Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

A short prelude: If the world were going to end tomorrow, I would make a quadruple batch of these bad boys, sit cross legged on the floor, and binge eat my heart out. How's that for dramatic? Now for the back story which centers around Easter Dinner two weeks ago. 

About three days before Easter, my brother announced to my mother that he may have invited some of his teammates to Easter Dinner (traditionally a small gathering of um 5 people at my parent's house). By "some" my brother meant the entire UB tennis team plus some girlfriends of the guys. You see my brother is the only local kid on the team - the rest of the team is from a worldwide splattering of countries - like Russia, Poland, and Zimbabwe- and therefore wouldn't be traveling home for the short holiday weekend. Well, my mother, in true old-fashioned let me fill your plate motherly style, happily accommodated the extra guests. 

So, what do you do when an entire team of young, energetic, HUNGRY college athletes show up for Easter Dinner? Well, in my world, you bake a gazillion cookies. And not just any sort of boring cookie. No no. I'm talking stick to your ribs, melt in your mouth, rich yummy you should feel guilty about eating these unless you play at least 4 hours of tennis a day cookie.

Oh and these cookies must have peanut butter in them because, after giving up the stuff for 40 days and 40 nights, I could, without fear of damaging my immortal soul, enjoy it once again! (I admit that I may or may not have come in from my run Easter Sunday and promptly went to the cupboard, took out a jumbo jar of creamy peanut butter, and ate the largest most delicious spoonful ever. Post-run protein snack, right?) Warning: This recipe produces a lot of cookies - you may want to cut it in half if you are serving less than a collegiate sports team worth of people. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

(adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen)


Yield: 40-50ish cookie bites)


Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cup your favorite creamy peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter Co's White Chocolate Wonderful...yum!) 
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• at least 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Pretzels
• 1 bag milk chocolate chips

Directions: 

• Line a baking sheets with wax paper and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat peanut butter and butter until combined. 
• Scrape down bowl, add sugars and beat until combined. You should be able to roll the mixture into balls without sticking to your hands. If needed, add more powdered sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll.
• Roll the mixture into small balls, about 1 teaspoon and place on baking sheet. Sandwich the balls between two pretzels and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
• Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth, and remove from heat. 
• Dip each pretzel bite halfway into the melted chocolate and place on the prepared baking sheet. Chill in refrigerator one hour (or freezer for 30 mins) until chocolate is set.

These cookies are truly beyond yum and, after consuming my fair share of them and regretfully realizing my second wedding dress fitting is in three weeks, dare to say that they might be categorically closer to a peanut butter cup than a cookie. Well, whatever these delicious bites are, they are a successful answer to "what do you do when an entire tennis team shows up for Easter dinner?" 


PS- Congrats to the UB Men's Tennis Team - 2012 Regular Season MAC Champs!