Salted Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Bark

Mmmmm. . .Salted Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Bark has to be the best thing that's happened to my taste buds in a long time!  This treat was served at our church's Christmas Coffee on Monday night, along with cheesecake with homemade chutney toppings and gingersnaps cookies.  Once I tasted the bark, the other desserts had little appeal. The combination of dark chocolate, toffee flavor, and sea salt is amazing - practically addictive!  And the recipe is easy to make!  Great for gift-giving, too.  

INGREDIENTS:
About 8 ounces (half of a 1-pound bag) mini pretzels, broken into smaller pieces, more or less to cover the pan
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 cups (one 12-ounce bag) semisweet chocolate chips
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 11X17-inch rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Cover the bottom of the pan in a layer of broken mini pretzels. Set aside.

In a small or medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and brown sugar. When the mixture starts to gently simmer and bubble, let it cook for 3 minutes without stirring. Immediately pour the hot caramel mixture over the pretzels in a back and forth motion to cover most of the pretzels (a few empty/dry spots are fine as the caramel will fuse together during baking).

Bake for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top of the hot caramel and pretzels. Let the chocolate chips sit for 2-3 minutes until they melt. Use an offset spatula or rubber spatula to gently spread the melted chocolate over the toffee. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt.

Let the toffee cool completely at room temperature then refrigerate if needed to help the chocolate set up. Break the toffee into pieces and try not to eat the whole batch.