Fritos, Peanut Butter, & Chocolate? A Recipe Divine!

          A few years ago, a friend of mine brought a dessert to work that was quirky, surprising, and the next thing to addictive. It was a whole Pyrex baking dish of chewy, gooey peanut caramel layered over a bed of Fritos corn chips and drizzled with melted chocolate. It did take some effort to cut off a square and pry it out of the glass dish, but it was certainly worth it. Particularly for someone such as myself who doesn't really care for Fritos.

          I had forgotten all about that scrumptious treat until the other day when I was informed that I needed to show up at my Sewful Sisters group with cookies, bars, or some sort of sweets. We are going to do the big cookie exchange.

          There were oodles of variations of the coveted recipe online. I read through them, but decided that I wanted to do things a little differently. The first issue that definitely needed to be tackled was getting those puppies to come out of the pan a little easier. Some of the recipes suggested lining the pan with wax paper. I decided to give some butter-flavored cooking spray a try. I also thought a thinner, looser layer of Fritos on the bottom of the pan and less caramel might allow the pieces to break apart easily into clusters. That would eliminate the problem of having to almost saw them into bars.

         Off to the kitchen I went yesterday evening to make up a trial mini-batch. Good news! The little changes I made in the recipe yielded good results.

          The non-stick spray worked like a charm. Mostly, it helped to scatter the Fritos loosely and just moderately coat them with the caramel spread instead of trying to make a big solid bar in the pan. The most helpful thing was to refrigerate the pan after putting the caramel and chocolate on the corn chips. After a couple hours in the fridge, the contents of the pan will very easily break apart sort of like peanut brittle. Yum!


Salty Sweet Peanut Butter Caramel Fritos

1 cup white corn syrup

1 cup white sugar (for softer caramel, use 2/3 cup of white sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar)

1 cup peanut butter

1 10.5 ounce bag Fritos 

non-stick cooking spray

chocolate chips, M & M's, or colorful seasonal candies (optional)


1. Pour out the Fritos on a large shallow glass pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. The trick here is to not get your Frito layer too thick. Use two glass pans if needed to accomplish this.

2. Combine the corn syrup and sugar and bring to a boil. (I simply stirred these two ingredients in a glass bowl, then put it in the microwave for 3 minutes. The sugar dissolved perfectly.)

3. Stir in the PB til smooth. Pour the mixture over the corn chips, sprinkle with the candies, and chill for about 60-120 minutes. Break apart and enjoy!

For a holiday version, see: http://quiltedtimeposts.blogspot.com/2012/12/holiday-version-salty-sweet-peanut.html

For another holiday variation, see: http://quiltedtimeposts.blogspot.com/2013/12/that-time-of-year-again.html