Happy National Pretzel Day!
I wish I could tell you guys that I was savvy enough to plan this recipe to coincide with that made up holiday, but the truth is, I just wanted an easy and tasty recipe for the week. Between my travels in Istanbul and Cappadocia, work-related trips in Los Angeles, and a wedding in San Francisco, I’ve been away from the kitchen for about three weeks now.
Three weeks doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but in Book Time, that puts me A LOT behind. It’s taken an average of a week to finalize a single recipe for my book (not including photos, which I’m even more behind on, but that’s another story). According to all my blog friends who are all already authors, that’s wayyyy too slow – most of them were busting out 5 recipes per week, if not 5 recipes per day! At first, I figured that that production rate was a bit of unfair to follow; baking recipes take much longer to perfect than savory ones, after all. But now I’m definitely feeling the crunch and wish I had heeded my all my friends’ advice sooner rather than later (though there’s definitely no way I can complete 5 recipes per day).
Which leads me back to this post. Because I’ve upped my production rate for the book to 3 recipes per week (and I really don’t think it’s possible for me to do any faster than that without slacking on the quality of the recipes), I’ve been gravitating towards easier recipes to blog about, like a dump-it chocolate cake with box mix brownie in the middle and, of course, these yogurt pretzels!
This is a recipe from my dear friend Molly and her new Short Stack cookbook, Yogurt, which is a baby cookbook full of recipes that feature yogurt (duh) as the main ingredient. Although the recipe is a mix of savory and sweet dishes, I of course found myself gravitating towards these yogurt pretzels, which were one of my favorite childhood snax growing up. My twist, however, drenches the pretzels in Valrhona’s Dulcey caramelized white chocolate. It’s one of my favorite ingredients to play with since it tastes a lot like dulce de leche, but with the texture and consistency of regular chocolate. Although this recipe is fairly straightforward, it does use a handful of odd ingredients (mostly, Dulcey chocolate and yogurt powder) that you’ll likely need to source online or at a specialty store — be sure to check out the baker’s notes for sources!
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- Like I said in the post, although this recipe is easy as pie, you need a couple of ingredients that you’ll likely need to buy online. Dulcey white chocolate is available to Valrhona’s website in bar form and feve form; although you only need a bar’s worth, I like to buy the feve bag to keep around for recipes like these macadamia cookies, these black tahini ones, and these blondies. If Valrhona’s bag is a bit of a commitment, you can buy smaller (ehem, cheaper) quantities on Amazon. In a pinch, you can also substitute your favorite dark, milk, or white chocolate too!
- From what I can tell, yogurt powder is dessert MSG — it adds tang and complexity of yogurt to sweets, but without any of the consequences you would have if you actually added yogurt to a dessert recipe. I found some in the bulk bin of both of the hippie co-ops near my house (Yes, I live within walking distance of two. Also, if you live in a city with a Natural Grocers, check there?), but you can also buy it at Amazon. If you’re worried about committing to a full jar’s worth of the stuff, check out this Food52 article on how to use yogurt powder in more sweets.
Get the Recipe: Dulcey Yogurt Pretzels
Ingredients
- 4 ounces dulcey white chocolate feves (see baker's notes for sources)
- 1 tablespoon yogurt powder (see baker's notes for sources)
- 40 tiny twist pretzels
- 2 tablespoons nonpareil sprinkles
Instructions
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a wire rack on top of the lined sheet pan and set aside.
- Melt 4 ounces dulcey white chocolate (either in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in 30 second increments), then stir in 1 tablespoon yogurt powder. Send a few pretzels swimming in the chocolate so that they get fully coated, fish them out with a fork, letting excess chocolate drip off, and place on the wire rack. According to Molly, it’s totally okay if some of the pretzels overlap because then they stick together and those are the best ones. Sprinkle immediately with nonpareil sprinkles as desired and allow to harden at room temperature or in the fridge. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
