The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! What an awesome idea.  Two brilliant women thought this up and worked VERY hard to make it happen. Can you believe that over 22,000 cookies were sent around the world?  I am so glad that I participated. I (along with 2 others) was in a unique position living overseas and having a military address. Because of this, we were each others cookie swapping buddies. Fine by me!  Who wouldn’t want Betsy Eves of Java Cupcake and Jess of Jessica Lynn Writes as their personal cookie makers??! Why were we limited to each other? Well when you have an overseas military address it is shipped to a central place (for us New York) and then it is shipped with the military over seas on a space available basis. While normally this is really quick and really not a problem, during the holidays it can take quite a while. Weeks even. NOT cool if you aren’t used to something like this. So to be fair to the others in the cookie swap, we got each other. Like I said…fine by me.  I love those two!

I decided to bestow upon my lovely bloggy sisters a family favorite revamped.  Every Christmas I make these delectable little morsels called Spoon Cookies. Those of you who are avid Epicurious.com fans will probably know what I am talking about. This year, I decided to change it up…quite a bit.  These rich bites melt in your mouth with an intense nutty, buttery explosion that only gets better with time. The addition of crunchy, salty pretzels pushes it over the top. I know you will love them.

Brown Butter Pretzel Shortbread Drops (adapted  from a recipe found on Epicurious.com)

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups broken pretzels (not crushed but not huge pieces either)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Fill kitchen sink with about 2 inches of cold water. Melt butter in a large pot until the milk solids turn brown and it smells nutty. Be careful there is a BIG difference between brown butter and burnt butter.  (Butter will initially foam, then dissipate. A thicker foam will appear and cover the surface just before butter begins to brown, that is usually when I start to really stir it so that I can see the brown bits stir into the foam…that is when it is done).
3. Place pan in sink to stop cooking, then cool, stirring frequently, until butter starts to look opaque, about 4 minutes. Remove pan from sink and stir in sugar and vanilla.
4. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and stir into butter mixture until a dough forms. Shape into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and let stand at cool room temperature 1 to 2 hours (to allow flavors to develop).
5. Mix the broke pretzels in with the shortbread dough (I squished it in with my hands).
6. Form quarter sized balls of dough and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes
7. 

Speaking of cookies!  The next blog post will be introducing my cookie contest in partnership with Domino Sugar. (My absolute favorite sugar). So put your thinking caps on and get ready to dazzle me with your favorite cookie recipe!

Be good sweet readers. But not too good. That’s boring