White Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Pretzel Cookies

There are some foods out there that I just love. And there are other foods that I go through phases with and really like them a lot and then all of a sudden I’m just not interested any more. Pretzels are like this. (Not the big fluffy baked pretzels; those I can’t get enough of!) I go through times when I can’t stop eating them. But I recently bought a big bag at the store and I had some and I was just not interested. I guess I’m in the phase of not liking pretzels.

So now I have all of these pretzels and I don’t want to eat them. I know that there are quite a few cookie recipes that use pretzels so I just figured that I would use them in my baking. I already had two recipes bookmarked, but they were both bar cookies and required a number of ingredients that I didn’t have. So I looked some more and came up with two contenders: one with peanut butter and white chocolate and the other with peanut butter and Rolos. I love Rolos, but those will need to wait for another day. No worries, I have lots of pretzels.

You melt half the white chocolate chips and add that to the batter for richness. I’ve found white chocolate chips to be the hardest thing to melt successfully. If it gets even a bit too hot it completely seizes. I melted mine in the microwave using 30 second increments and that worked. These smelled divine and they taste even better. White chocolate can be super sweet, but the salt from the pretzels and the sweetness is great. This cookie looks like a good old-fashioned cookie, but pairs together some really interesting flavors. This is one you don’t want to miss.

½ cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups white chocolate chips, divided

1 1/4 cups peanut butter, divided

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cups all flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup broken pretzel pieces

Additional salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Melt 1 cup of the white chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons peanut butter (or in a microwave).  Add melted chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter to the butter mixture.  Stir in the egg and vanilla.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt in bowl.  Add to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.  Add the pretzels and the remaining 1 cup of white chocolate chips and stir by hand until combined. 

Scoop the dough into 1 tablespoon mounds on the prepared baking sheet.  With the palms of your hand, gently press down each cookie to about 1/2 inch in thickness.  Sprinkle each cookie with a touch of salt.  

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges become golden.  Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Picky Palate