Coffee Pretzel Cookies

Since we are now in December, the time has come to start putting up cookie recipes. In our family, everyone has their specialties. We usually get together at some point during the month and swap them so that everyone gets an assortment. Little by little, over the years, new favorites have been added, so the assortment keeps getting larger and larger. There are probably more than two dozen at this point. I am happy that the blog now exists because perhaps we all will have access to each other’s recipes and tips without painstaking copying and so that all our kids will have these recipes in the future. This time of year, I make sure that I have plenty of butter, flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate, spices, baking powder and soda, and pure vanilla extract. Snowy days in December are especially a joy with cookies baking in the oven.

This recipe comes from a Gourmet Magazine article of December 1997. I have an assortment of sizes of ice cream scoops which are some of the most useful tools in my kitchen. I use the smallest one for these cookies. It is one inch in diameter and I level it off when scooping out the raw dough. I also roll out the 6-inch “ropes” on a silpat, which keeps them from sticking to the surface. Note that the pretzel-type shapes are not overlapped anywhere as the cookies would not bake evenly if they were. I highly recommend not skipping the parchment paper baking sheet liners as these make removal of the cookies a breeze. Also, be especially careful when melting the chocolate that not even a single drop of water gets into it as this can cause the chocolate to seize up, a condition that ruins it and that cannot be remedied as far as I know. My sister and I learned this the hard way when we were catering and steam from the double boiler caused a drop of condensation that dripped into the melting chocolate.

Coffee Pretzel Cookies

• parchment paper for lining baking sheets
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. finely ground (in spice grinder) coffee beans
• 1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg white
• 2 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)

Preheat oven to 325°F. and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, stir together flour, ground beans, cocoa powder, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer at low speed, beat butter until just smooth. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in egg white, scraping down side of bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally. Gradually beat in flour mixture until dough forms.

Form a level teaspoon of dough into a ball and with your fingertips, roll back and forth on a work surface to form a 6-inch-long rope. Form rope into a simple pretzel shape on baking sheet (2 loops with ends meeting in center). Make more cookies in same manner and arrange about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake cookies in batches in lower third of oven until firm when lightly touched, 16 minutes for standard oven, 14 for convection. Cool cookies on baking sheets on racks 5 minutes and transfer with a spatula to racks to cool completely.

Chop chocolate and in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt chocolate, stirring until smooth. Transfer chocolate to a disposable plastic pastry bag and snip a tiny hole in the end. Pipe thin lines of chocolate over pretzels in a back and forth motion to form stripes. Let chocolate set at least 30 minutes at cool room temperature. Cookies can be frozen, layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container. Makes about 60 cookies.