Made with a Twist

Oh the marriage of sweet and salty!  I love the versatility of this contrasting pair – in baking or cooking.  Not only do these cookies capture this marriage in its finest state, but the sensory experience continues with the creamy chocolate and crunchy pretzels.  Contrasts of texture and contrasts of taste all bundled together in one little cookie!  It would only get better if a contrast in temperature was thrown in there, too.  (Hm…I’ll be back later with a Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Pretzels and Hot Fudge play-by-play!)  For now, this cookie recipe is going in the archives under “Sweet & Savory” and “Freaking Delicious”. 

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 tsp. of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar*
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips**
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces
• Pretzel Salt or Sea Salt***

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the flour mixture and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and preztels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Leave about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10 minutes. If you prefer crispier cookies increase the baking time by 1-2 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing.

*We were out of granulated sugar (seriously, how did that happen??), so I used brown sugar in its place, which worked out just fine.  

**And instead of 1 cup milk chocolate chips I did 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup Guittard’s Extra Dark Chips (aka. 63% cocoa mass).  Next time I’d do all semisweet or extra dark chips because the richer chocolatey taste really played well with the sweeter browns sugar and peanut butter chips. 

***Just before baking, I sprinkled each cookie with a little “local”, aka. Jacobsen Salt, fresh from the Oregon coast.

This is brilliant.

It’s classically Japanese:  amusing, random, thorough, and accurate!  The How to Make Bento episode is a gem within the popular serious.  “Let’s make the apple into a rabbit shape.”  “Let’s make the sausage into an octopus shape.”  She was serious about cute bento!

The cinematography and hand shots are slightly reminiscent of Food Network’s “Giada at Home”…

only silent, at a faster pace, with a panicked-looking toy poodle, and dubbed by a monotone male narrator.  Gotta love it!