Chocolate covered pretzels can be baked at home, there is no wizardry in it. The only thing you need is a handy kitchen gadget, a pretzel cutter that makes easier to reproduce these crisp cookies. Of course it’s possible to form pretzels without this special cutter, you just need more patience in this case.

The pretzels below are made from cocoa-hazelnut shortcrust. You can substitute hazelnuts with ground walnuts or almonds depending on your taste. The end result will be as perfect as in the case of hazelnut.

Ingredients:

• 260 g (~2 cups) flour
• 30 g (~1/4 cup) cocoa powder
• 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) hazelnuts
• 80 g (~2/3 cup) icing sugar
• 220 g (~1 cup) cold butter
• 200 g (~7 oz) dark chocolate

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan. Let them cool, then grind.

Preheat the oven to 175°C / 347°F.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder in a bowl. Add the ground hazelnuts, icing sugar and diced cold butter. Knead quickly or pulse in a food processor until just smooth and combined. Do not overwork the pastry. Shape into a disc.

On a floured sourface roll out the dough to a 5 mm / 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes using a pretzel cutter. Place the pretzels on baking trays lined with parchment paper and bake them for 8 minutes. With a spatula place the pretzels on wire rack and let them cool completely.

Melt the chocolate over a hot-water bath. Dip the pretzels in it, put them back on the wire rack and wait until the chocolate sets.