Smitten Kitchen Pretzel Linzer Cookies with Salted Caramel Filling/Drizzle
Sometimes you just know, in advance, that you are going to love something. A Nancy Meyers movie, for example. We can safely anticipate that a Nancy Meyers film will be pleasing to the eye and warming to the heart--a two-hour spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine of our fates go down. (For inevitably we will either own outrageously successful Dean-and-Deluca-esque bakeries or be prolific playwrights with Hamptons houses. Or, if we are men, we will be lovable rapscallions with limitless wealth who are ready to settle down by the time we're 70. Get excited!)
But have you ever stopped to consider what goes into making a Nancy Meyers movie? All that soft lighting; detailed sets dripping with delightful details; the impeccable pacing, witty dialogue; the star power! A Meryl Streep back-end deal ain't gonna ink itself.
I hope you can see the connection I'm making here--to wit: that Deb Perelman's Pretzel Linzer Cookies are a Nancy Meyers movie in your mouth. There is nothing NOT to love about this cookie. It is simple in concept--salt and sweet, in the dance of the ages--and not particularly difficult to execute (in theory). But it does require some modicum of skill. Most importantly, it requires the ability to understand how thick one-eighth of an inch is:
and how to differentiate between copper-colored caramel and caramel that is merely golden.
Failure to recognize these physical characteristics results in a much thicker cookie than Deb wants for us, and a much runnier salted caramel filling. Thankfully, said failures do not impact one's desire to eat three of these while watching Something's Gotta Give, which, when viewed with a twenty-something year-old friend who has neither seen nor heard of said film (?!), has the capacity to make one feel like buying a wardrobe full of turtlenecks and getting on with it.
In the end, regardless of how thick your cookies and fillings come out, I hope they make you think of Jack Nicholson kissing Diane Keaton on a cold bridge in Paris--and, in so doing, bring you hope for the happiness that awaits you, just one marriage around the corner.*
* Sorry, I might be projecting.
Pretzel Linzers with Salted Caramel (adapted from the exceptional Smitten Kitchen Everyday)
cookies
3 1/2 c pretzel sticks, twists, whatever -- it doesn't matter, you're pulverizing them
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c light-brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
1 c unsalted butter (any temperature) cut into chunks
1 large egg (any temperature)
powdered sugar (to finish - if you're into things like "completion")
caramel
1/2 c heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp coarse or flaky sea salt
1/4 c golden syrup or light corn syrup (I used golden)
2/3 c granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step One - Pretzel Flour
Put the pretzels in the food processor and go to town. There's no such thing as taking this too far. Pretend the pretzels contain forensic evidence you're trying to conceal, or the skull of your most pernicious ex-paramour, and let it blast. Then extract 1 1/2 cups of pretzel "flour" and set aside. As for the remaining pretzel crumbs: you will place these in a container and set aside for topping a scoop of butter pecan ice cream--a fantasy we will explore further in my top-secret, still-in-development recipe, Deconstructed Butter Pecan/Pretzel Cone Sundae.
Step Two - Cookies
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars to the remaining pretzel flour, and put everything into the food processor like so:
Add the butter and run the processor until the mixture looks like nut flour, which is what linzers are traditionally are made of. (**The more you know**) Then add the egg and run the machine until the dough clumps and the blade refuses to keep spinning, comme ca:
Now cover a large cutting board with parchment paper (or two smaller boards, if need be) and plop the dough onto it. Should look like a little sandbox on your table. Place another sheet of parchment over the dough and, with a rolling pin (or a soup can if you're really hard up), roll the dough out into one thin (1/8-inch thick) large sheet. If you're me, your 1/8-inch thick dough will be about double that thickness, but you'll just have to soldier on with it because life isn't about perfection, it's about getting close enough and then moving on with aplomb.
Transfer the board to the freezer and chill for 15 minutes. This may require removing items from your freezer and tipping the board to one side, but it's ok -- you're going to be ok.
Remove dough from freezer and begin cutting out your cookie shapes. Deb used a 1/2-inch and 2-inch round cookie cutter to make a wreath-like top cookie and a solid bottom. I took one look at the dough and decided such ambition was way above my pay grade. Thus, I opted for 2-inch fluted cookie cutters (available here, from Williams Sonoma), solid on both sides. Deb says to make sure you keep the dough cold or it will be hard to lift pieces of dough from the parchment. I solved this problem with my handy super-thin spatula:
Arrange the cookies on silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on how shitty your oven is. Mine is pretty craptastic and I like my baked goods slightly burned, so I went for 14 minutes, but I also live at sea level and I think that affects things. (Someone should verify this.)
While your cookies are in the oven, get started with:
The Filling
Warm the cream, butter, and salt together in the microwave until the butter melts -- approximately one minute and thirty seconds at fifty percent power, or 1:30 at 50% if you're more of a numbers person. Over medium heat, stir the syrup and sugar together in a medium saucepan and cook until they are a deep amber color (305-310 degrees). Add the warmed cream mixture and stir to combine. Then, cook until the caramel is a copper color -- NOT until it is merely yellow and bubbly. Do not be afraid, the copper will come! At any rate, those of you with thermometers will look for the temperature to achieve 245 to 250 degrees. Pour the caramel--such as it is--into a spouted container (or coffee mug) and let it cool until it thickens, approximately 30 minutes.
Assemble Your Crew
Now it's time to assemble the cookies. Using a teaspoon (or the spout of your spouted container if you're fancy), pool caramel on the bottom cookie, stopping when the puddle (or drizzly mess) is 1/4 inch from the edges (or wherever the hell you want it to be). Refrigerate until the caramel fills up, or fail to read that instruction and begin eating your cookies immediately, covering yourself and the entire kitchen with caramel in the process.
Finally, select your favorite Nancy Meyers movie, park it on the couch, and enjoy.