Patriotic Pretzel Bars are sweet and salty treat and easy dessert to celebrate the Fourth of July!
Happy July!
Patriotic Pretzel Bars are an easy dessert with sweet and salty layers
to celebrate the red, white and blue!
Who doesn’t like an easy dessert?
These Patriotic Pretzel Bars are a variation of Magic Cookie Bars,
(also known as 7 Layer Cookie Bars or Hello Dollies),
and come together in 10 minutes, with 30 minutes of baking time.
They cut best with 2 hours of cooling or chilling time.
I picked up some red, white and blue M&Ms and Olympic Oreos that are a
Limited Edition, with red, white and blue creme layers.
Salted peanuts help balance the sweet candy and sweetened condensed milk
in these bars, but feel free to use the nuts of your choice.
Instead of a traditional graham cracker crust,
pretzel crumbs provide a salty crust and layer.
You can adjust these bars easily to your taste!
Add a few crushed pretzels to the layer to up the salt factor if you like.
Place half your candy, chocolate chips, nuts and cookies on top of the pretzel crust.
Drizzle with sweetened condensed milk, pouring as evenly as possible.
Don’t worry if it doesn’t cover all your ingredients completely.
Top the sweetened condensed milk with your remaining ingredients.
Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly brown.
For easy removal and cutting of bars, line your pan with parchment paper.
When bars are cool, use parchment to remove them from the pan and cut into bars.
These bars are sweet and rich!
You can easily get 24 bars, cutting them into smaller pieces than I did to photograph them.
Optional: Sprinkle more M&M’s on top of bars after they come out of oven,
pressing down slightly so to they adhere to the warm bars.
Layered Patriotic Pretzel Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups pretzel crumbs about 3 cups of pretzels
- 1/2 cup salted butter melted
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 8 Oreos broken into small pieces
- 1 cup M&Ms plus more for sprinkling on top
- 1 cup salted peanuts roughly chopped
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Place pretzels in food processor fitted with steel blade. Process until the pretzels are fine crumbs. Pour in melted butter and pulse to combine.
- Press pretzel crumb mixture evenly into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle half of chocolate chips, M&M’s, peanuts and Oreos pieces over the top of the cookie layer.
- Pour sweetened condensed milk over the top, covering as evenly as possible. Don’t worry if not covered completely.
- Layer with the remaining chips, nuts, M&M's and Oreos.
- Press down on layers with back of spatula to help submerge.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly brown. Allow bars to cool in pan completely. Optional, after cooling bars for 30 minutes, place pan in fridge to speed up cooling and allow to set.
- When completely cool, use parchment paper to remove from pan and cut into bars.
Notes
- Speed up cooling process by placing bars in refrigerator and for easier cutting.
- We like these bars chilled especially in the heat of summer, but they’re good at room temperature and will keep covered on the counter for up to 4 days…if they last that long. :)
- If you don’t have a food processor, crush pretzels with a rolling pin in a plastic zip top bag.
- Substitute nuts of choice for peanuts.
- Optional: Add some broken pretzel pieces to the layered mix if desired.
- Optional: Sprinkle more M&M’s on top of bars after they come out of oven, pressing down so they adhere and melt into warm bars.
We like these bars chilled especially in the heat of summer,
but they’re good at room temperature and will keep covered on the counter for up to 4 days. . .
if they last that long!
Find more red, white and blue food fun and a round-up of
25+ Patriotic and Party treats for your Star-Spangled Celebration, HERE.
Thank you for your visit, sharing with:
Fun variation on the 7 layer bars! Happy Independence Day!
I can’t wait to try these for our July 4th celebration! Thanks!!
Perfect for the 4th. My beloved mom always made Hello Dolly squares. Have a wonderful weekend, Mary ♥️🇺🇸💙
VERY PATRIOTIC!! YUM!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
PERFECT! Will enjoy making these with our 7 year old grandson today! He and I made the famous Bunny Bark for Easter and he’s been asking to duplicate it! Just showed him the pics of the Patriotic Pretzel Bars and his eyes lit up! On our way to get the ingredients!!! Thanx for sharing!
Mary, thank you so very much for the wonderful Peony bundle. The book is a feast for the eyes, love the soap and the pink floral scissors. Christmas in June for me.
You’re welcome Donna, enjoy! ♥
We are making these for sure, what a fun of 4th of July treat
These look delicious Mary. Thanks for sharing. Happy 4th! Clara❤️
Wow! Those sure are a patriotic dessert a d would be fun to bring to a party. I made a seven layer bar last week to take to a Mexican themed party, but used dulce de leche instead of the sweetened condensed milk. Happy 4th, Mary!
A fun patriotic dessert! Going to be my dessert for the 4th!
How festive and I’m sure they create a happy explosion in your mouth! 😁 We can always count on you to give us the best holiday treats, thank you Mary! Hope you have a wonderful, safe holiday and if boating, have extra fun for me and hugs the pups too! ♥️🐾🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thanks ~Mary~ looks yummy !! May I just put in an order !? haha
Happy 4th ! Stay cool :)
Paula
IN
Layer bars are my favorite kind of cookie dessert to make and this is a great combo! I was just wishing yesterday that I had some red, white and blue M & Ms! Have a wonderful 4th Mary!
Jenna
Looks yummy!
Wishing you and the girls a festive 4th, and hopefully one that is quiet for your sweet girls. Sadie will be snuggled in my lap if it gets loud here.
Happy 4th, Mary!