From: cwechter@cyclone.mitre.org (Christine G. Wechter)
Subject: RECIPES:  Pretzels, Peanut Butter Cups, PB/Choc Cookies
Originator: cwechter@cyclone
Organization: Mitre Corporation, McLean, VA
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 21:58:05 GMT


Here are some recipes I've been meaning to post for a while.  Someone
asked for hot pretzel recipes a while back -- this one requires no
boiling water and turns out pretty good. 


Hot Pretzels
~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 envelope yeast
1.5 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups flour
coarse salt
1 egg, beaten, or 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Sprinkle yeast and sugar into warm water in a large bowl.  Let sit 5 minutes.
Add salt; stir.  Add flour and stir.  Knead into dough.  Let dough rest 15
minutes.  Pull off hunks of dough, roll into cords about 1/2 to 1/3 inch 
thick, then twist into shapes -- pretzel shapes, braids, letters, etc.

Put pretzels onto greased cookie sheet.  Brush with egg or butter, sprinkle
with coarse salt. 

Bake 12 - 15 minutes.  

(This recipe also works well halved.)





Peanut Butter Cups  - yield: a few dozen small ones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(from the Nestle's cookbook)   

Just as good as Reese's, if not better.  Fun to make. 

11.5 oz (2 cups) milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons Crisco
foil or paper candy cups (about 3/4 to 1 inch diameter)

3/4 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, your choice)
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon melted butter
                             

In a double boiler over hot water, mix chocolate chips and Crisco.  Stir 
and cook until melted.  Remove from heat, but keep over hot water.  

        * See note below about what to do for clumpy chocolate *    
        
Use the back of a spoon, coat the inside of each cup with chocolate.  Spread
the chocolate all the way up the sides.  Put each coated cup on a plate 
in the freezer before the chocolate can run down the sides -- you may be 
able to do 3 or 4 before making a trip to the freezer.  

Use about 2/3 of the chocolate to coat the cups, keep the rest over hot water.
Mix the peanut butter, sugar, and butter.  Roll into balls that will fit 
inside the cups.  Flatten sightly.  Take the cups from the freezer, put a 
ball into each, press lightly.  Spoon enough melted chocolate over the top
to cover the peanut butter, spread it around until it looks like a peanut
butter cup is supposed to look.  Put back on plate, when plate is full of
finished cups, freeze the plate w/ cups for about 15 minutes or until 
chocolate has hardened.  Transfer finished cups to freezer bags or mouth.  


NOTES:
These keep really well in the freezer, but because you made them fresh,
without stabilizers, they melt more easily at room temperature than Reese's
peanut butter cups.

Try to use foil cups; they're easier to peel away than the paper variety. 
You can buy them in cooking stores or sometimes the supermarket.  They have
very cute seasonally decorated/colored ones around Christmas and Valentine's 
day.  

If you can't find small candy cups or are too *lazy* to fill a few dozen
small cups, use foil or paper cupcake papers.  You will have large peanut
butter cups that can be hard to cut/bite when frozen.  And of course you'll
have fewer of them.  

Very important -- when melting the chocolate, don't let any water -- not
even a drop, into the pan.  If any gets in, the chocolate will turn clumpy
and yucky instead of smooth.  You can possibly fix this by adding a small
amount of Crisco, with heating and stirring, but it's easier to be very
careful the first time around.  



Peanut Pinwheel Cookies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These peanut butter cookies are laced with a hint of cinnamon and swirled
throughout with chocolate.  Recipe is from the Sunset "Cookies" book. 

*** This recipe requires two rounds of chilling. Plan accordingly.

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1/2 cup *each* granulated sugar and firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon *each* baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon
6 oz.  semisweet chocolate chips

In large bowl, beat butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown
sugar until creamy.  Taste.  (Yum.)  Add egg, beat.  In separate bowl,
stir flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Gradually add dry mixture
to butter mixture, blending thoroughly.  Cover and refrigerate for about
2 hours, or until firm.

When dough has chilled, melt chocolate chips in double boiler or over 
very low heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  

On wax paper, pat chilled dough out into a 12-inch square.  Spread chocolate
over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges.  Roll up dough jelly roll style.
Cut in half crosswise, wrap each roll in wax paper.  Refrigerate until
firm, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Remove one roll from refrigerator.  Unwrap; use a sharp knife to cut into 1/4 inch thick slices.  It can be difficult to slice through the hardened
chocolate; sometimes the cookie will fall apart.  Do your best and just
push the broken hunks together into cookie size/shape.  They won't be
swirly but will still taste great.

Place slices about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Let cool on baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to racks and let cool completely.  Repeat with second roll.  Store airtight.  Makes about 4 dozen.