Sweet & Salty Cookies

Baking/cooking is one of the few things that relaxes me and brings me peace and comfort...even if it turns out to be a disastrous recipe. Well, the only exception is when I'm on a deadline for a recipe that needs to presented to people and it goes wrong, otherwise, I can handle a kitchen disaster if it only affects my personal meals.

Today was a long day. The end of March is the end of MCAS Alt Portfolios for us special ed teachers. It's bittersweet, because I'm happy that they will be sent out this week and not have to deal with them anymore, but the final week with them ruins my life. I stayed after school today for 3 hours to finish everything up. All I have to do tomorrow is put the work into page protectors, show them to parents and I'm done.

Until next year...

I also developed a migraine around noon-ish. I spent my afternoon programming/editing data into a computer and checking and double-checking names, dates, work samples, typos, etc. My final hour was spent with a tissue in hand to wipe away the tears welling in my eyes from the immense headache. My headache was just banging on my skull saying "Oh, I'm sorry, are your working on the most important thing you have to do this school year? Let me continue making your skull pulse with pain".

Yay Monday.

It was time for a new recipe, and I've had the ingredients for this one in my cabinet for about two weeks. This, like many of my recent postings, is from Pinterest. I've shifted off of recipes for a while and moved to home decor now that home ownership is on my mind.

These cookies hit the spot just right. I'm not a big cookie eater or cookie baker. Whenever I bake them, I find myself always thinking, eh, they're OK. I'd much prefer to bake cupcakes or cheesecakes. These cookies have a nice crunch from the pretzels and a great balance of sweet from the caramel and chocolate. A very easy update on the standard chocolate chip cookie. I changed the name just because Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies was just too long.

Sweet & Salty Cookies
from Dessert Now Dinner Later

1 stick butter, room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup pretzel sticks, broken into thirds
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel bits

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy.
3. Add the vanilla and egg, scraping down the side as needed, and mix until combined.
4. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Add the mix gradually to the wet mixture, mixing until incorporated.
5. Fold in the pretzels, chocolate chips and caramel bits with a spatula.
6. Bake for 11-12 minutes.

See, isn't that simple?