12 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 9
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Welcome to Day 9 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies series! Today’s recipe combines the best of sweet, salty, and buttery goodness with Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Shortbread. These cookies are a perfect blend of crisp, tender shortbread and crunchy pretzel pieces, all finished with a luxurious dip in melted chocolate.
These cookies are my take on one of my favorite childhood treats to make this time of year: chocolate-dipped pretzels. I lean into the nostalgia by shaping the cookies in long strips to mimic pretzel sticks.
These cookies strike the perfect balance between indulgent and approachable, making them a hit with everyone from kids to adults. Plus, they’re as fun to make as they are to eat—get the kids involved in the dipping and decorating for a holiday activity everyone will enjoy!
Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Shortbread
48
Cookies30
minutes15-16
minutes
These cookies are sweet, salty, and buttery – a perfect blend of crisp, tender shortbread and crunchy pretzel pieces, all finished with a luxurious dip in melted chocolate
Ingredients
- Pretzel Shortbread
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (226 grams)
1/2 cup brown sugar (110 grams)
1/4 cup powdered sugar (60 grams)
4 cups whole pretzels (180 grams)
2 cups cake flour (230 grams)
12 oz. white or dark chocolate for dipping
sprinkles or candy toppings for decorating (optional)
- Pretzel Wash
2 cups hot water (473 mL)
2 teaspoons baking soda (6 grams)
1 Tablespoon molasses (20 grams)
Directions
- For the Pretzel Shortbread
- Preheat an oven to 350°F.
- Blend or crush the pretzels until they are sandy with only a small amount of tiny pretzel chunks left. Set aside.
*Note: if your pretzel chunks are too big, your cookie may be crumbly and fall apart more easily. - Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. This will take 2-3 minutes.
- Slowly fold in the flour and crushed pretzels.
*If you live in a less humid climate than I do, your dough may be more dry. If your dough is too crumbly, simply at 1-2 Tablespoons of water or milk until it is pliable. - Turn the dough out on to a piece of parchment and press it together to form a rectangle block.
- Place a second piece of parchment on top of the dough and roll it out to 1/4 inch thick. Continue to mold the dough into a rectangle as you roll it out.
- You can cut these cookies into any shape that you like. I like to cut mine into long strips to mimic the shape of pretzel sticks. This is easiest to do if you mold your dough into a rectangle as you roll it out.
Slice the rectangle down the middle and cut strips that and 1/2″-1″ wide. - Carefully transfer the parchment and dough to a sheet tray and place it in the freezer to chill for at least 20 minutes.
- Pretzel Wash
- While the cookies are chilling, mix together the pretzel wash. (This is to help the shortbread brown while baking the way that a pretzel does.)
- Using hot water from the tap, mix all of the ingredients together. (The water only needs to be warm enough to dissolve the other ingredients, and you want it to cool down quickly. So there’s no need to boil you water.)
- Put the pretzel wash into the refrigerator to cool for at least 5 minutes. (If the wash is too warm, it may dissolve the cookies a bit.)
- Take the cookies out of the freezer and immediately dip each of them into the pretzel wash.
- Place the cookies directly onto a parchment-lined sheet tray after “washing”
- Bake for 15-16 minutes. Cool completely.
- Dip each cookie into melted chocolate and decorate with sprinkles or candy pieces. My favorite combination is white chocolate with peppermint candy cane pieces. Enjoy!
Notes
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