150g/ 5.3oz semi-sweet chocolate - either chips or chopped
150g/ 5.3oz milk chocolate - either chips or chopped
85g/ 3oz whipping creamnot whipped cream
20g/ 0.7oz corn syrup
20g/ 0.7oz beera beer with notes of different spices or coffee would be better
15g/ 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Beer Pretzel Praline
70g/ 2.5 oz salted pretzels
¼tspsalt flakescrushed
½cupwhite sugar
3tbspof beer
Instructions
Beer Pretzel Praline
Preheat oven to 250°F/120°C. Line a baking tray with a silpat or parchment paper.
Place the sugar in a dry saucepan and heat over medium heat.
Meanwhile, place pretzels in a ziploc bag and crush into smaller pieces, using a rolling pin or a meat hammer.
Transfer this and the salt to a metal bowl or heat proof glass bowl. Add the beer and mix well.
Check on the sugar to make sure it's melting evenly. When all the sugar is dissolved and is turning amber in colour, remove it from the heat and add this caramel to the crushed pretzels. Mix well until the caramel is distributed throughout.
Transfer this to the prepared baking tray, and bake for 30 - 45 minutes (check every 15 minutes, and move it around using a spatula to prevent the pretzel praline from burning). Keep an eye on it, as the exact time may depend on your oven. The pretzel pieces will still be soft, but slightly darker in colour.
Let it cool completely. It will harden as it cools.
Break it into smaller pieces, and then pulse in the food processor till you have even smaller pieces. Avoid crushing it completely into dust.
Leave it aside in an air-tight container until required.
Chocolate Beer Truffles
Place chocolate chips in a glass bowl.
Heat the cream and corn syrup in a saucepan until it steams and is just under the boiling point. Pour this over the chocolate chips, cover the bowl and let it rest for about 1 minute.
Gently mix the cream and chocolate together to create a smooth ganache. If any unmelted chocolate pieces are still present, microwave this for 15-20 second bursts, mixing in between to get a smooth mix.
Add the beer and mix it through until smooth. Next, add the softened butter and stir through until the butter is completely melted. Set aside for the chocolate mix to come down to room temperature. It will thicken as it does so (See notes for ideas to speed up this process).
When the chocolate mix has thickened and is at room temperature, use a spoon to mix this very fast (in a whipping motion). This should agitate the chocolate mix and thicken it further, and the colour will change from dark brown to slightly less dark brown. It'll look like whipped ganche (which is basically what it is at this point).
Fit a pastry bag with a large round tip pastry tip and spoon the chocolate inside the bag. Pipe 1.5 inch mounds of chocolate onto parchment paper (yield is 30-32). It will “harden” at room temperature in about 30 minutes, after which you should be able to pick it up without it sticking to your hands (or else let it harden in the fridge).
Take some pretzel praline onto your palm and press the truffles into the praline pieces so that they stick to the truffles. Cover the whole truffle this way. Repeat with all the truffles. For best results, eat within a day. The pretzel praline will be less crunchy and more chewy after 24 hours.
Notes
Notes - When the chocolate ganache is cooling, make sure you stir it every so often to ensure it stays nice and smooth. To make it cool down faster, you can keep it in the freezer or fridge, but make sure you take it out to give it a stir every 5 minutes until it has thickened and cooled down.