Ok, so I'm a special education teacher...of middle school students...and anyone who knows me will tell you I love my job. But ya know, there are days...today being one of them. And does anyone else feel like there's not much time between when it's "that time of the month" and "that time of the month" again? It's like constant dejavu or something. So if you haven't jumped on this crazy pinterest bandwagon yet, may I just encourage you to hop right on? Cuz cleanliness is next to godliness which I'm pretty sure is right next to these little guys...chocolatechunk.saltedcaramel.pretzels--the trifecta of beautiful sin. Eeeeeeesh. Make 'em. NOW.
Much thanks to Dave's wife for the brilliance and the courage...and the
recipe.
Let's start with a word of caution...the absolute HARDEST part of making these is mixing the batter--so many awesome chunks in there, it's quite the task to mix it. I may or may not have made two batches of these (so far) this week (yes, it's only Tuesday), so I can also tell you that refrigerating batter to bake it the next day or so will work, but it's super tricky to put the cookies on the tray after the dough has chilled with all that goodness in it. Naturally, I tasted that sweet chilled batter of death (just as amazing), only to realize that the pretzel pieces got kinda stale-ish?? But no fears, bake those right up and they get nice and crunchy again.
Now seriously, when you put them on the tray, 2 things...(1) use parchment paper, or bear the wrath of melted caramel on your fave baking sheet and (2) don't skip sprinkling the tops of the cookies with salt before you bake....AMAZING. So I haven't exactly mastered making
pretty cookies...tips appreciated, although I'm usually too impatient to even try.
So I used to think that when a recipe says "bake 8-10 minutes" that you should err on the side of long-ness and bake them for 10 minutes or even better, 12. Of course, you know that is totally wrong. So my advice on these babies is to pull them right out before the time has a chance to tell you it's been 8 minutes...they won't look or feel set but trust me, you'll be happy with the consistency after you've given them 2 or 3 minutes to cool...and that's as long as you're going to be able to handle watching them there in all their ooey-gooey glory.
Yes, I need a better camera, and yes, you need to make these just as soon as you can get to caramel bits in the baking aisle of your favorite grocery store. And
YES, it's ok to eat several. I'm sure you deserve it. Together we can think of many many reasons.
