Candy Recipe: The Kitchen Sink Bar

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - by Robby

I am a sucker for sales. Candy, clothes, puppies (well, I’ve never really seen a puppy sale, but you can bet if there were such a thing, I would be driving home with a car full of them) – you name it, I’ll buy it.

On a recent grocery trip to my local H.E.B., I stumbled across one of their super saver sales where you buy one product and get a whole bunch of others for free. In this case, if you bought a chocolate or vanilla white chocolate coating, you would also receive a bag of pretzels, pecans, and marshmallows on the house.

I didn’t really need any of those things, but I figured I am always in need of chocolate for my recipes, so stocking up seemed like a good idea. Undecided about whether I wanted to purchase the milk chocolate or white chocolate variety, I bought both and thus had two of all the freebies.

Once I got home and the sale-high wore off, I realized I was stuck with a lot of food I don’t usually eat. If only there were some way to combine them all…. Could it be possible? I mean, pretzels, marshmallow, pecans, and chocolate don’t seem like they all gel together, but who has tried them all at once? Putting my culinary wits to the test, I was determined to come up with a confectionery treat that utilized them all. The result? My January candy recipe of the month I call the Kitchen Sink Bar.

Essentially, my vision for this candy is a nouveau version of the classic Rice Krispies Treat. I know a lot of my recipes seem overly complicated, but this one is ridiculously simple. If you can make a Rice Krispies Treat, this will give you no problem at all.

What You Will Need

• 15oz Bag of Pretzels (preferably salted and the stick variety)
• 10oz Bag of Marshmallows (I used a strawberry and classic mix bag because that’s what I got in the combo, but regular ones should work well too)
• ½ Cup of Pecans (chopped, unsalted)
• 8oz of Milk or White Chocolate (though I photographed the white package, I ended up using the milk)
• 2 Tbsp of Butter
• Parchment/Wax Paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Spatula
• Double Boiler
• Plastic Bag
• Rolling Pin
• Large Saucepan

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. As it warms, line the cookie sheet with wax paper and set place pecans on the sheet. Let the pecans toast for about 5-7 minutes.

Step 2. Place the pretzels into a large Ziploc bag, and then seal the bag. Go over the bag with the rolling pin to crunch up the pretzels into small pieces.

Step 3. Melt the butter in the saucepan over a low flame.

Step 4. When the butter is melted, add the bag of marshmallows and continuously stir until the marshmallows all melt into a gooey liquid.

Step 5. Add the pecans and pretzels to the mix and stir until evenly distributed.

Step 6. Remove the saucepan from the flame and scoop the mixture onto the lined cookie tray with the spatula. Let it cool for 15-30 minutes.

Step 7. Set up the double boiler and temper the chocolate.

Step 8. Pour the melted chocolate over the cooled confection. Let it cool for an additional 5 minutes.

Step 9. Slice and enjoy!

I was skeptical about how these would taste, but I was honestly blown away by them. The combination of crunchy, salty, sweet, and chocolate is soooooooooooo good. Even the fact that those pink strawberry marshmallows were in the mix added a funky, but enjoyable flavor twist. I didn’t think I would like them, but these babies are going down in my recipe book.