Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

If you love the combination of sweet & salty, you are going to love these Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies. These are the perfect chewy, gooey chocolate chip cookie with a bonus crunch of salty pretzels.

Why You're Going To Love These Cookies

• Delicious: These chocolate chip pretzel cookies are gooey, chewy, crisp and chocolate packed. The addition of salty pretzels to a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe takes this sweet & salty treat over the top.
• Easy: It couldn't be easier to whip up a batch of these delicious chewy cookies. Just 20 minutes gets you a batch of sweet and salty, delicious cookies.

Ingredient Notes

Ingredient quantities and full instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Brown Sugar Brown sugar gives the cookies a rich caramelized flavor. More importantly, brown sugar contains more moisture than white sugar. And that's what give us that chewy cookie we all want. This recipe uses light brown sugar. You can use dark brown sugar, but it will give the cookies a stronger molasses flavor.
• Granulated Sugar White sugar gives these pretzel cookies those delightful crisp edges.
• Eggs You'll need two large eggs, at room temperature.
• Butter Nothing compares to the flavor of real butter, and this cookie recipe depends on it. The butter should be at room temperature so it's soft enough to cream. I use salted butter for making these salty-sweet pretzel cookies. However, you can use unsalted butter too.
• Vanilla Extract Pure vanilla extract is a must.

• Flour Use all-purpose flour, or a 1:1 ratio multi-purpose gluten free flour.
• Pretzels Mini pretzel twists or sticks will work. They need to be salted and you will be breaking the crunchy pretzels into pieces.
• Chocolate Chips I use milk chocolate chips for this recipe. Feel free to use dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. Or you can use a broken chocolate bar for chocolate chunk pretzel cookies.
• Baking Soda & Salt Baking Soda is our leavening agent so that the cookies don't come out flat. And a little bit of salt enhances our sweet and salty end result.

How To Make Pretzel Cookies

These instructions are intended as a visual guide. Complete detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card below.

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream the sugars and the butter together until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined and creamy.
4. Add the flour mixture in two batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Mix on low speed until just combined.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and pretzel bits.

6. Drop the dough on the prepared baking sheet in balls of 2 tablespoons each. (Use a cookie or ice cream scoop).

7. Bake until the cookies are just turning golden.

8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Helpful Tips

Room Temperature Ingredients

• For the best cookies, ingredients should be at room temperature. This includes butter and eggs. If you forget to take those ingredients out of the fridge, however, you can bring them to room temperature. Here's how: Butter: Put butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on the defrost setting in 15 second increments until soft (but not melted). Eggs: Submerge the eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for 5 to 10 minutes to bring them to room temperature.

Mixing

• If you don't have a stand mixer you can use a large bowl and an electric mixer.
• Don't overmix. After adding the dry ingredients, mix just enough to combine.
• Use a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to scoop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. This will result in uniform sizes. Don't use your hands to roll the dough into balls. Your warm hands can melt the butter in the dough, which will change the texture of the baked cookies.
• Don't flatten the balls of cookie dough. They will spread in the oven. The dough balls should be spaced 2 inches apart

Baking

• Use your oven timer. It only takes a minute to over bake, leaving you with hard cookies.
• Most ovens have hot spots, so it's a good idea to rotate your baking tray halfway through the baking time. This will ensure your cookies are evenly cooked.
• Oven temperatures can vary, which means your baking time may need to be adjusted. For these chocolate chip pretzel cookies, always lean towards less time rather than more. Use your first batch as a guide.
• Use a wide baking spatula to transfer the baked cookies from the baking pan to a wire rack to cool.

Storage

• Store cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
• The cookie dough can be frozen to bake later. Scoop the dough into balls as you would if you were baking them. Flash freeze them on a tray in a single layer for 30 minutes before packing into an air tight freezer bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge before baking.
• You can also freeze the baked cookies after cooling completely.

Common Questions

Variations

This pretzel cookie recipe is versatile and you can customize the add-ins. Some ideas:

• For dark chocolate pretzel cookies, use dark chocolate chips of chunks.
• Try swapping the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips or toffee bits.
• Swap the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips or chunks.
• Use M&M's or Smarties in place of the chocolate chips. If pretzel cookies are part of your holiday baking, red and green ones make the cookies festive.

More Cookies

If you're looking to round out your holiday cookie tray, you might also want to try these Butter Tart Bars. And you can never go wrong with Ginger Crinkles or Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Chocolate lovers will be in chocolate heaven with these festive Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies, or Mini Egg Cookies. A no bake option is also a delicious addition. We love Homemade Peanut Butter Cups.

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating in the comments below and let us know how it turned out. Did you make any changes? We would love for you to share and your feedback is important! Thank you for visiting The Food Blog!

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