Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Cookie Cups

I keep using my cupcake pan . . . and never making cupcakes.

Sorry for all you cupcake people out there, I feel your pain.  Cupcakes are so cute!

These cookie cups may not be cutest cookies in the world, but oh man do they taste incredible  Remember the banana bread cream cookies?  I baked some of them in cupcake pans and they turned out super soft.  As tomorrow is National Chocolate Chip Day, I decided to put my strawberries aside and pull out the big guns.

Toffee, pretzels, and chocolate chips in a super soft, super thick cookie.

Bam-o.

The combinations of textures will make your mouth do a back flip.  Seriously, did you know you had such a talented mouth?  I know your mouth is one smart cookie and realizes these are just the best.

I thought there was a really nice balance between crunchy and creamy and sweet and salty.  Some family memebers wanted more of something, like Nathan wanted more toffee, Mom wanted more chocolate chips, Abigail wanted more pretzels . . . feel free to add more if you like a certain ingredient more!  It won't hurt anything, I promise. ;)

And this is the first time I used cornstarch in cookies.  I've read about them everywhere (Chloe's and Sally's recipes to name a few) and how they make cookies so soft.  So I decided to try the double approach of cornstarch and baking in cupcake pans and see how soft they would turn out to be.

Really soft, people.

What I like about baking cookies in cupcake pans is that you don't have to chill the dough.  The only way it can spread is up!  (Whoa, these cookies defy gravity?  Probably not, but its a nice thought.)  That results in a softer, doughier cookie that just melts in your mouth.  And compels you to grab another one.

Chocolate Toffee Pretzel Cookie Cups
Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life.  Cookie base adapted from Averie Cooks

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks)  butter, softened
3/4 cup  brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup crushed pretzels
1/2 cup (Heath) toffee baking bits
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used dark, but milk or semi sweet should work fine.)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease two regular cupcake/muffin pans.

Beat butter and sugars for several minutes.  Add egg and beat well until combined.  Stir in vanilla.  Add flour, cornstarch, and soda and stir until smooth.  Stir in pretzels, toffee bits and chocolate chips. 

Scoop into prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

What is your favorite part of this cookie?  I love the pretzel + pb combo!

Other pretzel recipes from The Sweet {Tooth} Life

Popcorn n' Pretzel Butterscotch Puppy Chow

and Reeses Pretzel Lava Cake

Popcorn n' Pretzel Butterscotch Puppy Chow

Cravings are manipulating.

For example, I wanted crunchy and salty instead of rich melty chocolate. Please, someone call the doctor ... I only want that after I've overdone the chocolate department! I didn't this time, pinky promise.

I have, however, overdone this snack mix/puppy chow department.

Puppy chow. Everyone has made puppy chow! So you thought ... Oh the joys of living with non-chocoholics! Some people healthify, I unchocolatify. And create new vocabulary on the side.

          

Anyhoo, I am loving me this snack mix. I made it on Sunday because I was (you guessed it) craving something other than chocolate.  (Maybe it had something to do with eating most of those mint chocolate cupcakes?  Don't answer that question.)

Created in honor if my brothers (who've tried and denied traditional puppy chow) this is an easy and incredible recipe that doesn't have chocolate. Despite that major cooking "sin" I fell in love with this recipe even more than my brothers did.

It seems peanut butter was made for butterscotch. Butterscotch is almost too sweet on its own and the peanut butter mellows the sugar overload AND adds deeper flavor with a subtle nuttiness. (Though peanuts are a legume - isn't that weird?)

The actual mix is Chex, popcorn, and pretzels. Now tell me how that isn't good? That's right, everything about this is plain perfect.  Crunchy, sweet, salty, and powdered sugar goodness.

An unchocolatified success.

Popcorn n' Pretzel Butterscotch Puppy Chow
Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life
Yield: 9 cups

1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups popped plain popcorn
3 cups pretzels
3 cups Chex (corn, rice, wheat, or combo)
1/2 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar

Place popcorn, pretzels, and Chex in large bowl.

Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Pour over popcorn mixture. Toss in powdered sugar.

Store leftovers in airtight container.

Shared with Chef-In-Training and nap-time creations.

Pretzel Buckeyes!!!

I have a couple confessions to make. Lets get the kitchen fiasco one out of the way first.

For a baking class, Hannah and I were making cream puffs. Neither of us had done it before and the recipe we were using was a bit ambiguous. We had followed the instructions but our dough looked and smelled a lot like play dough. And our cream filling was, um, not creamy. However, we were going to see this through and began to add our eggs, the crucial ingredients that give cream puffs their light airiness. In order not to disrupt the people in the room adjoining the kitchen, we took the mixer to the laundry room. We began beating the eggs, successfully being quiet.  But then Hannah goes to rinse her hands off and I'm left to beat the eggs. Lets evaluate what we have thus far: inexperience, unique method, and unexpected results. Have a bad feeling yet? 

I take the mixer and turn it on but nothing happens. I look around to see, oh, Hannah had unplugged it.  I innocently plug it back in. Whoosh! Our "play dough" starts flopping off the whirring beaters and onto the floor and anything else near our makeshift bakery. Avery and get it off before bursting into silent laughter. It was my best (and only) ab workout that day.  For several minutes we were gasping for breath, unable to explain exactly what happened to Hannah and Chloe. I wouldn't blame them if they thought something was wrong with us. We cleaned up and even though we carefully piped what dough we had, the cream puffs deflated after being out of the oven. It was a very memorable experience, but needless to say, I've been avoiding eggs, beaters and the oven for a couple days! So I turned to a no bake and that's where my next confession comes in.

