Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie

Now try and say that twice! Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie. Yep, it is exactly what it says it is. I found this recipe on Pinterest via The Diary of Daves Wife. Basically if it has all of my favorite ingredients listed in the title it must be good. And it is!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie

Yield: About 34 Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips 

1 cup caramel bits

1/2 cup pretzel pieces

Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.

4. Stir in Chocolate Chips, Caramel bits and Pretzel pieces.

5. Scoop dough onto baking sheets and sprinkle with Sea Salt. 

6.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until almost golden brown.

7. Cool for 5 minutes and remove onto a cooling rack.

Original recipe called for milk chocolate chips I used semi sweet because that is what I had. It also called for crushed pretzel pieces, I didn't totally crush mine because I wanted to taste pieces and didn't want them to get lost. Next time I will double the recipe they were so good.I ate one last night, one at work and two after dinner!   When I left for work this morning I put a sign on the cookies saying, " Don't eat all of the cookies, Love, Mom."  It actually worked. Most of the time when I make a dessert in the evening the next day when I get home from work there isn't any left. The kids actually listened to my note! 

Homemade Pure Vanilla!

Yum! Well not in this picture. In the past I bought Vanilla from Mexico which is really good and inexpensive. I haven't been to Mexico in a while and needed some vanilla. I had someone else pick me up some from Mexico but it wasn't very good so, I threw it out. Then I bought some imitation vanilla from the grocery store. Well that was really bad! So then I bought some from Costco. You used to be able to purchase "Pure" vanilla from Costco. Now their vanilla has added water and still says "Pure" on the label. I had heard somewhere that you could make your own vanilla. Why not? Little did I know what it was a long process! Making vanilla has tried my patients only because I like instant results. I'm not very patient! 

After looking all over the internet I found most recipes were identical. It is actually pretty easy to make vanilla it just take a long time to cure. Basically Vanilla is 1 cup Vodka and 10 vanilla beans. If you put less vanilla beans into your alcohol you will have a week vanilla. The most common alcohol used is Vodka but I have heard from family and friends that rum and spiced rum also makes a good vanilla. 

Once I figured out how to make the vanilla I needed to find out where to buy vanilla beans. Oh and who knew that there are different types of vanilla beans? From reading online it looked like Grade B "Bourbon Madagascar" were the best to use.  I ended up finding them on Ebay and I bought them from Vanilla Products USA. I bought a half a pound of the Grade B Bourbon Madagascar beans and they came with 10 free Tahitian Vanilla Beans.   I could tell a difference between the two beans. The Bourbon Madagascar beans are darker and more potent than the Tahitian beans. I received the beans 2 days after ordering them! Now I needed to go buy the Vodka!??? I am not a drinker so I don't know the first thing about alcohol. What is a good price? Is generic brand ok to use? I felt kind of funny going to the grocery store to check out their prices on Vodka. I ended up buying Albertson's brand of Vodka in the 750ml size. This is approximately 7 cups of alcohol. The half pound of beans is about 60 beans. So I used 2 wide mouth jars, sliced the vanilla beans in half and put them into the jar, then poured 3 cups of Vodka into each jar and then tightened the lids on top. With the 10 free Tahitian vanilla beans I used a pint size jar, the rest of the vodka which was about a cup and then tightened the lid on top. Put a date on the top of the lids so you can remember when you started to make the vanilla. The recipes say to let the vanilla beans cure for 6 weeks, store in a cool dark place (mine are in my closet) and shake every once in a while. Well at 6 weeks you have flavored Vodka! After talking to others who have make their own vanilla I am waiting 6 months before using! Here is a picture 3 months later. The Bourbon Madagascar Vanilla is darker than the Tahitian Vanilla but I can smell both of them threw the jars! I can hardly wait for 3 more months to pass buy to start using my vanilla!