Pinterest continues to be my favorite place to find new recipes for any occasion. Christmas this year was no different, as Pinterest provided me with several recipes that really have been a hit. The candy most-liked by family, friends and co-workers is a melt-in-your-mouth piece of heaven called Salted Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Bark. Five easy ingredients probably already sitting on your pantry shelves or in your fridge: pretzels, chocolate chips, brown sugar, butter and salt. Blogger Mel (melskitchencafe.com) is absolutely correct when she calls this “some of the most addictive faux-candy known to man.” Seriously, I dare you to eat just one piece.

And it’s so incredibly easy to make. Layer a cookie sheet (if you’re smart, you’ll double the recipe and make two pans) with pieces of pretzels. Melt brown sugar and butter, drizzle it over the pretzels and bake for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the hot pretzel-brown sugar-butter mixture, let them melt for a minute or three, then spread the chocolate out. Sprinkle with (sea) salt.

Boom. You’re done. Let it cool, then break it into pieces and enjoy. After the first bite melts in your mouth, you’ll either be glad you followed my suggestion to double the recipe or kicking yourself because you didn’t. Because it will be gone quickly. Even if you’re the only one eating it😉.

The other really-easy-but-really-good candy recipe I found on Pinterest is called Christmas Bark Cookie Crunch. Yep, another bark. Though this one has white chocolate and a few more ingredients. In addition to the white chocolate, this lovely concoction has Oreo cookies, miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups, peanut butter chips, peanut M&Ms (red and green, of course!), pretzels and Christmas sprinkles.
You can see by looking at my batch (above) that it isn’t quite as pretty as the bark in the Pinterest recipe. Believe me, though, it tastes great. That is if you like peanut butter, chocolate, peanuts and pretzels! And who doesn’t, right? 

You can’t go wrong with either of these recipes — I know they will be on my Christmas candy list again next year. Maybe sooner!Mint Bar update: On Christmas Eve, I wrote about not remembering which of three Mint Bar recipes I used last Christmas from my Pinterest candy board. I chose the one I thought it was, but then when I was making the Mint Bars, they just didn’t look right. Well, I’m happy to report that they turned out just fine. The cake/brownie portion of the bar is a bit thicker than I would have liked it, but they still taste really yummy.

A successful Christmas candy season all around, I’d say. And while I’m thinking about it, maybe I’ll wander over to my Pinterest candy board and make a few notes for next year!