-
Friday, June 17, 2011
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars
How about a little treat for the weekend? I saw a Food & Wine recipe for Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars on lovely Maria’s food blog and knew I had to give them a try. I’m a sucker for anything with a salty-sweet flavor combination.
I was a little curious about what the texture of the pretzels would be like in something baked. When they were hot out of the oven, the pretzels were a little soft, but once the bars sat for a bit they got crunchier. My favorite way to eat them: after they’ve cooled, zap your bar in the microwave for 7-10 seconds. The bars are a little warm and the pretzels still crunchy. YUM!
I had a meeting with some of my Federated Media peeps this week and sent them back to the office with a few cookie bars. Within the hour I had an email from one of the VPs saying “mmmmmm” and a tweet from my DailyBuzz Moms team about how much they loved the bars. I really can’t take any credit. It’s a straight up Food & Wine recipe, which I didn’t even discover myself (thanks Maria!)…but everyone agrees, they are DELISH! Enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookie BarsFrom Food & Wine via Two Peas and Their Pod, with my personal notesAuthor: Jane MaynardRecipe type: DessertIngredients- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ (6 ounces) sticks unsalted butter, softened (Jane note: my butter was salted, everything came out fine)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- One 12-ounce bag bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1½ cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped (Jane note: it’s WAY easier to just break the pretzels into small pieces with your hands rather than chopping with a knife. Also, I probably put in about 1¼ cups instead of 1½ cups.)
Instructions- Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. (Jane note: I skipped this step because I’m lazy. Once the eggs and vanilla were in, I beat in the baking soda and salt, then the flour. And I’m sure I broke some baking rules doing it, but everything came out great and I had one less bowl and whisk to wash!) Using a mixer, beat the butter with both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute (Jane note: actually, let it go a few minutes). Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. On low, beat in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Press the batter down with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. The middle might be a little gooey but that is ok, the bars will set up. (Jane note: Mine were DEFINITELY done at 30 minutes – in fact, if I had been paying attention, I might have taken them out a few minutes earlier than that.) Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool completely. (Jane note: Yup, I didn’t listen and ate one hot out of the oven. And, in this case, they are better after they’ve cooled a bit. Although, I can’t say it was exactly torture eating one before they cooled”¦still delicious!)
- Cut and eat!
Posted by Jane Maynard at 10:12 am 28 Comments
Categories: featured recipes, Recipes, sweet things Tags: bars, chocolate chip, dessert, pretzel |