Brown Butter Salted Caramel Pretzel Thumbprint Cookies
These cookies have it all, sweet, salty, crunchy, buttery and booze. They are one of my absolute favorite cookies I have ever made.
Ingredients
- 282 g sticks butter browned and cooled (unsalted butter)
- 275 g All purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 66 g Granulated sugar
- 66 g Light brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Bourbon (good stuff such as Makers Mark)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon Honey
- 2 Large eggs (yolks and whites separated)
- 100 g Skinny pretzel sticks (smashed into little pieces)
- 150-200 g Salted caramel sauce (Store bought or homemade)
- 2 Tablespoons Large Flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top (Maldon, might not use all 2 Tablespoons)
Instructions
- Make the brown butter first.
- Heat the butter in a medium sauce pan over low until melted, stirring often. Watch for it to start to get foamy and whisk slowly until brown flecks start to form on the bottom of the pan and it has a nutty aroma. Transfer to a bowl and let cool. The butter will go from browned to burnt fast so keep a close eye on it as you are stirring.
- Whisk the flour and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in just the egg yolks one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add in the bourbon, vanilla, honey and mix again. Scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed.
- Mix in the flour on low. The mixture should resemble wet sand - easy to form a ball with.
- Scoop up a heaping tablespoon of dough (about 30 g) and roll into about a 1” ball, repeat with remaining dough. Refrigerate for at least 30 min to firm up.
- While the dough is chilling prepare the pretzel crumbs. Either place them in a small bowl and smash them with the bottom of a glass or place in a resealable baggie and smash with a rolling pin.
- Whip the egg white in a small bowl until foamy. You might only use one of the remaining egg whites os only whip one at a time.
- Preheat oven to 350 deg. Prepare cookie sheets with parchment or silicone bake mats.
- Using one chilled cookie dough ball at a time, first roll in the whipped egg white then in the pretzel pieces and place on cookie sheet. Gently press down in the middle with your thumb.
- Bake for 15 min. Once out of the oven, press down with your thumb again on any cookies that lost the indent, cool for 5 min, then cool completely on a wire rack
- Once all the cookies are cooled, fill the middles with salted caramel sauce and sprinkle some sea salt flakes on top.
Notes
If it’s your first time making this recipe then make sure you read all of the information in the main post as it includes lots of additional tips, as well as the answers to some common questions.
If you have any further questions then do let me know in the comments and or email me [email protected] and I’ll do my best to help.
If you choose to make substitutions to the recipe that I have not tested yet please do so at your own risk. I cannot guarantee the same results if you change a lot of the ingredients or method. I highly stress using a food scale for accurate weighing of ingredients. Measuring the standard American way with cups is inaccurate and will not result the same as when ingredients are weighed out.
However, if any of your changes are successful I would love to hear about it and will add to my recipe notes for other readers to try as well.