Beer and Pretzel Cookies

To keep adhering to my New Year's resolution of baking outside of my comfort zone, I made these beer pretzel cookies.

I know what you're thinking: "But Erika, you bake cookies all the time." This is true. But I hate beer. Seriously. I hate the taste and smell of it with a passion.

Therefore, I introduced beer into my kitchen. I've never bought a bottle of beer from a bodega before. Mike's Hard Lemonade, sure. Beer? Ew, no!

This stout even had hints of organic Mexican coffee in it. And guess what. I also despise coffee.

So there I was in my kitchen having to boil this stout down to a syrup. The smell made me gag a couple of times. I've never gagged before from smells emanating from my kitchen. What a weird experience!

I actually didn't mind eating the cookie dough. However, I didn't like these cookies right out of the oven because the beer flavor was stronger. Once they had cooled off I had no problem eating them. (I made special non beer frosting for my own private stash.)

 

These were a hit for St. Paddy's Day. If you're a big beer and pretzel fan, I highly recommend this recipe.

Beer and Pretzel Cookies (found at Cookies & Cups)

Ingredients

1 (12 oz) bottle stout, minus 2 Tablespoons reserved for frosting

1 cup butter

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 tsp espresso powder or 1 tsp ground espresso (Erika's Extras: I didn't use this ingredient)

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

2 cups flour

2 cups quick oats

1 cup coarsely crushed pretzels

1 cup chocolate chips

 

Directions

Reduce beer (minus 2 Tablespoons) in saucepan over medium heat until there is only 1/8 cup left. This will take 25-30 minutes. Watch the beer on the stove, as it will foam up easily at the beginning. Remove from heat and allow to cool. (Erika's Extras: Feel free to stir occasionally, but not too often.)

Cream butter, brown sugar and espresso powder together until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs and reduced stout and mix until combined.

Turn mixer to low and add in baking soda, salt, flour, and oats. Stir together until just combined.

Finally add in pretzels and chocolate chips, stirring until evenly incorporated.

Let dough chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight. (Erika's Extras: I chilled my dough for around 6 hours and found the dough to be very tough to deal with until it was a little warmer. I would chill for only 2 hours.)

 

Frosting

In small saucepan heat butter and heavy cream over medium heat until just boiling.

Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate chips until smooth.

Add 2 Tablespoons reserved stout, stir to combine.

Chill frosting for an hour or two, until spreadable consistency.

 

Cookies

Preheat oven to 350°

Drop by heaping tablespoon size onto a parchment lined baking sheet, pressing dough slightly, so cookies aren't so rounded. (Erika's Extras: I rolled my dough into a ball and then pressed it down onto the parchment paper.)

Bake 9-10 minutes until golden around edges.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

When cookies are cooled and frosting is ready, spread on a teaspoon sized amount onto each cookie and top with a pretzel twist

Bake well and prosper!

Yummy Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

"It's Christmastime in the city" and I'm a big fan of it.

Even though window displays are lovely and super artistic, I enjoy the things that appear that aren't there the rest of the year. I mean, there's ALWAYS window displays in NYC. However, there isn't always giant candy cane wreaths hanging off buildings. 

Or giant wreaths hanging inside buildings.

I do have to admit I had fun taking funky photos of the Bergdorf windows and the reflections that my camera picked up. For instance, this mannequin with a beautiful red gown looks like she's flying up through the buildings on Fifth Avenue.

Oh, and if anyone wants to get me a new gown to sing in, this one looks LOVELY.

Having the city decorated from top to bottom makes me feel like I'm walking in a winter wonderland, even if there isn't any snow yet.  

As for food, here's another festive recipe. In fact, I'm taking it to a holiday party tonight. That is if I can stop myself from eating them all. They are REALLY good (and nicely refreshing after so many other heavy treats.)

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels (found on Baking Junkie)

1 (16 oz) bag pretzel twists

⅔ cup vegetable oil

½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pour pretzels into a roasting pan. In a medium sized bowl mix together vegetable oil, cinnamon and sugar. Pour over pretzels and stir to coat. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, removing twice to stir.

Erika's Extra: I didn't come close to using the whole 16 oz of pretzels. Half a bag seemed perfect for me. Also, keep your eye on the pretzels. You don't want them burning so 25 minutes might be more appropriate for some ovens.

Bake well and prosper!

Rolo Pretzel & Pecan Bites (and a Bollywood Movie!)

