Pretzel Shortbread Cookies
YES: I'm not so sure what else to say, except that pretzel shortbread has officially (from my life's perspective) been proven possible. 'Yes' --We can finally exhale thanks to the efforts and diligence of my friends at Lost Bread Co(a Philly-based bread company specializing in all things breads and pretzels). I'm not sure if they are the first alive to invent a solid pretzel shortbread cookie, but they sure as hell executed their version perfectly and theirs is the first I've been blessed to try. So thank you LBC for making the world a little bit sweeter(and saltier) but more importantly for taking one for the team and riding this one out on nothing but faith till you got what you set out to achieve--the perfect crispy and mahogany cookie filled with both wit and nostalgia.Ya'll, I'm being this dramatic because I wanted to replicate hard pretzels when I was writing my cookbook last year, but failed maybe three times before I decided I needed to move on with my life. I chalked hard pretzels up to being too scientific for my taste and my tiny kitchen, thinking I lacked the tools and the know-how to pull it off. Really that final assessment was false and I just needed to do a little read-up on how this company achieved this dream cookie. Once I learned that they weren't pumping out factory-made cookies--that was all I needed to know to renew hope, and so I set out, once again, to try to pull off the Pretzel flavored anything a second time around. I'll be honest and tell you straight up that their version is the undisputed cookie queen in my book-- I'm not trying to compete with them for business or anything, but I wanted to taste their cookies again without going all the way back to Brooklyn (they're so local it hurts me), and this is what I wound up with. (I am pretty proud so far, yet, open to tweaks/suggestions + you and me working this out together, ok?)Preztely-ness: Lost Bread Co suggested that I dunk them in a lye bath before baking them off. That would definitely take this cookie to the next level, like their level. But I didn't have lye. There were also ways I learned that could transform my household ingredients into solutions with higher alkalinity. A tip from the NYTimes suggests just spreading baking soda out on a cookie sheet and slow baking at 250 degrees F for an hour before using it:
You’ll lose about a third of the soda’s weight in water and carbon dioxide, but you gain a stronger alkali. Keep baked soda in a tightly sealed jar to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air. And avoid touching or spilling it. It’s not lye, but it’s strong enough to irritate.
All of this would have given my cookie a thicker, darker, shinier surface, but I just wanted to see what regular ol' wet baking soda would do. I did however source some freshly baked pretzels from across the street at Fenway Park (hello the beginning of baseball season--I knew I'd find a proper use for you yet, aka my pretzel flour is technically local and I'm taking some notes from LBC on that too), turned them into flour, mixed that flour into this cookie dough, and I basted the tops with a thick coating of water-logged baking soda before baking them off. I am content for now, but currently testing this baked baking soda method too--I'll get back to you if I need to. But if you want to skip all those extra baking and storing steps to cut through the clatter and be so bold, get yourself some food grade lye here on Amazon.Either way these tips will get you one step closer to the perfect pretzel shortbread.Check my version below.
Shortbread Pretzel Cookies:
1/4 cup baking soda + 1/2 cup water
¾ cup + 5 tbsp-whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup + 2 tbsp pretzel flour*
½ cup turbinado sugar aka sugar in the raw
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
½ cup melted butter or neutral oil (Ive tried this with both dairy-free butter and regular butter and recommend using oil instead of DF butter if you want them without dairy)
pretzel salt or coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Chocolate Ganache (optional)
1, 3.5 ounce bar of dark chocolate, finely chopped
scant ¼ cup hot almond milk, plus more if needed
*To make the pretzel flour, take stale (previously fresh-baked) soft pretzels, and grind them in a food processor until they resemble coarse crumbs. Spread the crumbs out on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees F until they are extra crunchy. Return the crumbs to the food processor and pulverize until fine like a flour. Sift through a mesh sieve, returning any larger crumbs to the processor to grind a second time. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.In small bowl combine the baking soda and water together and set aside.In a blender, process the sugar, salt, and 1/8 tsp baking soda, scraping down the sides of the blender as you go, until the mixture resembles powdered sugar. Add in the pretzel flour, blending until completely fine, still stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender. Add in the whole wheat pastry flour, reserving the final 5 tbsp, and blend to combine. Then add in the melted butter, and process until a batter is formed. Transfer to a mixing bowl and then add in the final tablespoons of flour to stiffen the dough. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of parchment and then cut the dough into 2X3 inch rectangles, rolling out the scrap dough until all the dough is used.Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet, and using a pastry brush, brush the tops with the baking soda mixture, giving the solution a good stir before each application. Sprinkle lightly with salt, and bake in the over for about 15-20 minutes or until the cookies turn deep brown on the surface and are cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.In a bowl combine the chopped chocolate and hot milk, and whisk until thickened and all the chocolate is melted. Using a spoon spread chocolate over the tips of each cookie. Allow to cool and chocolate to harden. Serve and enjoy! <3
Some Music:
Honestly the music I've been listening to over and over again has NOT been J.Cole's KOD, but random clips circulating around the internet from American Idol and Steve Harvey's show Little Big Shots instead. Who would have guessed? So if you were visiting us for dinner, you would hear
on repeat and hear me praising his funky and painful faces and the
because goodness, those boys have some of the best voices I've ever heard--all of these are the kinda voices where you just feel it in your soul because you know they feel it there too.