Chocolate Chip Cookie Pretzel Bars
Updated April 28, 2011
I don’t usually crave salty snacks, but I do love pretzels. Twists, rods, sticks, chocolate or yogurt dipped, I love them. We’ve made homemade soft pretzels and those are super scrumptious too. Pretzels are just a fun snack, in any shape or form!
I recently saw a cookie bar recipe from Food and Wine that included pretzel pieces. I knew I had to try these. Pretzels mixed into a sweet treat, what a divine idea!
The cookie bars were delightful. The pretzels added a nice little crunch and the sweet/salty combination was very satisfying. Josh said these are his favorite bar treats that I have made. This recipe is a keeper!
Penny Pinching Pantry Raid Update
The challenge is still going well. Over the weekend our friends from CA stayed with us and we were able to feed them well with what we had. We also had friends over for dinner on Sunday. The challenge is working even with extra mouths to feed! 🙂
I bought another gallon of milk for 80 cents this week. Josh goes through milk like mad! I am grateful for coupons this month. I am going shopping for produce today. I hope to find some bargains at Sunflower Market. It is double ad day, so there should be some good sales. Our total is now at:$11.07.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Pretzel Bars
Source: Food and Wine
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
One 12-ounce bag bittersweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chocolate sprinkles (I didn’t use these)
Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray.
In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter with both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. On low, beat in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.
Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Press the batter down with a spatula. If you want to use the sprinkles, sprinkle them on top of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. The middle might be a little gooey but that is ok, the bars will set up. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool completely.
Use a knife to go around the side of the pan to loosen the bars. Cut the bars in squares and serve.
Oh man this looks look absolutely delicious! I am definitely saving this recipe!
Maria these look awesome. I love salty sweet foods. Will have to try these for my family.
I am so going to try these Maria! I love the combination of sweet salty and in a cookie, oh yes!
Sweet & salty = SUCH a divine flavor combination.
These look delicious! I love sweet and salty combinations!
This looks great! One to add to my collection.
Surely extremely scrumptious! I'll soon have to try those bars!
Cheers,
Rosa
LOVE adding pretzels to baked goods- perfect combo of salty and sweet! I bet these are fantastic. Thank you again for all the dessert ideas- you are just so the best
Mmm, salty and sweet! Sounds delicious!
That's a cool bar! I also love salty pretzels in my sweets! I've made an ice cream last week with them and it was goooooooooood!
Sounds wonderful! I am loving that you fed your friends with what you had in your pantry! That is super hard to do. Great job!
I love salty & sweet, now throw some caramel in there & it would be perfect
What a creative and tasty combination!
DEEEE-licious! these look amazing.
marye
bakingdelights.com
I always love the salty-sweet combination– it really helps to curb those nasty cyclical cravings, heh heh 🙂 But hmm, did this stick to the pantry challenge? 😉 Ha ha ha!
These sound so good! I always crave the sweet and salty combination.
Oh wow, these sound amazing! I love the saltiness of pretzels mixed with sweet. I can't wait to try theses.
You can't beat salty and sweet – they look tasty.
Thanks everyone. If you love sweet/salty you will love these!
Manggy-And yes we already had pretzels, chocolate chips, etc. in our pantry:)
Great idea… that recipe would have caught my eye too! I did a pretzel brownie recipe once & same thing… nice mix of the sweet & salty!
hooray!! **doing a little chocolate-covered-pretzel dance** THANKS for posting this! I cannot wait to try it! 🙂
Oooooh. I love pretzel's and chocolate so I'm sure this is a winner.
This sounds really good and I like the idea of bars instead of cookies, which are not my favorite thing to make!
Thanks for the recipe….I love chocolate dipped pretzels and a ton of mini-pretzels laying around….
You can't beat sweet and salty, especially chocolate and pretzels – yum!
I am obsessed with salty and sweet. These sound so delicious!
Awesome job on keeping the costs low and using what you got.
I am so making soft pretzels now. One of my favorites especially with cheese dip. Well pretzels in general get nothing but love from me.
Love the idea and looks awesome!
Love the sweet and salty combo! Can't beat that. And good for you on the budget eating!
hmmm, can't comment with my name and url. But it's me, Elle!
These look great! I will have to try to make them!
We love pretzels, I can't wait to try these!!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Cookie pretzel chocolate chip goodness? I'd gobble this up in a HEARTBEAT!
I absolutely love the sweet/salty combination and can't wait to make these!
