The Nation Has An Appetite

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

18 Comments

I have just one problem with these cookies—I can’t stop eating them.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
1/4 cup (2.375 oz.) natural peanut butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (4 oz.) brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (1.75 oz.) granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups (5.625 oz.) all-purpose flour [OR 2.5 oz. white whole wheat and the remainder all-purpose]
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt [OR scant 1/2 teaspoon, depending on your preference]
1 generous cup mini pretzel twists
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Using a stand mixer (or sturdy electric hand mixer and a large bowl), cream butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar, beating on medium speed for approximately 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute.

Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt while mixer is off. Start beating on slowest speed and gradually increase to medium. Beat until just combined and no more flour is visible, about 1 minute.

Add pretzels and chocolate chips, beating on low speed until combined. (This step will crush the pretzels.)

Slap some plastic wrap over the mixing bowl (or transfer to a smaller container with a lid) and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

When your chosen interval of time has passed, preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Use a cookie scoop, spoon, or your hands to form dough into 1.5-inch mounds. Place about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

ready to bake

Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating sheets on top and bottom racks halfway through. When done, the tops of the cookies should be barely set. Not to worry—they’ll bake a bit more as they cool. The finished cookies will be fairly soft.

Let sit on cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes (these are too fragile to transfer just out of the oven), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight plastic container or ziplock bag for up to 1 week.

NOTES: If you’re using peanut butter with salt, I’d probably go with the lower amount of salt. I had only light brown sugar on hand, but I definitely want to try to these cookies with dark brown sugar—this one in particular. The recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies, but it can be easily doubled. Recipe adapted from here.

18 thoughts on “Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies”

  1. Mmmm, salty chocolate treats. I will have to give these a try. I tried to make chocolate chip cookies this past weekend, but completely forgot to add the brown sugar. They..... did not turn out well.

    1. I've definitely made cookies before only to leave out an essential ingredient. (Or confuse baking soda and baking powder . . . but I only made that mistake once.) Such a bummer. Better luck next time!

      1. The good news is that I discovered last night that they taste acceptable with frosting liberally applied.

        1. Nice! Reminds me of the time I forgot to add the salt when baking bread. It wasn't terrible so long as you had a fairly salty topping.

  2. Sheenie has decided that this year's State Fair cookie will be a chocolate peanut butter. He first two attempts were decent, but no where near as delicious as her corn and bacon cookie from last year (first place blue ribbon!).

    These sound delicious, Pepper.

    1. Dough that's already warm when it gets to the oven will tend to spread too much, resulting in flat cookies rather than appealingly craggy ones. I've also heard that dough that hangs out in the refrigerator for a day or so develops a more interesting flavor. You can read more on the science behind that here.

  5. I've just enlisted my talented baker friend to bake a batch of these. They sound amazing

  6. Pepper - I coerced encouraged my wife and Kernel to make a batch of these as a Sunday afternoon project - laid out all the ingredients on Saturday, pulled out the stand mixer and added any absent items to the grocery list.
    After naptime yesterday, they (well, my wife mostly) put them together. They are awesome and, although a bit more involved than your run-of-the-mill chocolate chip, well worth the effort. Thanks again for sharing!

    1. Excellent! You are very welcome.

      I've tried to get the jalapeno to bake with me without much success. Sometimes he'll help shape the cookies and put them on the cookie sheets (after which I need to rearrange them because they're too close together), but mostly he just wants to eat them when they're done.

      1. Kernel really wants to help, but being three-and-a-half...well, it adds a lot of effort to the process.

        1. I let the trinket help by dumping in the ingredients I've measured out, and then stirring a bit after I've finished doing most of the mixing work then, similar to pepper, place the dough balls on the sheet. That seems to satisfy her desire to help, but yeah, it does not improve the efficiency of the process.

          1. Yup - that's how it was on Sunday. Add the flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking soda, pretzels, chocolate chips - check, check, check. However, Kernel really wanted to help with the peanut butter - mostly because PB&J w/Nutella is her favorite meal ever (and it's not even close) - so, despite her better judgment, my wife let her. Measuring cup with 1/4 peanut butter on the kitchen floor - check.

            1. Haha, I love my kitchen scale. Measuring sticky stuff by weight is so much faster and easier than getting it into the d@mn measuring cup and then having to then turn around and get it all back out. I just need the jalapeno to get a little better at reading numbers on the digital display so that he can be useful on that front.

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