Mise en Place for the Cookie Dough

• Combine espresso powder, cocoa powder and boiling water. Stir until very smooth. Cover with plastic wrap to avoid evaporation while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

• Measure butter and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer.
• Combine vanilla, Kahlua, salt and egg.

• Measure flour and set aside.
• Whisk the egg yolk and water until well blended, and keep in the fridge.
• Tear 2 pieces of plastic wrap and set them on an available counter space.

Mix the Cookie Dough

• Beat softened butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy. This step is one of the more important because if the butter isn’t soft enough, it won’t combine well and will leave visible “butter seeds” in the dough. Read The Finer Cookie’s post on how to cream butter and sugar.
• Add egg and beat until creamier.
• Then add the cocoa, coffee mixture. If it thickened while it waited for you, add a few drops of water to loosen it before mixing it into the cookie batter.

• Add the flour and mix just until the batter is smooth.
• Divide the dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic.

• Refrigerate until very firm or overnight.

Shape the Pretzels

• Preheat the oven 325F
• Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator and set on a clean, unfloured surface.
• With a knife or scraper cut the piece in half.
• Proceed to cut the dough into 20-25 small pieces, all equally sized.
• Roll one small piece of dough into a rope 10-12 inches long.
• Make sure your hands are clean and dry and the surface is free of flour otherwise the dough will slide around the surface and will refuse to roll properly.
• When your rope is ready, fold it in half and place the open ends at the top.
• Twist the rope at the two ends. Pull the twist downward and attach the bottom of the twisted section to the bottom edge of the pretzel.
• Use the picture of the finished pretzel as your reference. The first one will take a few minutes, but the rest will go quickly.
• Lay them neatly on a very lightly greased tray or a parchment lined tray.
• As each tray is full, put it in the refrigerator while you work on filling the next tray.

Adding the Sugar

• Remove the egg yolk from the refrigerator, and with your index finger, smooth the yolk gently around 2-3 pretzels at a time. Avoid using a brush to apply the egg because it will make the pretzel too wet and will likely drip onto the tray and fuse it to the baking sheet while in the oven. And besides, it will look ugly.
• Sprinkle the course sanding sugar over the wet egg yolk.
• As each tray is complete, put back in the fridge until the rest are complete.
• Bake the pretzels at 325F degrees for about 35 minutes or until dry.
• The pretzels won’t really expand or puff; they will simply dry and bake the sugar onto the pretzel.

NOTE: It’s important to note that rolling the dough into thin ropes, and keeping the tails short will make a more elegant cookie. When the rope is rolled thicker, it looks more like a peace sign, rather than a pretzel. Also, thinner pretzels are nicer on the palette, as they are crunchier and less chewy.