Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pretzels are a salty chocolate chip cookie lovers' dream. Stuffed with chocolate chips, pretzel chunks and decadent brown butter, these cookies are amazing!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 9 minutesminutes
Chill Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 44 minutesminutes
Servings 3dozen
Ingredients
1Csalted butterbrowned (see below)
1Cdark brown sugar
½Cwhite sugar
2eggs
1tspvanilla
1tspbaking soda
1tspkosher salt
2heaping Call purpose flour
1Cpretzelsbroken into chunks
12ozsemisweet large chocolate chips
36whole pretzelsoptional
Instructions
To brown butter:
Cut butter into equal chunks and place a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir the butter constantly. Keep a close eye on it. You can go from perfection to burnt in no time.
The butter will first start to look slightly cloudy, then it will change to a more transparent look. Next come the bubbles, and finally the browning. Just keep stirring! The process in total takes 5-8 minutes typically.
As soon as the butter turns golden brown, get it out of the saucepan! If you let it sit in the warm pan, it will burn. Pour the browned butter into the mixing bowl and put in the freezer to cool for 20 minutes.
To make cookies:
Combine brown butter with 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 and mix.
With the mixer off, add the flour and then turn the mixer on low to combine. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once and turn the mixer back on low for 10 seconds to remove any lumps.
Place 1 cup of pretzels into a plastic storage bag and seal tightly. Using a heavy pan or rolling pin, break the pretzels into chunks. You're looking for half-inch pieces- not crumbs.
Add chocolate chips and pretzel pieces and mix on low speed until well blended.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with nonstick foil or baking spray.
Use a 2 Tb cookie scoop to form cookies and place on a prepared baking sheet leaving about 1-inch between cookies. Top each cookie with an optional additional pretzel- don't press too hard or the pretzel will break. Bake for 9-10 minutes.
Watch the cookies closely as you don't want them to be totally browned when you remove them from the oven. You're looking for golden brown edges and a center that is soft still. Allow the cookies to cool first on the baking sheet for five minutes.
Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before placing in an airtight container.
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.