Do you and your girlfriends have any silly little traditions? My friends Sarah, Pooja, and I do. We tell sneakrets. We write down predictions. We drink champagne. We snack on pretzels and frosting.
Pretzels and frosting, a salty/sweet mix of deliciousness.
5 years ago I moved to Tennessee for work and didn’t know a single soul. This was both scary and exciting at the same time. I was lucky to meet Sarah and Pooja there, two amazing ladies who greatly impacted my life and are two of my best friends.
Our short time (1 ½ – 2 years) living in Murfreesboro together was full of high highs and low lows for all of us. I don’t think any one of us would have survived our time there without the love and support from each other. I have learned so much from these girls and love them so much. I could go on and on and on about how amazing they are, but I won’t. There’s just not enough space on this blog.
I don’t remember exactly how our pretzel and frosting obsession originated. If I were to guess though, I probably had leftover frosting from a cake or cupcakes lying around. We then probably used pretzels as a vehicle to transfer the frosting from the bowl to our mouths, because spoons are overrated and pretzels are delicious. Don’t judge. It happens.
Now whenever we get together pretzels and frosting are one of our “must have” snacks. Unfortunately geography (Sarah in Arizona, Pooja in New York, and me in Minnesota) and other grown up life things prevent us from getting together as often as we would like (everyday), but we try to have a reunion at least once a year.
On the last day of our time together we write down predictions for each other that we anticipate will come true by our next reunion and read through our predictions from the previous reunion. It’s a fun little tradition. Sometimes our predictions come true, but sometimes we’re way off.
I was super lucky to see Pooja a couple of weeks ago when she was in a town for a work conference. She recently announced that she is expecting her second child, another beautiful little baby girl! I wanted to make her a little treat to celebrate this wonderful news. Champagne was obviously out of the question this time around, but pretzels and frosting definitely were not, so I transformed our favorite treat into some cookies.
These are simple shortbread cookies made with pretzel flour (finely ground pretzels) and powdered sugar, giving them a fantastic salty/sweet combination. They are then topped with my absolute favorite buttercream from Magnolia Bakery, which is, of course, colored pink.
I was planning on adding sprinkles, but totally forgot. Huge fail. If you have some I would highly recommend using them for these cookies. Maybe add some sea salt too. Then get crazy and make these little gems.
If you have never had the pretzel and frosting combination, you need to try it out. Make these cookies and start some new traditions with your friends!
- 1 ½ cups pretzel flour (~3-4 cups pretzels, see note)
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 – 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup milk
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper or a silpat mat on a cookie sheet.
- In a small bowl combine the pretzel flour, all purpose flour, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer add the butter and powdered sugar. Mix until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll to ¼-inch thick. Use the cookie cutter of your choice (I used a glass, because I apparently do not have a circle cookie cutter) to stamp out the cookies.
- Put the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet. Baked for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are set. Be careful not to burn them. Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the frosting while the cookies are cooling. Place the butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium until smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add in the remaining sugar ½ cup at a time until the icing has reached your desired consistency (you may not use up the full 4 cups). It should be thick enough to easily spread. Add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, spread a nice layer of frosting on each one. I like my cookies to be heavy on the frosting. Feel free to add some sprinkles and a little bit of sea salt on top!
