Nancy Vaziri's recipe for Sweet and Savory Shortbread Cookies took third place in the 2005 Chicago Tribune holiday cookie contest. When I came across it in the newspaper's cookbook of winning recipes, I knew immediately I wanted to try the recipe. I'm a big fan of sweet and salty flavors together, and I was intrigued by the fact that these slice-and-bake cookies are rolled in pretzels before baking. (By the way, Vaziri is a prolific participant -- and winner! -- in the Tribune holiday cookie contest. She took second place in 2011 with a recipe for Glazed Apricot-Almond Cookies, first place in 2002 with her Fresh Fruit Jewels, and the top prize again in 2007 for her Tropical Nuevo Latino Cookies. I don't know if the Tribune has Hall of Fame for cookie bakers, but if not, I think maybe it should create one and induct Vaziri stat.)
The vignette accompanying this recipe explains that Vaziri developed this recipe without eggs or nuts to accommodate her grandson's allergies. To make the batter, you beat room temperature butter, sugar, and powdered sugar until fluffy; mix in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar); and stir in chopped chocolate-covered raisins. I didn't have any Raisinets, so I did my best to approximate them by using a 50-50 mix of currants and miniature chocolate chips. You shape the dough into a log, roll it in crushed pretzels, and chill until firm.
After the dough is chilled, you slice the log and bake the cookies until lightly browned around the edges. I found that the pretzel bits tended to fall off as I was slicing the dough and I tried to press the loose bits back into the dough. This effort was only partially successful and I ended up with less pretzel in the cookies than I would have liked. The centers of my cookies cracked during baking and remained quite pale.
I was surprised -- in a wonderful way -- at how these cookies turned out. Since they are described as a "shortbread" cookie, I was expecting the texture to be tender. But these cookies were very crisp. They reminded me a lot of the M&M Sugar Cookie Jewel recipe I used to make frequently when I was in college. I thought they were delightful. I liked the interesting mix of different flavors and textures from the currants, chocolate chips, and pretzels. But my favorite part was the crispy base cookie. I have always loved crispy cookies.
Because I had trouble getting the pretzels to stick to the outside of the cookies, especially while I was slicing them, I think it would be a lot easier to just mix the pretzels into the batter with everything else. I'm not sure if that would cause the pretzels to soften and lose their crunch, but then again, I think you could probably just scoop the dough immediately and convert this from a slice-and-bake cookie to a drop cookie.
Even without living up to their full pretzel potential, these were very good cookies. And they are indirectly responsible for my discovering two other great recipes (a retro strawberry pretzel tart and butterscotch blondie bars with peanut-pretzel caramel) I tried when I needed to find a way to use up the rest of the bag of pretzels I had to buy to make them. Definitely a winner in my book.
Recipe: "Sweet and Savory Shortbread Cookies" by Nancy Vaziri, from Holiday Cookies: Prize-Winning Family Recipes from the Chicago Tribune for Cookies, Brownies, Bars and More, recipe available here at the Chicago Tribune.
Previous Post: "An Old School Throwback: Sugar Cookie Jewels,"August 27, 2010.
The vignette accompanying this recipe explains that Vaziri developed this recipe without eggs or nuts to accommodate her grandson's allergies. To make the batter, you beat room temperature butter, sugar, and powdered sugar until fluffy; mix in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar); and stir in chopped chocolate-covered raisins. I didn't have any Raisinets, so I did my best to approximate them by using a 50-50 mix of currants and miniature chocolate chips. You shape the dough into a log, roll it in crushed pretzels, and chill until firm.
I was surprised -- in a wonderful way -- at how these cookies turned out. Since they are described as a "shortbread" cookie, I was expecting the texture to be tender. But these cookies were very crisp. They reminded me a lot of the M&M Sugar Cookie Jewel recipe I used to make frequently when I was in college. I thought they were delightful. I liked the interesting mix of different flavors and textures from the currants, chocolate chips, and pretzels. But my favorite part was the crispy base cookie. I have always loved crispy cookies.
Because I had trouble getting the pretzels to stick to the outside of the cookies, especially while I was slicing them, I think it would be a lot easier to just mix the pretzels into the batter with everything else. I'm not sure if that would cause the pretzels to soften and lose their crunch, but then again, I think you could probably just scoop the dough immediately and convert this from a slice-and-bake cookie to a drop cookie.
Even without living up to their full pretzel potential, these were very good cookies. And they are indirectly responsible for my discovering two other great recipes (a retro strawberry pretzel tart and butterscotch blondie bars with peanut-pretzel caramel) I tried when I needed to find a way to use up the rest of the bag of pretzels I had to buy to make them. Definitely a winner in my book.
Previous Post: "An Old School Throwback: Sugar Cookie Jewels,"August 27, 2010.
Comments
Do you ever make old favorites that we don't hear about, or are you always trying something new? I just bought stuff to make Lisa Yockelson's Butter Crunch Melt-aways, but I won't get to them for a couple of weeks as we're leaving on a motorcycle trip to West Virginia.
Thank-you for noticing and being enthusiastic about the 'one of a kind' cookie recipes I have created and won at the annual Chicago Tribune cookie contest. I really seek to find a new cookie each year to introduce to the holiday cookie platter! NV
Thank-you for noticing and being enthusiastic about the 'one of a kind' cookie recipes I have created and won at the annual Chicago Tribune cookie contest. I really seek to create a new version of a cookie each year to introduce to the holiday cookie platter! NV