Just when I thought I was done throwing pretzels into baked goods, along comes the August issue of Food & Wine to tempt me with another sweet & salty bar cookie– Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars. There was no way I could skip this one, especially since I had leftover pretzel potato chip mixture. Sure, regular pretzels would have been great, but the buttery pretzels mixed with chips were even better. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. I also added M&Ms and left out the sprinkles.
The original 13×9 inch recipe is from Food & Wine. Below is the half batch version.
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour (135 grams)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2 ml)
1/4 teaspoon salt (1 ml)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (85 grams)
1/2 cup light brown sugar (110 grams)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (48 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla (5 ml)
1 large egg
3/4 cups pretzels, broken or roasted pretzel/potato chip mixture from a few days ago
1 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup M&Ms (plain) – more if you want
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch metal pan with foil and spray with cooking spray (or use parchment).
Mix together the flour, soda and salt; set aside.
Beat the butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl. When light, beat in the vanilla. Add the egg and beat until it’s mixed, then gradually stir in the flour mixture, followed by the pretzel pieces, chocolate and M&Ms.
Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake on center rack for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely. Lift from pan and cut into bars.
Makes 12
Ashley
I just made these and they are AWESOME. I’m sort of regretting the fact that I only made the small batch. Thanks for the recipe!
Linda
Thanks, Anna. I did make the small batch, and we did eat the entire thing – there are no (well, hardly no) bad cookies! I just got back from NYC last night, and wanted to head down to Momofuku Milk Bar and give them a try there, but never made it. I did have a nice “macaron” at Bouchon Bakery, though…
Anna
Sorry you didn’t like them, Linda. I think pretzels in baked goods take some getting used to. When I first tried them in a cookie, I thought the texture was strange, but it grew on me. But maybe this recipe just wasn’t for you. I hope you made the small batch version and not the large batch ;).
Linda
Made these yesterday, and we were not impressed…can’t imagine what made mine substandard, as it looks like others really liked them. The pretzels I used may not have been salty enough, but I have to say we didn’t care for the texture of the pretzels baked into the bar – seemed like it was just biting into something vaguely chewy but tasteless…Oh well…
Ashley
I love salty/sweet dishes. These look great 🙂
Krikri
You present a different shape of pretzel cookies. It doesn’t always have to be a knot.At least, this is a new way to chocolate cookies.
CookiePie
Oh YUM — those look great! Love the M&Ms on them!
AJ
PMS Cookbook sounds AWESOME.
beth
Speaking of sweet and salty… has anyone ever heard of or tried a snack mix called, pardon the expression, Texas Trash? I came upon it in an old Womens Club cookbook belonging to my mother-in-law. Among other things it contains Alpha-Bits cereal and believe it or not, bacon drippings. I’ve always been curious about it.
beth
Jennifer
These look quite tasty. I’ll have to make a batch for my book club this weekend. I love any pretzel/chocolate combo.
Katy
Pretzels are the “it” ingredient. Went to Bouchon yesterday and Thomas Keller is doing a homemade pretzel stick dipped in chocolate w/sea salt.
Veronica
Anna I made these yesterday and they came out great!! Thanks!
HeartofGlass
Now, this is the Anna compost cookie! It looks as well as sounds scrumptious!
Next time try Fritos, cornflakes and and Reeces Pieces 😉
And I don’t even have a PMS excuse for that suggestion!
Rosie
Those pretzels look awesome! Those M & M’s are beautiful colours.
Angela
Haha, I second what Amanda A said. Sweet and salty is the way to go!
I’m definitely putting this on delicious.com…I just had a bake sale [check my blog and flickr for details!], but made too many time-intensive things. These are look fantastic and don’t seem extraordinarily difficult!
Katrina
Mmm. So many yums with pretzels. Read my TWD for tomorrow–it’ll have pretzels, too. And I SWEAR I had this in mind before you got on this pretzel/compost kick! 😉
LilSis
Hi Anna,
I received that issue of F&W, but haven’t even had time to open it yet! The past few issues have had so many great recipes that I want to try.
These Pretzel Bars look awesome! I love your colored M&M’s.
Anna
Lucy, I thought they were great. They weren’t fancy or anything, but they were a good bar cookie with lots of flavors. I’m glad I added the M&Ms.
Lucyinaz
I just tore out that page yesterday so I’m glad that you made them first! So were they good? They look great!
bakingmomma
These look so good! A great mix of my favorites lol
Anna
Now there’s an idea — The PMS Cookbook.
VeggieGirl
Oooh, those look like blondies!
jenjen
Sounds so good. I love the combination of sweet and salty. One of my favorite desserts is the pretzel and strawberry dessert. I am excited to try this one!
Hope you are having a wonderful summer!
XOXO
Jen
Sue
Great way to use up your pretzel potato chip mixture! I’m sure the bars were better for your bit of ingenuity!
bakingblonde
I love the idea of these, a little different from the usual bar recipe!
Patti
Sounds like a good one! I have some pretzels just hanging around too. Looks like I just found a good use for them.
Amanda A.
This sounds like the ULTIMATE PMS food! Salty! Sweet!