Frito Candy
As I previously mentioned, I went a little overboard with food for our Beirut finals. In addition to the pizza roll that I made, I also made this Frito Candy.
When you say Frito Candy, people look at you kind of funny, like what the heck is Frito Candy. But, if you have a piece in your hand to give them to try, they will love you. I have always enjoyed mixing sweet and salty together so I knew it would be a hit. I opened the candy container and this stuff was gone within 5 minutes.
Sweet Salty Frito Candy (from Cookie Madness)
2 cups pretzels
1 cup Fritos
8 mini peanut butter cups
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips – I used dark chocolate chips
Optional: Chopped peanuts for the top
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a 13×9 inch pan with parchment paper or no-stick foil.
Crush pretzels. You can use a food processor to chop, or just throw them in a ziploc bag and crush with your hands or a meat tenderizer. Add Fritos to processor/bag and break them up with pretzels. Dump into pan. Unwrap peanut butter cups and throw them in the mix (I broke them in half first).
Place butter in a non-stick saucepan and melt over medium heat. When butter is melted, stir in brown sugar. Bring mixture to a full boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring once or twice. Pour over Frito mixture and bake for 8 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over hot candy. Return to oven for 1 minute to soften chips. Spread softened chocolate chips over bars. Add chopped nuts if you would like to.
Cool at room temperature until you feel the pan is cool enough to be transferred to your refrigerator, then transfer to refrigerator to set the chocolate. When chocolate is set, lift from pan and break the candy up as you would almond toffee. You can eat it cold or let it come back down to room temp.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Awesome look mac and cheese! I love that Alton Brown!
Your site is great, just spent far too long snooping around your site, everything is beautiful!
I bet you don’t hear this too often, but I think I’m actually jealous of your lactose intolerance! The reason I don’t make mac n cheese (like, ever) is that I can eat way too much of it. If only I had a reason that would really force me to stop! (apparently my own willpower is not enough!)
I definitely rarely hear that one Cara! It does come in handy sometimes (like being around mac and cheese or cheesecake), but I definitely do miss ice cream…
Wow that mac n cheese looks heavenly! It is definitly one of my favorite foods of all time!
That is some beautiful mac and cheese!!
This is a favorite recipe of mine as well. Like you we like to add a variety of cheeses to the recipe.
This looks SO good! Can’t wait to try! Thanks! 🙂
This looks great! I love mac and cheese and doing it on the stove top makes it even easier 🙂
I have made this recipe a few times and it is great! I like that you used different cheeses. I need to try that next.
I’m a huge sucker for macaroni and cheese and am always looking for new recipes. Maybe I will try this out tonight. Thanks!
That looks delicious. I remember watching that episode on TV with “his nephew” who looked exactly like him, ha ha.
I’ve meaning to ask you this since you’re also a big fan of AB. In his book “I’m just here for MORE food”, there’s a choc fudge cake recipe. In it, there are instructions to combine cocoa powder with hot water. The amount of hot water says “tk”. Any idea what that could possibly mean??? It’s been bugging me quite some time!
Alton’s recipes are all solid. I haven’t mad eone that disappointed.
Homemade mac & cheese is the only way to go. Thanks for passing along the recipe. It’s much simpler than the one I normally make.
~ingrid
I made this recipe today…so good! I doubled it and I just hope it’s enough. This is so creamy and cheesy! Thank you for sharing.
My friend had that problem his entire life until he drank (pet) milk. That would be unpasteurized. Seems that the enzymes needed to digest the stuff comes from the original product.