Chocolate Pretzels

Phew, now that I'm all caught up I can update my blog on time!

Today I made chocolate pretzels-- not pretzels dipped in chocolate, but actual chocolate cookie dough shaped into pretzels. They were temperamental little things too; they had to be chilled the perfect amount of time, only handled for a certain period of time, and folded exactly right (Otherwise they fell apart.)

One of the biggest issues I have with my recipes is making them small enough to ensure that everyone at work gets one (or four) so with recipes like this one I have to try to adjust cooking time to meet the smaller size. The recipe says it makes 28 -- I made 48, and it says to bake 10-12 minutes -- I baked for about 4. I personally think that they tasted slightly overcooked (probably because of their size) but most everyone else thought they were fine.

They should've been the size of a pretzel; the sort you can buy in a bag in the chip aisle at a grocery store. Mine ended up being more like mini-pretzels instead. The dough was easy enough to make, but definitely make sure to chill everything for long enough! This dough is waaay easier to handle when it's cold!

I chilled the dough for 1.5 hours, molded it into the balls, and chilled more while taking 5-6 from the fridge at a time.

If you can, I highly suggest making the larger pretzels. While the littler ones are really cute, they were also really crisp like a cracker. I think being bigger would make them have more of that cookie-softness.

They also tasted dry to me, so I drizzled them with melted milk chocolate before sprinkling on the sugar crystals. With this, they were a tasty little treat!


Chocolate Pretzels Recipe:

Prep time: Approximately two hours (including chilling time)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar (calls for superfine/used granulated)
• 1 egg

• 1 egg white (or, as an alternative, melted milk chocolate to drizzle instead)
• coarse sugar crystals

Preparation

• Sift together flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, cream the butter.
• Add sugar and beat "until light and fluffy."
• Beat in the egg.
• Add the dry ingredients. (Recipe says stir to blend-- I used the electric mixer.)
• Form dough into a ball, wrap in waxed paper, and chill for 1 hour in the fridge, or 30 minutes in the freezer.

• Preheat the oven to 375°F
• Take the dough from the fridge, roll into 28 (walnut or slightly smaller than) sized balls.
• Keep 5-6 balls out, and put the rest back in the fridge to continue chilling until you need them.
• Roll each ball out to about 10" long (a ruler is VERY handy here to ensure pretzels will be uniform)
• Form into a pretzel shape. (If you don't know how: Shape the rope of dough so it's almost a circle. Then bring each end toward the bottom center of the pretzel, and press down lightly)
• Place on cookie sheets that are either greased or lined with parchment paper.
• IF YOU'RE USING THE EGG WHITE: Brush it over the pretzels. Sprinkle on the sugar crystals.
• IF YOU AREN'T USING EGG WHITE: Put into the oven.
• Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

• IF YOU'RE USING CHOCOLATE: Let the cookies cool, and then melt your chocolate.
• Put in a pastry bag / Ziploc with a corner cut off / use a fork to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.
• Sprinkle on the sugar crystals.

Note: This recipe is to make the larger pretzels. To make the smaller ones cut everything in half.

• The easiest way to get the smaller balls is to roll one into a walnut size, then half it or shape it slighly larger, then model the rest of the balls to the same size.
• 5" instead of 10" ropes
• Bake 4-5 minutes, and be sure to check on them!

There's also a snazzy tip at the bottom of the recipe in the book: "To make mocha-flavored pretzels, replace 2tsp of cocoa with instant coffee powder." I think mom would love this!