Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Kiss Cookies

I was right in the middle of eating peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies with a side of pretzels when it hit me: this is a combination that needs to get itself into a cookie.

Sweet/salty? Creamy/crunchy? With the melty chocolate factor thrown on top for good measure? I'll take a dozen. (At least.)

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Kiss Cookies {print}

**Annoying but important fact: this dough needs to chill for an hour before baking.**

2 cups thin pretzels
1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
chocolate kisses, unwrapped (approximately 24)
additional granulated sugar, for rolling cookie balls

Spread pretzels out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Put the pretzels in a cold oven and turn it on to preheat to 350 degrees. You're crisping the pretzels up a bit more than they already are so they'll stay crisp in the finished cookies. Remove them after 10 minutes (it doesn't matter if the oven reached 350 or not) and let them cool slightly. Turn off the oven for now. (Sorry.) Put the cooled pretzels in a plastic bag and beat them up a bit with a rolling pin or skillet or meat tenderizer...at this point, you want some fine crumbs but also some larger pieces. Set these aside for now. Since you've just had a workout, go eat a chocolate kiss (call it "quality assurance testing" if it makes you feel better).

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk, and beat well. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add this dry mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and beat just until incorporated. Gently fold in about 1/2 to 1 cup of the pretzels you dealt with earlier. You can use more or less, depending on how pretzely you want your cookies. Cover and chill this dough for an hour or more.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven (for real this time) to 375 degrees. (Yes, 375 this time is right.)

Crush remaining pretzels until they're fairly fine crumbs and mix about 1 tablespoon of these with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. You're going to roll your dough balls in this mixture. You can vary the ratio depending on if you want more sugar or more pretzel, and you might have to make more to coat all the dough balls.

Roll the dough (about 1 tablespoon per cookie) into balls and roll these in the pretzel-sugar mixture. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until slightly cracked. Remove from oven and immediately press an unwrapped chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Cool 2 minutes on the sheet, then remove to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Cool baked cookies completely and store airtight if you're not eating them within a couple hours. Makes about 24 cookies.



Credit and gratitude to Food Fun Family for "The Best Peanut Butter Blossoms Cookies," which provided a starting point for these cookies.

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