I love to bake, but it's summer and baking can equal hot kitchen. I was super excited to find this great recipe for No-Bake Butterscotch Pretzel Bars. This recipe combined sweet and salty with three of my favorite ingredients- peanut butter, butterscotch, and pretzels. It was simple to make and a delicious treat. Basically there were three layers or steps. First, mixed together melted butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Then, add in the crushed pretzels. (I put mine in a ziploc bag and then roll with my rolling pin.) I spread this mixture in my foil lined pan. (Don't skip the foil step, it makes clean up so much easier.) The next step was to heat the butterscotch chips and cream on the stovetop until it melted. The key to this step is constant stirring over low heat to avoid burning the butterscotch chips. (I learned this during my teaching days. Burnt butterscotch chips are so gross.) Once it was melted, I spread it on the pretzel mix, which was a little messy, but overall fine. Finally, I crushed more pretzels and mixed in some peanuts and sprinkled that on top. Then, I refrigerated it for a few hours to allow it to set. Mike and I loved it. It was the perfect mix of sweet and salty. The only downside was that it was a little bit crumbly, but Cecil didn't mind that too much. My favorite part of baking or no baking in this case, is sharing with others. This time I took some to my friend, Suzanne, and some went to Mike's work. This recipe is a perfect fast summer treat and is wonderful if you can't decide if you want sweet or salty.

The New Austonian