Take Out Fake Out: Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
I have a confession to make. Okay, here it is. I am, always have been and always will be, a high maintenance cookie eater.
I do not like crunchy cookies. Unless they are my Mom’s oatmeal cookies, which are confusingly called Dad’s cookies. I do not like chocolate cookies, like those backwards chocolate chip cookies where the cookie is chocolate and the chips are white. Not for me. For the most part, I cannot stand raisins or nuts in a cookie. I just want a pure and unadulterated chocolate chip cookie for heavens sake. Big, soft, chewy, dense, with lots of chocolate. Is that too much to ask?
Well, one good thing about blogging, is you can make recipes that are solely for yourself but then use the excuse that it’s for the blog. Which is exactly what I did with these cookies. I whipped up a whole batch and then decided I wanted to add something salty and with a bit of crunch. Pretzels were a clear winner. I literally smushed (technical term) a small handful of pretzels onto the top of each scoop of cookie dough and baked them as per normal.
The result was a soft and chewy cookie with a salty and crunchy topping and just the right amount of chocolate.
I ate more than a few of these before reluctantly packing them up to bring to work. I can’t have these babies laying around the house. It is not good for anyone.
Anyways, these are a fun twist on the basic chocolate chip cookies and people will go wild for them, trust me.
As always, leave a comment below if you have an idea for something you would like to see on an upcoming edition of Take Out Fake Out!
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies:
Makes about 18 large cookies
Total time: 45 minutes
Total time where you’re actually doing things: 15 minutes
What you need:
- 1 cup Butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 3/4 cup Granulated White Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 1/4 cup Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 1/2 cups pretzels, crushed up slightly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two baking sheets.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined. Add the vanilla and mix again until combined. Remove from the mixer and set aside.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture and hand mix into the butter and sugar mixture until just combined. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips. If the mixture is quite soft at this point, I usually cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to chill.
Scoop about 1/4 cup of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Grab a small handful of the crunched pretzels and smush them into the top of each cookie dough scoop. Bake for 12-14 minutes until set around the edges but still soft in the center. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Enjoy!