I started writing this Reese’s Pretzel Cookies post about 3 months ago, and then stopped because life got crazy! Some of that was because I was travelling all over, celebrating a friend’s birthday in Vegas, and going to Europe for two and a half weeks. But some of the craziness has been related to what I was writing about three months ago! I couldn’t even remember if I’d taken photos of these cookies in the turmoil of it all, but I did, and finally found them! So here you go:

I’m going to be one of those food bloggers who writes a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with cookies and then give you a Reese’s Pretzel Cookies recipe at the end. But these cookies are wrapped up in what was one of the weirder weeks of my adult life. (Mind you… my “adult life” is just about to turn 2 years old, so there haven’t been that many weeks to chose from.)

There’s a lot of things that school and listening to adults talk my whole life that did not prepare me for having a job. I know I was incredibly disillusioned to think that college was actually going to teach me real skills to get a job. But I tried to accept that it was a necessary step to a job (I still haven’t accepted this yet, but I’m working on it.)

But even outside of school, I felt I sort of had a grasp on the sort of things you need to know to have a job and be an employee. Prepared for what a corporate job might throw at me. But I was wrong!!!

No one told me that being an adult working a desk job might include:

Working on a team where there’s only 1 person other than my manager who is over the age of 28, and having the bizarre social dynamics feel almost middle school at times.
Being on the clock 50 hours a week, but doing 2 hours of *actual* work a week.
Working on a team where I have 3 bosses, and I don’t know what any of them actually do with their days.
Having a boss who wants to plan a group karaoke party, for a team of 9 coding nerds, that nobody wants to participate it.
Needing to convince that boss to not have that party on my birthday.
Going to that karaoke party and singing karaoke for the first time in my life, so that that boss likes me more.
Showing up to work two days after the karaoke party and then be taken on a trek across campus to a random conference room and then being forced to stay in that room while said boss and another co-worker pack up their stuff because they’ve been laid off.
Spending my Friday birthday working from home and doing absolutely nothing, and processing the news!!

I just remember so clearly sitting at the dinner table in elementary school, telling my parents about my day, listening to my siblings… and then completely zoning out when my parents started talking about work, because they were using big words (“pharmaceuticals” and “corporate” and “deliverables” and “PR” and “HR” and “Market Research” and who knows what else. Adult words.), and talking about things that held absolutely no interest to me.

I just assumed adults went to work and did their Important Adult Work and then came home and talked about all the Important Adult Work they’d done. And then they collected paychecks that were enough to house and feed a family of 5 while also filling 3 college funds. Because they were doing Important Adult Work!

If my parents had been talking about the drama of going to karaoke party and the bizarre social dynamics of 20-somethings in the work place, maybe I’d have been more engaged! Maybe I’d have been more prepared! Maybe I just work for a weird company. Maybe things change a bit when you have a job that actually requires you to do work.

Anyways. Since this all went down in the first week of May, lots more has happened. There’s…. a LOT to go over. But in the meantime, I’ve been rewatching some of the Office Superfan episodes while I’ve been “working” from home, and I’m starting to think I should have been paying more attention to that show as the actual blueprint for how work is. Michael Scott would have thrown a karaoke party even though nobody wanted it, and tried to make it a birthday party for someone, and then not known he was getting laid off two days later.

TL;DR – I made these cookies to bring to the ill-fated Karaoke party last May, thinking this would be a fun little post about how the party went.

And you know what? They were very tasty. At least some things make sense. Like the NYT Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Reese’s Pretzel Cookies and Having a Job

Author: Audrey

Ingredients

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour (8½ ounces)
1⅔ cups bread flour (or Pizza flour!) (8½ ounces)
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons coarse salt
1¼ cups unsalted butter (2½ sticks)
1¼ cups light brown sugar (10 ounces)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (8 ounces)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1¼ pounds chopped Reese’s Cups
several handfuls crumbled pretzels
Sea salt

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Instructions

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop Reese’s and pretzels in and incorporate them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
Scoop 6 3½-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.