This recipe is originally from The Baking Blonde. She calls these Chocolate Shock Cookies, which is such a great name! Anyhow, I wanted my cookies to be a little different so I used a mixture of espresso powder, chipotle powder and pretzels. The cookies were great. The pretzels stayed surprisingly crunchy all day long.
With the 72% cacao bean chocolate, the cookies certainly lived up to their name, but I think the 52% chocolate would be just as good.
Chocolate Shock Cookies
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate disks (Ghirardelli 72% cacao or 58%)**
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅔ cup all-purpose flour (3 oz)
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ (generous) teaspoon chipotle powder
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips OR chunks
½ cup miniature pretzels, broken into little pieces of about ⅓ inch (use more if desired).
Don’t preheat oven quite yet because dough requires chilling.
Melt chocolate and butter together in a metal bowl set over barely simmering water. You could also do this in the microwave – use a low power so that the chocolate melts slowly and doesn’t get as hot. Let chocolate cool.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, espresso powder and chipotle in a small bowl.
Beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Reduce speed to low and slowly add the cooled melted chocolate mixture. Add the flour mixture and stir until mixed. Make sure the dough is sufficiently cool (if you used warm chocolate, it might not be) then add the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.
Chill dough for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Drop dough by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes or until tops are shiny, center is soft but edges are set. Do NOT overbake. Allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely.
Note: I baked mine for 10 minutes.
Sara says
Oh my YUM! Pretzels and chocolate = heavenly!
Oatmeal Cookie Guy says
I love the mini pretzels!
Jennifer says
I've never tried pretzels in my cookies before but those looks soo delicious I must try it!
Anna says
Sue, that's exactly what I did. I mixed all the dough yesterday and added pretzels only to the dough balls that I was cooking. Today I made some more cookies and added a fresh handfull of pretzels. Thanks for asking about this. I'm going to note it above.
Also, the dough was very stiff on day two -- so still that I could hardly scoop it. I put it in the microwave on defrost for 20 seconds and that did the trick.
Sue says
Hi Anna!
Do you think it would work to make this dough ahead of time, hold it in the fridge for 24 hours or so, and add the pretzels just before baking?
Anna says
Here's a pretzel brownie recipe. I found it on the Clabber Girl site.
Pretzel Brownies
1 1/2 sticks butter (6 oz)
3 ounces (squares) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon Clabber Girl Baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup thin pretzel sticks, broken into 1/4 inch pieces
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square aluminum baking pan
Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the flour and baking powder until well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and pretzels and spread the batter in the prepared pan.
Bake the brownie for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out barely clean. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Katrina says
I bought the kids some pretzels the other day and thought of Recipe Girl's recent brownies. I then remembered that when you always see chocolate covered pretzels, usually around Christmastime for me, I like the white chocolate covered ones better, so I was thinking of trying a cookie with pretzels and white chocolate, or a blondie, or even a brownie, haven't thought it all through yet.
These chocolate ones looks really yummy. What's next in a cookie? Hmmmm.
clumbsycookie says
Chocolate, chipole, coffee and pretzles? Wow, what a great cookie that must be! It's a good think I got pretzels the other day ;)!
bakingblonde says
Oh my, oh my! I am in love with you!! I can't wait to try the sweet salty combo of pretzels and chocolate!!! LOVE the pics!!
runjess says
Those would make excellent tailgate cookies. Hmm...
RecipeGirl says
What a fun recipe. I love adding chipotle powder to sweets, and the espresso just makes that chocolate flavor go WOW! Pretzels are a fun addition too.
Erin Mylroie says
Those look fabulous! I made a chocolate cookie with pretzels last week and I roasted the pretzels first to keep them crunchy. We made your last year's apple bars again this weekend. Everytime I make that recipe it wins rave reviews. It is my favorite ever apple bar recipe.
Carole R. says
I love the mixture of salt (pretzels) and chocolate.
VeggieGirl says
WOWZA those cookies look great, indeed - love all the fun "add-ins"!!