For most of the pandemic, I’ve enjoyed doing a ~whole lot of nothing~. As 2020 wound down, however, I started to get an itch to do something, anything really.

Inspired by a cookie exchange we did at work (bake a bunch of cookies, mail them to a colleague), I signed up for a baking class with Christina Tosi of Milk Bar. This virtual class is meant to teach us the science of baking cookies, pies, and cakes. I’ve loved baking since I was in high school, and have always wanted to have a firmer grasp on the process itself – how ingredients play together, etc.

This class is two parts – the first is baking alongside Christina (virtually) using her famous recipes. In this case, we were making the Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookie, the Milk Bar Pie, and the Milk Bar Birthday Cake. The second part is making our own recipes, inspired by a personal flavor story.

For the cookie recipe, I decided to make a cookie inspired by an ultramarathon aid station. For me, aid stations invoke strong emotions and equally strong food connections. While some people like to go for the crazy foods at aid stations, I keep my aid station consumption very routine – salty pretzels and m&m’s are my go-to. I wanted to see if I could make an original cookie recipe building off that foundation, and spent a week thinking about, testing, and perfecting my very first original cookie recipe.

I’ve shared the recipe below and look forward to tweaking and strengthening it more as I get stronger as a baker! Let me know if you make this recipe, and if you have suggestions on tweaks or refinements!

Ultramarathon Aid Station Cookie Recipe

Pretzel Dough

2 sticks butter

150g Light brown sugar

250g Dark brown sugar

1 egg

2g dark vanilla extract

190g flour

120g mini pretzels

4g baking powder

3g baking soda

5g salt

8g sea salt

125g M&M’s

60g Honey

Pretzel Crunch

100g mini pretzels

60g Brown sugar

25g sugar

100g Butter

30g Milk powder

Make the Pretzel Crunch

Preheat oven to 275. Take pretzels and crunch them with your hands until they are about ¼ the size. Mix in sugars and milk powder. Toss. Melt butter and pour over pretzel mixture until small clumps begin to form and butter is well incorporated. Spread out on cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. Broil for 2 minutes at the end, watching closely to ensure pretzels don’t burn. Mixture should come out dry and crunchy at the end. Set aside.

Make the Pretzel Dough

In a stand mixer, mix together butter and sugars for 3 minutes on medium-high. Scrape down sides. Add in egg and vanilla extract, and continue mixing for 7 minutes, scraping down sides occasionally. Scrape down sides when finished mixing.

While the mixer works, prepare your dry ingredients. In a food processor, finely chop mini pretzels until it resembles a finely ground flour. Transfer to medium sized mixing bowl and add in regular flour. In a smaller bowl, measure out baking powder, baking soda, salt and sea salt. Combine with flours and mix thoroughly.

Combine dry ingredients with butter and sugar mixture in stand mixer. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.

Add in pretzel crunch, m&ms and honey, and mix until combined. Consider using a spatula for final mixing.

Chill dough for 1 hour.

Bake the Cookies

Preheat oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a 2.75 inch scoop, scoop dough onto baking trays. Bake for 15 minutes, checking to ensure even baking. Cookies should have a light golden-brown color when baked through.

Cool and enjoy!