Day 24: Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars

We knocked on a few doors before we got to one that someone answered. Actually the first place was an old lady and her grandson that answered the door and we said we're their neighbors and had some treats for them and he said "no thanks, we already have too much of that stuff" Whaaat? Atleast they could have taken it and tossed it.. jk I guess it's better not to waste. Anyway we went their their family's place next that just lives across the street. It was some people that we met last summer when our cat went missing. We knew where they lived already so decided to give them a visit. They just had their first grandaughter 3 weeks ago so they'll probably be visiting them in Sacramento this weekend. We went to their neighbor behind them next. They're were really nice too. Some people open the door really hesitantly kinda like, what do you want, but this guy had a big smile on his face. He lived there with his gf and she had a really cute 18 month old daughter.
I'm gonna be honest, my bars didn't turn out like this picture at all. (recipe and photo from cookiemassness). Visually they didn't look that great. However they tasted pretty good. With my oven I have to cook things 50 degrees less than a recipe calls for otherwise the outside will get too cooked the middle will be undone. So I baked these at 300 instead of 350 and the outside got dark and the middle was still kinda gooey. Maybe they just need to be baked at a lower temp. than what it calls for, you can try it at 350 and if it starts to cook to fast then turn it down. They also came out a lot more chocolatey than the ones in this photo look and I was hoping to taste the pretzels a little bit more. Maybe if I had left them in bigger pieces I would have.

Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

3/4 cups pretzels, broken

1 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup M&Ms (plain)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch metal pan with foil and spray with cooking spray (or use parchment).
Mix together the flour, soda and salt; set aside.
Beat the butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl. When light, beat in the vanilla. Add the egg and beat until it’s mixed, then gradually stir in the flour mixture, followed by the pretzel pieces, chocolate and M&Ms.
Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake on center rack for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely. Lift from pan and cut into bars.
Makes 12