Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies — Soft chocolate chip cookies packed with chocolate chips and crunchy pretzels!! Salty-and-sweet all in one!!
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies Recipe
If you love salty-and-sweet treats, these are for you. Soft chocolate chip cookies with crunchy pretzels baked in. There are so many different flavor and texture elements, making the cookies totally irresistible.
I adapted the dough base I used in Trail Mix Protein Bar Cookies and Cream Cheese Cookies. I’ve been enjoying this base lately because the cookies turn out soft, slightly chewy, buttery with rich brown sugar flavor, and the batch size is under 1 dozen, perfect for my small family. You can always double it if you need more.
The pretzels stay crunchy, snappy, and are a great contrast to the soft dough. My family raved about the flavor combination in the cookies. They really love salty-and-sweet things and since they’re pretzel fanatics, the cookies were right up their alley.
Chocolate seems to taste even better when there’s a little saltiness present. Even my seven-year-old daughter said the chocolate tasted better in these cookies, yet it’s the same chocolate chips I usually use, Trader Joe’s semi-sweet.
She said the kids at her school were all clamoring to try a bite of the cookies after spying them in her lunchbox. She said she normally shares things freely with her friends since I pack plenty of (extra) goodies, but said she kept these all to herself.
They’d make great holiday gift exchange cookies because they’re fun, unique, and different from all those sprinkles and cut-out cookies.
What’s in Pretzel Cookies?
To make these sweet and salty cookies, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Mini pretzel twists
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Pretzel Cookies
Cream together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Then, add in the dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and pretzels last.
Form 10 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly. The cookie dough needs to then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Once the dough has had time to chill, bake until the edges have set and the tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t over bake.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
These sweet and salty cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Very easily! Simply double the ingredients and bake using multiple cookie sheets. If baking two or more cookie sheets at a time, you may need to rotate the sheets in the oven halfway through baking.
Tips for Making Pretzel Cookies
I recommend using mini pretzel twists since they’re bite-sized and are easier to stuff into cookie dough. If using larger pretzels, you may want to break them up with your hands first.
I used semi-sweet chocolate chips in this recipe, but you can use another variety if desired. I bet peanut butter or butterscotch chips would also be divine.
When forming the cookie dough balls, shield large pretzel pieces on the undersides of dough mounds so the pretzels aren’t resting directly on the baking sheet. They’re prone to burning, so you have to be careful.
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Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1/4 cup of light and 1/4 cup dark)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstach
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste (remember the pretzels are salted too)
- 1 heaping cup mini pretzel twists
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, sugars (highly recommend using some dark brown sugar), egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the pretzels (I add them whole and let the mixer crush them, or you can crush them in your fist over the mixing bowl before adding if you prefer tinier pieces), chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined or pretzels are as small as desired, about 1 minute.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form 10 equal-sized mounds of dough (they look fairly large because the pretzels are bulky), roll into balls, and flatten slightly. * (see tip below)
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 3 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray.
- Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
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The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies — My favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies! Just one bite and I think you’ll agree!
The Best Soft and Chewy Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies — You’ll never miss the butter in these cookies that are so soft and loaded to the max with chocolate!
The Best M&M’s Cookies — These bakery-style M&M’s cookies are soft, chewy, buttery, and LOADED with M&M’s and chocolate chips. No one can resist these cookies!
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies – No butter and no mixer used in these easy cookies dripping with chocolate!
Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies – My gold standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for over two years!
Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies — Move over, butter, cream cheese makes these cookies thick and super soft!
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – Super soft, perfectly chewy, BROWNED BUTTER cookies that are LOADED with two kinds of chips!! An EASY one-bowl, no-mixer recipe for irresistibly DELISH cookies!!
How cute is your daughter…I’d keep these to myself as well…love salty and sweet together. I always love how gooey the chocolate looks in your cookie photos..so yummy.
I’m a big fan of the sweet and salty combination! I would need to double this recipe for sure!
It appears you’ve invented a new sort of “crack”:)
Yum… anything pretzels and chocolate – sign me up.
I love sweet and salty! All your related cookie pictures are making me drool, too. Looks like it’s time to get baking around here :)
Yummy! The sweet and salty combo is always a winner!
Chocolate, cookies, and pretzel all in the recipe name?! These look so amazing! I cannot wait to try these! Pinned! :)
I still have not used cornstarch in a cookie recipe. WHY HAVEN’T I???? These are perfect, salty sweet and perfect!
When I saw those potato chip brownies of yours this week, I was like yep, figures :) Glad we both love the salty and sweet action!
yes to sweet and salty! i love your chocolate chip cookies recipes and this one is a new one to try. yum!
I love how chewy these are! What a dream Averie!!
You perfectly captured that melty-chocolate chip moment in your picture. I just ate breakfast and now I want cookies. Chocolate and pretzels sound yummy. But not today … in my fridge are chilled quadruple chocolate cookies, waiting to be baked (except, well, you know how it goes in the kitchen … they have turned into double chocolate cookies cuz the chocolate pudding mix I thought I had turned out not to be lurking in my cupboard, so I used vanilla pudding instead … and I was too lazy to chop up chocolate so I just used mini-chips … ). :)
I love how you improvised on the quad choc cookies. I would still call them triple chocolate though! I love mini chips for their supreme melting ease and that was a smart substitution in place of actually chopping dark chocolate. Good job :) Let me know how they turn out! Curious to see what the vanilla pudding mix does. Happy baking!
Improvised cookies got rave reviews from our friends–vanilla pudding mix makes for a less-intense chocolate experience–sweeter–but still good! But … only double chocolate–I used all mini-chips–not a mix of mini- and regular size chips. I love the pudding mix in the cookies. SO good. I think I like it better than using cornstarch. The texture is amazing.
I agree with you re pudding mix over corn starch in those chocolate cookies. The texture is just phenomenal. Even in the mixing bowl, you can just TELL they’re going to be amazing :) But some readers don’t have access to PM and only have access to CS, or don’t want to use PM for whatever reason….so there’s an alternative. And glad your friends raved about them!
OH my my mouth is watering! There can never ever be too many chocolate chip cookies in my book!! feeling like cookie monster right now…ME WANT COOKIE!
A little salty crunch in a soft puffy chocolate chip cookie–2 of my favorite contrasts in one! Skylar is developing quite a palate–very impressive at her age and it has to be fun to hear her make comments about what she picks up. A little salt (or coffee) is such a chocolate enhancer.
She sure is. After two cookbooks and approaching 6 years of blogging as she approaches her 8th bday, she’s been around this her whole life and so it’s sort in her blood at this point! And she knows when giving feedback, telling me ‘this is amazing’ isn’t going to cut it. I need to know was the chocolate intense enough, was the muffin crumb soft enough, could you taste the almond extract…I need details and she knows how to give them!
I’m all about sweet and salty, so these are right up alley! You make it too hard for us to choose which recipe to make from your blog first, because they all look too darn good!
Oh my! These cookies are begging me to make them! LOVE the close ups! Look so good! Pinned!
Thanks, Anna, and I’ve got round 2 of our post lined up for midnight :) Whew! Lol
It’s like you know everything I love and found a way to make it work in cookie form! I love the idea of adding pretzels to a chocolate chip cookie, and these will definitely be made as Christmas gifts. What a great idea to give these as gifts! I know my parents are always like, “we don’t need more things cluttering up our house.”
These definitely won’t last long enough to clutter up anything I’m thinking :)