Pretzel Cupcakes

By

I started with a pretzel crust. I had made a pretzel crust once before when I made a margarita ice cream pie. Mmmm that was a tasty thing, perhaps I'll make that again someday when I am once more making something other than cupcakes.

I got the chocolate pretzel cupcake crust recipe from my old standby, allrecipes. I lined 24 cupcake wrappers with it and still had a bunch leftover. Per my husband's request, I rolled the leftovers into a big ball, wrapped in foil and baked. We've been snacking on that although it never quite solidified.

View complete recipe

Ingredients

  • Crust:
  • 3/4 C butter, room temperature
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 1/2 C crushed pretzels
  • Cupcakes:
  • 3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 3/4 C buttermilk
  • 3 T vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Ganache:
  • 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • Topping:
  • 24 circular pretzels
  • 24 milk chocolate candy kisses
  • 1 (1.69 ounce) package mini candy-coated chocolates

Preparation

Step 1

Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients.
Line two cupcake tins with paper liners.
Press the mixture into the liners.
Bake for 10 minutes.

Cupcakes:
Mix in the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Beat in the eggs.
Beat in the buttermilk, vegtable oil, and vanilla extract until just combined.
Spoon the batter over prepared cupcake liners with pretzel crusts.
Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until cupcake bounce back when lightly touched.

Ganache:
Place the chocolate into a medium bowl.
Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot.
When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth.
Stir in the vanilla.
To frost the cupcakes, dip them into the bowl of ganache. (The problem was that since the cupcakes hadn't risen above the top of the liner, it was impossible to dip and not cover the liner in chocolate. I was very concerned that these were going to be messy and look bad. As it turned out, after sticking them in the fridge, the chocolate covered liners looked really pretty - almost as if I had done it on purpose. It was quite a happy surprise!)

Topping:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place pretzels on baking sheets.
Unwrap candy kisses and place one in the center of each pretzel.
Place in preheated oven 1 to 2 minutes, until kisses melt.
Remove from oven and place one candy-coated chocolate in the center of each pretzel.
Chill in refrigerator until set.

View complete recipe