Yum those look great. I love pretzels in baked goods. Your pantry raid experience seems fun but Im so to lazy to do something like that. I will spend the extra money if that means I don't have to drive to another store:)
love these Maria! Chocolate and the saltiness from pretzels is a fab combo
These look so good!! I can't believe how little you've spent… with extra mouths!! insane.
If I ever do sweet, I like sweet & salty. I would enjoy these.
those look very good! my husband is more of a pretzel fan than I am…maybe I've found a dessert for him 🙂 Thank you
Yum! These make me think of Take 5 bars and chocolate chip cookies. Definitely can't go wrong there!
chocolate-covered pretzels are my go-to movie treat, and i think these bars would be outstanding! i'm ashamed that it hasn't occurred to me before–nicely done!
Ooh…I saw these in F&W and have been wanting to make them. Glad to know you liked them.
Whoa. YES please! I love sweet and salty together. These look great, Maria!
these sound absolutely amazing 🙂 the only thing that might make them better? peanut butter 🙂
wow, i'm really curious about how these taste
These look really fabulous. I absolutely love salty/sweet combos and especially love chocolate and pretzels!
The salty sweet combination is great! This recipe has to be wonderful.
Happy Twirls
It sounds wonderful yummy…
These are very pretty cookie bars. My favorite pretzels are from Gardetto's- their mustard kind. Delish!
This looks and sounds so yummy! I love pretzels and cookies and chocolate. What a great combo of them all!
You are doing so well with the challenge!
These cookie bars sound fantastic – I love pretzels and chocolate. Delish!
Love the combination of sweet and salty! Sounds delicious, I'm definitely bookmarking this one.
I've never had the sweet and salty combo yet but these look amazing!
Maria
x
I love sweet and salty combo in snacks. This looks wonderful!
Maria you know how I love me some bar cookies (much too lazy for the regular cookies :))! I've printed the recipe and added it to my list of desserts for the week.
Btw, I'm not into salty but do enjoy pretzels. (I'd like to try pretzels as a crust, too.)
~ingrid
Oh my goodness…that's all I have to say! I am making these this weekend!
These do look good. Pretzels and chocolate are a great combination!
These are right up my alley – I love the salty sweet combo and chocolate covered pretzels are one of my favorite treats!
Chocolate chips and pretzels – what a yummy combo! These look divine!
These look like perfect snacks. I love chocolate and salt together, so these are definitely must-makes!
These look wonderful. I love sweet and salty combo.
And what a great price on milk! 🙂
These sound awesome! It's a weird fact of my life that I hate pretzels on their own, but I love them when combined with sweet stuff. I'll have to try these!
Great idea these look fabulous yummy.
I love sweet and salty. These are perfect!
I LOVE pretzels in desserts. I'm a sweet/salty fiend. This is a great recipe.
these look amazing, I have to try them.
these look so salty and sweet, yummy!
80 cents for a GALLON of milk? Fantastic! These look so good, Maria!
I love that you mix pretzels with chocolate chips. I should make this recipe 🙂
oo sweet and salty desserts! Sounds wonderful!
A gallon of milk for 80 cents? I want to shop where you shop. If you need someone to take the leftover bars off your hands, I'm your girl! 😉
Omg! Salty pretzels + chocolate chip cookies?? This was SO made for me! Lol ;D
Man, I could learn a lesson or two from you – we just spent $140 on groceries, and it doesn't even seem like we got a lot. These look awesome, I have to make these for sheezy – maybe even tonight =) Hope all is well and sorry I have been MIA on the commenting, busy summer.
Can I say this here? These are the ultimate PMS food. 😉 Sweet, chocolate, salty….perfect! 🙂
These look great. I too, love sweet/salty combos.
Have had this recipe bookmarked for awhile and finally found an excuse to make it. The family is raving over them. Thank you! Yummy!
So glad you liked the bars!
The jury is out on these. I made these a few weeks ago (I’ve been testing a bunch of your cookie/bars recipes to use for a ‘cookie bar’ at my wedding in october!). I think I might have overbaked these – the pretzels soaked up the moisture from the bars and had a stale texture, and since all that moisture was soaked up by the pretzels, the bars tasted too dry. The flavor was nice. Freezing and defrosting individual bars greatly improved the texture – but again, I think I just overbaked these.
I made these recently (and blogged them!)…they were a big hit at the party I brought them to. Thanks for a great recipe!
Do I measure the pretzels before or after chopping?
Can an 8x8x2 inch pan be used for a thicker bar?
They will be pretty thick. You will have to bake them longer so the middle won’t be gooey.