Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I love the excuse to be a bit kitchy and cute for Valentine's Day.  Any holiday involving hearts and the color pink refuse to allow you to take yourself - or your baking adventures - too seriously.  Chocolate covered pretzels are not only the ultimate salty-and-sweet treat, but are easy enough to ensure you'll be spending more time cuddling with your sweetie than laboring the day away in the kitchen.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

active time 5 minutes

total time 25 minutes

makes 8 pretzels

I love using my all-time favorite pretzels from Martin's Bakery for this simple treat. UTZ's Hard Pretzels are a more commercially available version. You can omit the heart decorations or substitute a variety of colors and shapes to customize your holiday.

Ingredients

8 sourdough hard pretzels

1 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped

Heart decorations, if desired

Preparation Instructions

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Let cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pretzels and stir gently until coated. Using a fork, transfer the pretzels to the parchment paper, letting the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Sprinkle heart decorations over chocolate. Refrigerate the pretzels until the chocolate is set, about 20 minutes.

Happy Nutella Day!

Nutella Bomboloni with Hazelnut Sugar | Chocoalte Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

Happy Nutella Day!  While I am a big proponent of eating spoonfulls of Nutella straight from the jar, here are two of my favorite Nutella-centered recipes to inspire you today!  Enjoy!

Superbowl Picks

Parmesan-Paprika Triangles | Nut Brown Ale Bread | Chili Lime Tequila Popcorn

Pretzel Bread | Kale Chips | Cheesy Onion Bread

Homemade Cracker Jack | Monster Cookies | Bourbon Ice Cream

Happy Friday! The Superbowl is this weekend, have you heard? The local news may not be reporting anything about the crisis in Egypt, but at least they give me an update of the weather in Dallas every twenty minutes. Nevermind that the game will actually be played indoors.

Is your team playing on Sunday? Or are you like me and still seething that your team forgot to show up and play football during the playoffs? Either way, good food is in order for this football-devoted day, so I put together a few of my top picks to share with you - enjoy!

Parmesan-Paprika Triangles

After a day exploring the beautiful city of Barcelona, Mike and I rested and refueled over lunch at Gresca. We placed our order, clinked our wine glasses together, and relaxed a bit further back into our chairs. Before the first appetizer arrived, our waitress returned with two perfectly crisp crackers - standing upright in a crystal clear glass. They were an unexpected treat to begin what would be one of our favorite meals in the city.

It has been almost three months since we returned from our European vacation and I find myself longing to return to those sunny days together in Barcelona. While my bank account may not support hopping the next plain across the Atlantic, I can certainly attempt to recreate some of our favorite dishes from those relaxing days. This recipe is quite close to the parmesan-paprika triangles we shared over lunch; I imagine the missing ‘extra something’ is only found over a table for two, with a bottle of wine, free from the responsibilities and stresses of everyday life.

Bourbon Ice Cream

Sometimes I wonder if I am the type of girl who people think would enjoy bourbon. Ladies are supposed to enjoy sipping champagne, big glasses of wine, and sugary cocktails. And while I do rather enjoy my wine, some moments in life require a glass of Maker’s. Neat, please.

Around the holidays, I started seeing recipes for bourbon eggnog, which you think may have peaked my interest. But drinking warm milk and eggs, even with a boost of bourbon, just is not my type of thing. However - frozen milk and eggs with bourbon? That combination seemed heaven-sent. I had no idea if this brilliant idea would actually work, facing the little technicality that alcohol does not actually freeze. More specifically, a certain ratio must exist between the components, to ensure the ice cream will still freeze, even with the added alcohol.

I am happy to tell you that the below recipe holds the perfect ratio of milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and Maker’s. Each scoop of ice cream emerges effortlessly and unimaginably smooth from the container. The usual ‘burn’ of the bourbon is chilled, only revealing the oak-y, vanilla flavor behind the alcohol.