Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

For our mini bar crawl I wanted to make a sweet treat for my special ladies.  I was in between two different recipes and my food critic (Mike) picked this one.  It ended up being a really good choice!  The girls loved them and it was the "fuel" that kept us going!  The reason for our successful bar crawl was due to these cookies!  Okay...that is a major exaggeration...I was our pure awesomeness that we made it through 8 different bars!

They are very dense cookies but, they aren't hard as rocks.  I hate when you decide you want to waste calories on a cookie only to be disappointed.  Even though these weren't the absolute best cookies I have ever had, I didn't mind spending an extra 20 minutes on the treadmill because of them either.  They are the perfect snack; salty and sweet.  I found this scrumptious recipe in my google reader one day, the blog is blue-eyed bakers.  Take a peak, it is a good one!

What you need:

• 3 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 c light brown sugar
• 1/2 c peanut butter (I used chunky)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 c chocolate cover peanut butter filled pretzels (oooooo yeah)

In a bowl mix the flour...

baking soda...

baking powder...

and salt

Mix and set a side.

 Using a stand mixer or a lotta muscles, beat the butter for about 2-3 minutes until it is fluffy

Add in the sugar

and the brown sugar and beat 4 more minutes.

While the sugar and butter mingle, cut up your chocolate peanut butter filled pretzels.

Try not to eat them all before they go into the cookies!  I cut mine into 4s but, some broke smaller then that...it's all good!

Leave the tasty nuggets alone and let's get back to the cookie dough.  Add in your vanilla.

Peanut butter...

and the eggs.  Beat until all are incorporated.

A spoon full at a time, with the mixer on the lowest possible setting, add the flour mixture.  Take your time adding it.  I put too much in, on too fast a speed and made my Tassemo coffee maker look like it was in a blizzard.

Add the pretzel pieces and the chocolate chips.  The batter is VERY thick!  Also, the chocolate chips need a little bit of help getting incorporated into the mix.  Just squeeze them in, they'll stay.

Place cookies on a non greased cookie sheet (about 2 tbs per cookie).  If you have a silicone sheet or parchment paper, you can line the cookie sheets.  Honestly, I had one lined and one not and they both turned out the same.  Your call!  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 14 minutes.  Turn once during the baking time for even cooking.

They are massive cookies!  They don't really spread too much during the cooking process.  Sorry there is no pre-oven shot, I got caught up in the moment.

They are very soft but, randomly you will get the crunch of a salty pretzel.

Set on a cooling wrack to cool completely. 

WARNING:  I didn't really care for them when they were warm so, don't judge them until they cool!

Wait till they are cooled before packaging. 

A little tip:  put a piece of bread in with your cookies when you package them.  The moisture will go to the bread and your cookies will stay softer longer!

Enjoy!

*If you need some help on how to enjoy, follow these pictures as Jen demonstrates...