I had never made buckeyes before.  I've eaten my fair share, but creating them was new territory.

Can I say it was delicious territory as well?  I love that this recipe calls for a cup of peanut butter.  I see many peanut butter flavored recipes that have 4 times as much sugar as they do peanut butter and I wonder how much peanut butter flavor there really is.  You don't have to worry with this recipe.  The peanut butter flavor is loud and clear.

This is a twist on the buckeye, adding a salty crunch to the smooth peanut butter.  In fact, without the chocolate, I thought it tasted like a Nutter Butter.  Remember how much I like frozen peanut butter? This is that times ten. Crunchy, creamy, nutty, sweet, and so incredibly addictive. You cannot eat just one. Sharing is highly recommended, but not necessary. I was not the genius who came up with this idea, but I am indebted to Sweet Pea's Kitchen for it!

It is fairly time consuming as you make the filling, press it in between dozens of pretzels, and then dip all of them in chocolate. The end result is so delicious, so every extra minute is completely worth it. Trust me on this one.

Pretzel Buckeyes
Recipe Source: Adapted slightly from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp. softened butter, divided
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Pretzels
12 oz. dipping chocolate melted (or 12 oz. chocolate chips, melted)


Stir peanut butter, 2 tbsp. softened butter, sugars, and vanilla together.  Press teaspoons of mixture between two pretzels and place on baking sheet.  Continue until peanut butter mixture is gone.  Freeze for 10 minutes.  Melt remaining butter with chocolate chips and stir until smooth.  Dip pretzels in the chocolate and freeze again.  Let pretzels sit a little before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

Reeses Pretzel Lava Cake

Molten lava cakes are elegant desserts, especially if you dust them them with powdered sugar.  They are my mom's favorite.  That soft brownie "crust" and then the liquid chocolate in the middle.  A couple years ago, I made regular lava cakes for her birthday breakfast.  Being the good mom she is, she ate them up with no qualms.  Now, I laugh at the absurdity of eating these for breakfast, but thankfully, my mom could care less about nutrition (I guess it was only one morning out of the year) but I still envision this possible conversation:

 

Friend: Happy Birthday! How's your morning been?

Mom: Oh, its been great.  Breakfast was delicious.

Friend: Oh, I know, nothing like a good meal to start off your day.  I had my power packed protein smoothie and egg white omelet.  You?

Mom: Molten chocolate lava cakes. 

 

Yeah, lava cakes . . . power packed, right?

 

 

Maybe not power packed, but they are unbelievable.

 

 

These have rich, melty chocolate.  Crunchy peanut butter pretzels.  And a Reeses in the middle.

 

 

Yum.

 

Reeses Pretzel Lava Cake

This version of a lava cake is not as formal, but one of my friends loves pretzels and informal things and I thought of her when I made this up;)  Omit the pretzel layer and Reeses for normal lava cake.

Yield: 3 lava cakes

 

Pretzel Layer:

40 grams pretzel sticks twists, crushed

2 tbsp. peanut butter

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

Lava Cake:

1/4 cup butter

2 oz. semisweet baking squares

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

3 tbsp. flour

Reeses (cup, heart, bunny, it doesn't matter.  Just small enough to fit in the middle of the lava cake.)

Presentation: Powdered sugar and whipped topping (optional)

 

For the pretzel layer: Melt peanut butter and butter and stir until smooth. Add vanilla and salt.  Stir in crushed pretzels.

For the lava cake: Melt chocolate and butter and stir until smooth.  Stir in powdered sugar.  Whisk in egg and egg yolk.  Finally, stir in the flour. 

Press pretzel mixture in 3 three inch round oven safe ramekins.  Divide batter between them and press a Reeses into the middle of each.  Spread batter over the Reeses if necessary.

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes.  Carefully run a butter knife around the edge to loosen.  Invert and serve immediately.

 

 

We actually didn't have these for Valentine's dinner.  I made a vanilla cake with peanut butter frosting my mom's grandmother made for her growing up.  I don't care for cake, but that peanut butter icing was incredible.  It was more like caramel and an incredible dip for apples.

For Valentine's day, Mom gave us a Valentines Basket, with different books and CDs we can borrow from the basket for the next week or two.  I chose to read the first of "The Peleg Chronicles," "The Foundlings" by Matthew Christian Harding.  I love books like the Chronicles of Narnia or the Passages Series where they take Biblical stories and place them in a fantasy world.  It takes the predictability of Moses parting the Red Sea and recreates it, reminding me of how truly miraculous it was.  This is one of those series and this first one is timed after Noah and the flood.  There is dragons and paganism (not recommended for young ages) in this post Babel time period, but there is a dwindling group who still believes in God.  These are different because they still have the God of the Bible whereas in other series, they create a deity like God, such the Unseen One or Aslan.  But like those, this one has excellent analogies and lots of suspense.  However, it ends at a cliffhanger!  You have to buy the whole series to resolve the plot!  I do not like that - at all.  Especially when I began the book not knowing it.  So I have finished it and the characters are being hunted by deadly creatures and their only help is stuck in the city.  Such a satisfying end, you know? 

 

What did you do for Valentines?  Now that I'm done ranting about my book, did you have any special traditions or meals?