Peanut Butter and Pretzel Cookies

I’m the kind of person who walks excitedly down foreign food aisles and am a sucker for any product I’ve never seen for sale in the UK before. I’m the same when I am on holiday. I have to return with foods to try at home; it also helps I have a globetrotting brother to sends me food products from far-flung places. Now I should point out it’s not always the finest of foods I’m drawn to but also the more unusual junk or baking foods hence these peanut butter morsels brought back from the US for me (Nigella has a lot to answer for).

When you move house you get lots of housewarming guests so a well stocked biscuit tin is essential if you want to be a good host.

There is something I love about both pretzels and peanut butter. I think it’s the salty sweet taste you get from both and when paired together even better. The pretzels help give the cookies texture. I’ll have to be honest I’m not sure peanut butter morsels are available in the UK apart from buying them online. If you can’t get hold of them replace the peanut butter morsels with 25g chocolate chips and 50g crunchy peanut butter.

These biscuits won’t win any prizes for their looks as the mixture uncontrollably spreads, but they make up for it with taste. The dark sugars used in the cookies give them a slight burnt caramel taste that goes well with the salty peanut butter and pretzels.

Peanut Butter & Pretzel Cookies
Makes 18

• 125g butter, melted
• 50g demerara sugar
• 125g soft dark sugar
• 1 egg
• 150g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 50g milk chocolate and peanut butter morsels
• 20g mini salted pretzels, broken up slightly
• pretzels for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 180oc.
2. Mix both sugars into the melted butter and allow to cool for a few minutes.
3. Beat in the egg then stir in the plain flour and baking powder.
4. Fold in the morsels and broken pretzels then put dessert spoonfuls of the mixture on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. These cookies spread significantly so I usually spoon the mixture over 3 baking trays otherwise you’ll end up with one giant cookie.
5. Bake for 10 minutes then allow to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack and allowing to cool completely. Yeah right. Eat warm with a cup of tea or use to sandwich a glorious dollop of caramel ice cream.