OK, I have to be honest… I don’t really care for these cookies. They’re kinda dry, and I think they need some help in overall flavor profile, vis-a-vis salt to chocolate to tasty cookie base. Still, Rich’s mom LIKES ’em, so I have made a batch to bring for the Holiday gathering. I am wondering, tho’, if what makes Rich’s mom so fond of these treats is what makes me find them more or less ‘meh’…
They are dairy-free, almost vegan – well, except for the egg…
INGREDIENTS
•3 cups flour
•3/4 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp salt
•1 cup unsalted butter, softened
-I used vegan buttery sticks
•1 cup sugar
•1 egg, beaten
•1 tbsp milk (I used soy milk)
•1 tbsp vanilla
•1 cup crushed pretzels
•1 (8 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
-I use Guittard, which can be hard to find, but list no dairy in their ingredients, and are wicked tasty
Crush the pretzels – I’ve tried the food processor, the mortar and pestle, the hammer-and-the-bag, but really, the best method is to run the suckers through your blender.
Set aside, and heat your oven to 375º.
Cream the butter, ermmm, ‘vegan buttery sticks’ with the sugar in the bowl of your mixer until well blended and light in color. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat to combine.
Whisk the flour together with the baking powder and the salt, then add to the creamed buttery spread mixture and mix until you have a nice, smooth dough.
Shape tablespoon-sized bits of dough into rough balls, then dip in the crushed pretzels and press them down into disks to embed the pretzel crumbs.
Arrange the pressed cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and pop into the oven for about fifteen minutes – until the cookies are nicely browned.
Set aside to cool on a rack.
Once the cookies are cooled, place the chocolate chips in a ‘wave-safe bowl and hit 30 seconds.
Remove the bowl, stir the chips, return to the ‘wave, and hit another 30 seconds.
Repeat once or twice more, and you should have some nicely melted chocolate to spoon over your cooled cookies. I then drizzled a bit of the powdered pretzels on top and lightly pressed it in.
This SHOULD be a tasty cookie, but I remain unimpressed – mebbe it’s the lack of real butter and milk. Still, mebbe as a coffee cookie/biscotti? I dunno, but as I mentioned above, Rich’s mom likes ’em, so they are on my list of Christmas goodies.