While walking home from the subway a couple of nights ago, I noticed something extremely different about my block where I live. The difference made the apartment across my way light up.

That's because the difference on my block was a movie set!

Right outside my window was the camera. Seriously. This was the view from my window.

 And this was the main light that was illuminating my block. 

I had asked some street gawkers about what was filming and found out that a new Bollywood film titled Happy New Year was shooting and Shahrukh Khan was starring in it. I snapped a picture in case there are any fans out there that wanted to see him. :)

As exciting and so New York as this was, I couldn't help but grimace when the "ACTION!" was stilled being yelled at 10pm. Thankfully, it was all done by 11pm and my usually quiet street was brought back to normal.

Speaking of late nights (or almost late), in case you find yourself with the midnight munchies and need a quick fix, check out this easy and yummy recipe.

Rolo Pretzel & Pecan Bites(found at Glorious Treats)

Ingredients

Mini Pretzels (square of twist)

Rolos

Pecan Halves

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees. Place the pretzels on wax paper that's on a cookie sheet. Unwrap Rolos and place one on each pretzel. Bake in oven for 4-5 minutes only.

When removed them from the oven, the Rolo will still be in the same shape as when it went in the oven. Place a pecan half on top of each Rolo and press down a bit. Place the entire baking sheet in the freezer for about 5-7 minutes to allow the Rolos to cool. Remove from freezer and enjoy! (Will also keep in a container for many days.) 

Bake well and prosper!

It's Fall, Y'all!

Some of you might not realize that it's fall, but it is! (Some of you = people in southern areas...TX, AZ, southern hemisphere...)

Here in NY the trees in Central Park are having a conference on whether to change colors or just drop. Last year they decided to change colors. I hope they vote on that again.

For my friend's birthday party this past weekend I decided to make some treats, but adjust them slightly to incorporate fall colors.

I took out my humble little food processor that says, "Now you see it (the Oreos)..."

"Now you don't."

Hurray for the Humble Little Food Processor That Could!

Those chopped up Oreos were used in this awesome recipe:

Oreo Cheesecake Pretzel Sandwiches (adapted from Rather Be Baking)

Makes 12 pretzel bites

Ingredients:

7 Oreo cookies

1 ounce cream cheese (I used reduced-fat)

24 pretzels (square or tied, it doesn't matter)

Candy coating - melted (your choice of colors. I used red, yellow, and then mixed some red and yellow with orange to make a delightful fall orange.)

Place Oreos into a food processor and process until finely ground. Mix Oreo crumbs and cream cheese until dough forms. (Erika's Extra: I found it easier to mix with hands.) Pinch about half a tablespoon of dough and form into a little square. Place onto pretzel then gently press top pretzel to close. Top with melted candy coating. (Add toppings like white sprinkles or coconut, if desired.) Chill until chocolate has hardened and serve. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.

Bake well and prosper!

Salty & Sweet Pretzel Cookies

I'm not sure if you've ever noticed this, but under my blog title is "making it work in a small NYC apt since 2009." I realize I haven't shown many ways I "make it work" but today I will give an example.

There's not much counter space in my kitchen/kitchen hallway. I have two cabinets I bought to add more space. The counter tops are where I mix the items from a recipe or keep the items I'm about to mix. So, if I'm using a recipe from my laptop, where do I put my laptop? On the garbage can, of course.

Yeah, I wasn't kidding. That's where it was when I was using the recipe for these awesome cookies - Pretzel Cookies. (They contain pretzels, duh...oh, and chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.)

As you can see, there are a lot of small bits for this recipe and knowing me, the Messy Chef, the "bits" ended up on my floor.

No problem. I just swept them up into a tiny pile...

And then my silly boyfriend came running in to the kitchen to devour the tidbits.

OK, he didn't ACTUALLY eat them (it was WAY over time for the 5 second rule), but his instincts served him right. These cookies were a hit! (I made them for the beach weekend that he and I went on. However, I shared them with some coworkers before I left on Friday and I had to reject some requests for more because I needed to have some left for the beach! My coworkers and the families at the beach house loved them!)

Pretzel Cookies (from The Foodie and the Family who got the recipe from Sugar Cooking)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup pretzels, broken up
sea salt for sprinkling

Directions
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy (2-3 minutes). On low speed, add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and pretzels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop onto the parchment paper in well rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack. Makes 24 Cookies

Erika's Extras: Don't sprinkle too much sea salt on the cookies. They are salty enough with the pretzel bits.

Bake well and prosper!