided on.  I thought about using them to create a crust, but in the end went with something simpler so that I could take time for the second ingredient I had decided I would need: that caramel.  It just seemed to be the logical next step when you already had salty and sweet.  So I found a blondie recipe with pretzels and caramel and went from there.

Another success, and just the beginning of my love affair with this cheater's version of caramel.

Sweet and Salty Blondies
Recipe from Averie Cooks: Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies

My notes:

• Instead of 2 cups of mini pretzels, I chopped up 8 chocolate-covered pretzel rods, along with a few Rolos and mini Heath bars.
• I didn't have any caramel topping on hand, so instead I made my own following these instructions from The Perfect Pantry.  I had issues with the bubbling milk/caramel reaching the cling film and making a mess, so in the end I used a plastic tupperware with the lid askew on top.  Keep an eye on this, because if you take your eyes off of the microwave for more than a few seconds, you could have a very sticky mess.  Because you're going to bake this, you can under-'cook' it a little in this phase.  Also: you will have leftovers.  I'm sure you can figure out something to do with them.