5 Ingredients or Fewer

Pretzel Shortbread Cookies

by:
April 25, 2021
4.4
7 Ratings
Pretzel Shortbread Cookies
  • Makes 18 to 20 cookies
Author Notes

To make the pretzel flour, blend approximately 240 grams of pretzels (they can be gluten-free) in a food processor until you have a very fine "flour." —molly yeh

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 cups pretzel flour (see headnote)
  • chocolate, for drizzling (optional)
  • sprinkles, for decorating (optional)
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease 2 cupcake pans and set aside. (If you're just using 1 pan, you can keep the dough at room temperature while the first batch bakes and cools.)
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the pretzel flour and beat until combined and the mixture forms large crumbs. Fill up the cupcake tins halfway and then press down firmly (it helps to use the back of a spoon or bottom of a glass). Bake for 20 minutes, until they start to brown. Important: Let them cool in the pan and then gently lift them out. You can use a sharp knife on the edges to loosen them from the pan.
  3. If desired, drizzle with melted dark chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. Enjoy!
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See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Liza Posas
    Liza Posas
  • kimrw10s
    kimrw10s
  • Alisa Loughlin
    Alisa Loughlin
  • Teri Pallotta
    Teri Pallotta
  • etalerman
    etalerman
molly yeh
molly yeh recently moved from brooklyn to a farm outside of grand forks, north dakota, where her husband is a fifth generation farmer. she writes the blog my name is yeh.

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13 Reviews

Liza P.
Liza P. January 28, 2023
After two weeks of making these cookies, it's still on my mind. Based on reviews, I added an egg. I also made it with wheat flour and part white sugar and part brown sugar. I tried both the mini muffin and regular sized muffin tins. I prefer the latter. I plan to return to this recipe and play around with adding other ingredients- like peanut butter.
 
kimrw10s
kimrw10s April 16, 2020
Made these exactly as described and they were delicious!! Having read the comments I may try the roll and cut method as well, next time. Also thinking will sprinkle mine with some flaky sea salt on the chocolate, just to up the ante a little with the saltiness. Amazing how good four ingredients work so well together!!! Thanks Molly!
 
Alisa L.
Alisa L. October 9, 2019
These are so good. I made them just as the recipe described in 2 muffin tins. When they were done, I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top to melt because I was in a hurry, but wanted that salty/sweet. That made them kind of ugly and they're already hard to eat because they're so crumbly. Next time I'll melt chocolate using a double boiler method so it stays shiny and dip the cookies. These are a keeper and the best cookie recipe I've found lately.
 
am
am April 26, 2019
I tried these as the recipe stated but didn't love the flavor (I used extra dark pretzel splits by accident!). I went back and did it again with regular splits and subbed 3/4 pretzel flour for whole wheat flour. Got an even bake with a great pretzel flavor and not too salty! Pressed into a pan and baked for 35, then spread chocolate chips over the top while it was still warm.
 
Kirsten S.
Kirsten S. November 14, 2017
What a rich, delicious flavor! Making pretzel flour is genius, and I love the uniform size and shape that the muffin tin gives. Definitely crumbly (I even added an egg to the recipe), but a nice, easy recipe and one that is worth the crumb catching! I kind of want to top this with some sweet peanut butter and dunk the entire thing in a chocolate coating. But that's for another night!
 
Kendra A.
Kendra A. June 22, 2015
These are amazingly delicious! I used mini muffin tins as Angie suggested, and filled them about to the top. It made 26 with plenty of dough for nibbling. Total cook time was about 18 minutes. They are pretty crumbly, but I pressed them in with the back of a spoon. They are holding together fine to eat as cookies--but I think they might be great crumbled over ice cream too!
 
Teri P.
Teri P. February 11, 2015
can't I just roll these and chill 'em a bit and then cut them like a traditional shortbread cookie? anybody try this or are they too crumbly?
 
Jeanette A.
Jeanette A. April 1, 2019
I was planning to do the same - thoughts?
 
Teri P.
Teri P. April 1, 2019
I haven't tried it yet! Wow, internet... Now I'm hungry...
 
Morgan
Morgan December 13, 2014
I just made these and they're tasty! But soooo crumbly! I added an egg to the second batch to get them to hold together better and that helped.
 
etalerman
etalerman December 5, 2014
Should the pretzels be with or without salt?
 
Beth
Beth December 6, 2014
Probably with, since there's no salt anywhere else in the recipe.
 
Angie
Angie December 7, 2014
Definitely with salt. I just made these and they're delicious little bites. I used mini muffin pans so I could have more bite-sized versions to use on cookie trays for the holidays. If you do this, just bake them for 12-14 minutes vs. 20. I love the salty/sweet combination of these!