Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
Scrumptious chocolate chip cookies with a sh*t ton of chocolate and crunchy pretzel bits nestled in a chewy, buttery dough
Servings 10 dozen
Ingredients
- 1 C butter browned (see below)
- 1 C shortening
- 2 C dark brown sugar*
- 1 C white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 C + 3 Tb flour
- 1.5 C ground pretzels
- 10 oz semisweet large chocolate chips
- 10 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
To brown butter:
- Put 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Don't be tempted to increase the heat. The process of browning butter takes a little bit of patience, but it is so worth it. The good news is that even though it takes a little time, it takes no work. You can stir the butter occasionally to ensure even distribution of the heat, but don't stir too often.
- Once the butter melts a layer of foam will form across the top. Once this foam turns golden brown, you have brown butter! It happens pretty quickly so keep a close eye on it. You can go from perfection to crap in no time. Set brown butter aside to cool for about 30 minutes.
To make cookies:
- Combine brown butter with 1C of shortening in a large mixing bowl or standup mixer. Add brown and white sugars and beat on medium-high speed for about 1 minute or until well combined. With the mixer on low, add eggs one at a time, waiting for one to be combined before adding another. Once all the eggs are combined, add the vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
- With the mixer off, add 2C of the flour and then turn the mixer on low to combine. Turn the mixer off, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and add the remaining flour. Mix until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl one last time. Add chocolate chips and ground pretzel and mix on medium speed (the mixer won't move much at this point if it's only on low speed) until well blended. Place in the fridge for a minimum of an hour to prevent the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with nonstick foil or baking spray.
- Once the dough has chilled, use a small (2 tsp) cookie scoop to scoop the cookies out onto the prepared baking sheet leaving about 1-inch between cookies. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Watch closely as you don't want these cookies to be totally browned when you remove them from the oven. You're looking for golden brown edges and a center that is just a tad bit soft still when you take them out of the oven. Allow the cookies to cool first on the baking sheet where they will also finish cooking. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before placing in an airtight container. You've been warned…these are addictive!
Notes
* Light brown sugar is a perfectly fine substitute. I like the dark brown in this recipe for the extra depth it adds to the flavor of the dough.Â
This recipe makes a large amount of dough. Feel free to make a half recipe, save half the cookie dough in the freezer for a shitty day when you really need some cookie dough, or bake all of the cookies and freeze half of the cookies once completely cooled. Just let them come back to room temperature when you're ready to eat.