Salted Nutter Butter and Caramel Pretzel Cookies

Salted Nutter Butter and Caramel Pretzel Cookies ~ A chewy peanut butter cookie, rippled with mini Nutter Butters, stuffed with caramel pieces, studded with pretzels and finished with Maldon sea salt for a sweet and salty cookie combo. To head right to the recipe, scroll to the bottom and skip over last week’s drama or read on and find out the key to shutting down your tween’s unreasonable request.

If it’s not toddler drama, I swear it’s pre-teen, tween drama. By tween drama I mean my 12-year-old (the same little guy I’ve been writing about since he was 3), who is usually very reasonable,  has done a 360. It’s like someone swapped out my reasonable tween for his doppelgänger from a multiverse where there’s an Earth 2 — a place where by all appearances are the same, but dig a millimeter deeper and everything is nearly opposite. My Cole from that earth is stubborn, obstinate and highly unreasonable.

Just what am I talking about? If you watch Flash or Arrow or any of those super hero comic books turned TV, you’ll get it. If you don’t, I’ll just sound crazier than I already do.

My point is . . . HELLO, where in the world did my boy think I would actually say yes to his, “Can I get Rolling Loud music festival tickets, for my birthday?” I mean there are so many “NOs” to unpack, I just stuck with a few standard ones like:

“Your 12, this is rap festival, so no.”

“No.”

“Too dangerous. No.”

“. . .drugs, explicit lyrics. No.”

I love his comeback, “But there is an all-ages section.” I’m pretty sure all ages does not include his age, unless the festival plans on spotlighting the likes of SpongeBob (featuring “Lil” Plankton). Okay, so I’m exaggerating a bit, but I was finally able to shut him down with, “I’m just going to have to accept that you will be upset with me.”

And like that, after an hour of back-and-forth it ended. He accepted that as the end of the discussion. OMG – why didn’t I just start with that? I mean in that time, I could have turned out a second batch of these cookies.

Salted Nutter Butter and Caramel Pretzel Cookies

Yield: Makes 2 dozen

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
• 3 oz. Mini Nutter Butter
• 3 oz. Kraft Caramels
• 1 oz. Mini Pretzels
• Maldon Sea Salt

Instructions

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs in one at a time and beat until fully incorporated before adding the next one.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the Nutter Butter, caramel pieces and pretzels.

Scoop dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The dough can be kept well wrapped and refrigerated for up to five days, or frozen for up two weeks.

To bake, heat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and make sure to only bake one sheet at a time. Place cookie dough 2-inches apart. Bake until cookies are browned, about 10-minutes (If frozen, about 10-14 minutes). Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with fleur de sel.

Store cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to two days.