Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

Q: What's better than peanut butter cookies?
A: Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Q: What's better than peanut butter chocolate chip cookies?
A: Peanut butter chocolate chip pretzel cookies! 

The last two cookies.  It was sad to see them go.

While the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter will always have a special place in my heart, I must say that the salty crunch in these pretzel-filled cookies adds a nice twist.

Recipe:     
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

• 1.25 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan butter at room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg equivalent (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer Powder)
• 1 tablespoon soymilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1.5 cups Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1.25 cups chopped (not crushed) pretzels
• Salt, for sprinkling (optional)

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 

Next, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Then, in a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until smooth.  Add the egg equivalent, soymilk, and vanilla and beat again until well incorporated.  Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Then, using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips and pretzels.

Drop the dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets and lightly sprinkle each cookie with salt, if desired.  Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly brown on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for a couple minutes before transferring them to a wire rack or paper towel.

Yields approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Comments:
Taste:           

These cookies are soft, crunchy, sweet, and salty, all at the same time.  The chocolate, peanut butter, and pretzel flavors balance each other quite well, with no single flavor taking over.  The only flaw I can find with the cookies is that they were a bit fragile, but that didn't stop us from devouring them.  

Accessibility:        

Aside from the egg replacer powder, everything should be easy to find at the grocery store.  The good thing about egg replacer powder is that it can sit in the pantry for a long time without going bad.

 Ease of Preparation:         

There's nothing out of the ordinary in this cookie recipe: mix, bake, cool, and serve. 

Non-vegan friendliness:         

I look forward to serving these to non-vegan friends and family! 

Butterscotch Blondie Bars with Peanut-Pretzel Caramel

Butterscotch Blondie Bars with Peanut-Pretzel Caramel: sounds delicious, right??  Not the way I made them, unfortunately.

Looks can be deceiving!

I tried out this recipe from Epicurious with the intent of serving the bars at Rachel's birthday party, but things did not go according to plan.  I substituted a combination of unsweetened apple sauce and egg-replacer powder for the eggs, and I used coconut cream (the thick layer that rises to the top of a can of coconut milk) in place of heavy cream.

Even though the bars had a solid consistency and looked great, they didn't taste great.  The blondie bottoms were neither very sweet nor very flavorful (yet they were probably the best part of the bar).  Meanwhile, the caramel tasted slightly burnt.  Caramel is difficult to make, so I may have cooked it for too long or made some other mistake.  But, many Epicurious recipe reviewers also had trouble, so the recipe might need some tweaking, too.  I'm not going to write out the recipe here, but feel free to view the original.

In the end, I whipped up a batch of fudgy brownies instead of serving these blondie bars at the party.  If you do make these bars and you're successful, please let me know how you do it!  I believe they have the potential to be incredible.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Think you can only get soft pretzels at an over-priced stadium concession stand?  (Or from a convenience store, or in the frozen food section of the grocery store?)  Think again!
 

A pair of pretzels on a plate.

Simon and I took a stab at soft pretzel-making over the weekend.  Without a stand mixer and dough hooks to ease kneading, we put our muscles to good use.  That's what I call a work-out.

Recipe:     
Homemade Soft Pretzels

• 1.5 cups very warm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces flour (a generous 4 1/2 cups) + more to flour your work surface
• 2 ounces vegan butter, melted
• Vegetable oil to grease your pans/work surfaces
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• Pretzel or kosher salt to sprinkle on top

First, whisk together the warm water, sugar, and kosher salt in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer, if you have one) until dissolved.  Sprinkle the yeast on top and allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.

Then add the flour and butter.  Using a wooden spoon (or your stand mixer's dough hook attachment on low speed), mix until well combined. At this point, turn the dough out onto a clean, floured work surface and knead--sprinkling flour to keep it from sticking, as needed--until the dough is smooth, approximately 5 minutes.  (Or, continue kneading in your stand mixer on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Then remove the dough from the bowl.)

Grease the inside of the empty dough bowl with vegetable oil and return the dough to the bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for approximately 50 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil.  Set aside.  Then combine the 10 cups of water and baking soda in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, place the dough on a clean, lightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces.  Using your hands, roll out each piece of dough into a 2-foot long cord.  To form each pretzel, start by making a U-shape with the dough.  Then, holding the ends at the top of the U, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U.  Carefully place each pretzel on the parchment-lined baking sheets.  

 Finally, one by one, carefully place each pretzel into the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds.  Remove the pretzels from the pot using a large spatula and return them to the baking sheet.  Sprinkle salt over top of each pretzel while still wet.

Bake the pretzels until they are golden brown in color, about 14 minutes.

Yields 8 large pretzels.

Comments:

Taste:          

I was thrilled with how these pretzels came out.  Ours were a bit short and stout rather than long and lean, but they were still fluffy on the inside with a nice browning on the outside. 

Accessibility:   

Sometimes, staple ingredients are all you need.

 Ease of Preparation:      

This is a good weekend recipe because it does take a while to make, between the dough rising and kneading.  That said, it's pretty simple to do (even without a stand mixer).

Non-vegan friendliness:      

These taste better than many, if not most, of the soft pretzels I've had the pleasure of meeting.