Peanut Butter, Yogurt Covered Pretzel, and Waffle Crunch Cookies

As part of the Creative Baking class that I'm currently taking with Christina Tosi – the dessert genius behind the Milk Bar bakeries – I was tasked with creating an original cookie inspired by a specific time and place in my life. When I was in college, there was a frozen yogurt shop that my roommate and I had a religious-like fervor for. Okay, we pretended to go there for the salads, but never left without a cone full of something amazing. I was particularly devoted to their peanut butter frozen yogurt. So that became the inspiration for these cookies.

My first round of yogurt shop cookie prototypes. I really thought grinding up waffle cones and using it a flour substitute would be great! But the made the texture more sugar-cookie like and didn’t add enough flavor on their own.

After a bit of prototyping, I'm thrilled where I ended up! These are crisp-on-the-edges, soft-and-chewy-in-the-middle peanut butter cookies. The waffle cones add crunch and a toasty, almost toffee-like flavor, and the yogurt covered pretzels add a slight salty/sweet tang. The yogurt pretzel coating caramelizes in the oven adding an additional depth of flavor and crispy outer cookie edges. This cookie definitely passed the "do I want to immediately grab another one" test. Sure the recipe requires quite a bit of chopping, but turning the "mix-ins" into a "crunch" is what makes these cookies unique.

One last thing: Because this was part of a professional baking course there are one or two specialty ingredients that can be found online. You could try substituting light corn syrup for the glucose syrup, but I haven't tried it so I can't guarantee success. Since corn syrup is sweeter than glucose, I’d recommend using about half of the amount listed. The glucose syrup and the small amount of greek yogurt contribute to the softness of the cookie. For the milk powder, either nonfat or whole milk powder works, you can usually find these in the baby aisle of the grocery store.

Peanut Butter, Yogurt Covered Pretzel, and Waffle Crunch Cookie Recipe:

Yield:
16 large cookies

Difficulty:
Easy

Equipment:
Stand mixer
Large cookie or ice cream scoop (optional but useful)

Ingredients:

Waffle Cone Crunch

100 grams crispy store bought waffle cones, broken up into rough, ½ inch pieces
22 grams milk powder
22 grams granulated sugar
1½ grams coarse Kosher salt (⅛ tsp Mortons kosher salt, or ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt)
75 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Yogurt Pretzel Crunch

260 grams yogurt covered mini pretzels, roughly chopped into ¼ - ½ inch pieces (save all of the crumbs)
30 grams milk powder
50 grams granulated sugar
90 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Peanut Butter Yogurt Cookie Dough

130 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
240 grams smooth Skippy or Jif peanut butter
300 grams granulated sugar
100 grams glucose syrup*
60 grams strained whole milk yogurt**
2 large eggs
½ gram (⅛ tsp) vanilla extract
225 grams all-purpose flour
2 grams (½ tsp) baking powder
1 gram (⅛ tsp) baking soda
9 grams coarse Kosher salt (¾ tsp Mortons kosher salt, or 2 ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt)

*Glucose syrup is very sticky. When measuring it out, it helps to lightly spray the bowl you're measuring it into with non-stick spray. It should then slide easily from there into your mixing bowl. Add it on top of the other ingredients so it doesn't stick to the mixing bowl.

** If your yogurt is very thick, this may not be necessary. Just make sure you aren't adding water/whey to the cookie. Line a fine mesh strainer with cheese cloth or strong paper towels. Measure out 80-100 grams of yogurt and let sit in the lined strainer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Once some water has been removed, measure out 60 grams for the recipe.

The mini pretzels should look about like this when chopped.

Instructions:

Make the Waffle & Pretzel Crunch:

Preheat oven to 275° F (135° C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Add the waffle crunch to a medium size bowl. Add the milk powder, sugar, and salt and toss to mix. (It works best to toss with your hands. Stirring with a spoon just sends the milk powder and sugar to the bottom of the bowl.) Add the melted butter and toss to coat until everything looks evenly coated. Using your fingers or a spatula, spread the mixture evenly on top half of the prepared sheet pan leaving room to add the pretzel crunch.

Add the chopped yogurt covered pretzels to the bowl that the waffle crunch was previously in. Repeat the process of tossing with milk powder and sugar, then stir in the melted butter. (Note that there's no additional salt in this version. The pretzels add enough on their own.) Spread the mixture into a single layer on the bottom half of the pan with the waffle crunch.

Bake for 20 minutes, at which point the waffle crunch should look a shade darker and the pretzel crunch will look light golden brown.

Cool in the pan while you start preparing the cookie dough. (The crunches will keep for 1 week at room temperature or frozen for 1 month in an airtight container.)

Make the cookie dough:

Combine the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and glucose in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream together on medium-high for 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with the spatula. Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds on medium-high speed. Scrape again, then beat on medium-high for 4 minutes until visibly light and fluffy.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the waffle crunch and the pretzel crunch and mix just until distributed, around 30 seconds.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared pans using a 2 3⁄4 ounce ice cream scoop (or a 1/3-cup measure) a minimum of 3 inches apart. They will spread a lot. Slightly flatten the tops of each ball. Wrap the pans in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour minimum to let the dough firm up.

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Once the oven has fully preheated, bake cookies for 10-12 minutes rotating the pan halfway through. Cookies are done when they are crisp and slightly darker on the edges and paler, slightly underdone in the center. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, the centers will continue to bake, then transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy warm or at room temperature. If you're obsessed with circular cookies like me, carefully nudge the edges into shape with the edge of a spatula when the cookies are straight from the oven and still hot.

Tip: I like to bake one pan of cookies at a time, they cook most evenly this way in my oven. If you know your oven well, feel free to bake both trays at the same time.