I’ve never really been the girl with the sweet tooth. I’ve had a meat tooth. A salt tooth. A beer tooth. I could eat my weight in guacamole or tater tots and it takes a small act of God to get me to stop eating sushi. But sweets don’t give me the mad rabid cravings that get me to lose my mind. I love chocolate, and pie and cake, and I’ll always eat dessert if it’s around. I’ll take a small slice of every single pie at the Thanksgiving table, but those late night cravings that come after a few IPA’s are almost always of the salty variety.
But every once in a while something will hit the right note. Like this toffee that I ate the entire batch of before I could share and then lied and said it fell on the ground when really it just fell into my mouth. The perfect combination of sweet and salty will get me every time. A little sea salt sprinkle on a danish before it’s baked, or salted caramel, or candied bacon, it’s hard for me to really fall in love with a dessert that doesn’t kick me some salt. Which is why pretzels seem to make it into my desserts more often than fruit does. Maybe you like this too, after all, chocolate and pretzels go perfectly with beer.
Pretzel Crusted Chocolate Beer Fudge Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup bread flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 10 wt oz about 1 ¾ cups, chopped good quality dark chocolate (60% cocao)
- 4 tbs unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup black IPA stout or porter will also work
- 1 large egg plus 1 yolk
- 2 cups mini pretzels
- 2 tbs golden brown sugar
Instructions
- In a bowl add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, espresso powder, and sugar, mix until well combined. Set aside
- In a microwave safe bowl add the chocolate, the butter and the oil. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until melted. Don't over heat or the chocolate will seize.
- Stir in the beer.
- Add the chocolate mixture, egg and yolk to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, some lumps are OK.
- Cover and refrigerate until the dough as has set, about 1 hour and up to 36.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Add the pretzels and brown sugar in a food processor. Process until pretzels are broken up but large pieces still remain.
- Using a cookie dough scoop, make balls just a bit smaller than golf balls, roll into shape with your hands. Place dough balls into pretzel mixture, press until pretzels are coated.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, add cookie balls
- Bake cookies at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until the edges have set but the center is still soft. Cookies will firm up as they cool. Don't over-bake or the cookies will be dry and crumbly.
