I don’t know how else to say this, but these Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies are the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I love the old standard too, but these chewy cookies are pretty much peanut butter pretzels transformed into cookie form – and that’s pretty hard not to love.
No doubt, my family will disagree with this. My dad in particular. Peanut butter cookies are his favorite, and every year around the holidays, we make the classic version – you know it: brown sugar, an incredible amount of peanut butter, butter, and vanilla. Oh and maybe a little flour to hold the whole thing together. Then, roll into balls, and give each the trademark hashmark with a fork.
This recipe is here to crush that recipe. Sorry, dad. But, these peanut butter pretzel cookies, built on the bones of the indefatigable Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that the New York Times published in 2008, has won my heart, and I’m not going back.
How to Make Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
Making the ultimate peanut butter chocolate chip cookie all started with curiosity. I kept seeing a recipe for Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies. Or, cookies, that as my friend put it that are “everything you want to put in your mouth at once.” Well, alrighty then.
I made them, and they were good but I wanted them to have even more peanut butter flavor. Could I find a way to get more flavor into the dough so in each bite you got the crunchiness of the pretzel and the flavors of salt, chocolate, butter, and peanut butter? Could I create a cookie that you couldn’t stop eating after just one? A cookie you had to take to unsuspecting coworkers at work or to a friend’s house because you couldn’t be trusted to not eat all of them if they remained in the house?
I returned to the original recipe and began fiddling with some of the ratios. I swapped out half the flour for bread flour, added baking powder as an extra leavening agent, and added crunchy peanut butter. I never use crunchy peanut butter when I bake. I was also apparently living under a rock because that stuff is goooooooood.
Cookie #2 was also good. But, as another tester friend irritably exclaimed while munching and I was probing for thoughts on the flavor, “What are you looking for, something transcendent? It’s a cookie!”
Yes. Actually. I was. Hurumph.
So, back to testing. I turned to Jaques Torres for help. Could the Jaques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe be altered to create the best peanut butter cookie ever? Could it be done without destroying what makes the original recipe so incredible?
Spoiler alert: yes.
The Jacques Torres recipe is fancy. It doesn’t use all purpose flour. It uses a mix of cake flour and bread flour, both of which have a different amount of gluten protein than all-purpose (AP) flour. (Cake flour has 8-10%, All purpose flour has 10-12%, and bread flour has 14-16%). By combining the two, you end up with a light, chewy cookie.
The Jacques Torres recipe also uses a cup and a half of butter, a teaspoon and a half of salt, and eschews fine sea salt for coarse kosher salt. (This is my favorite kind of salt as it always makes its presence known within a recipe and adds layers of flavor. Unlike the shy wallflower that is table salt.)
To this genius recipe, I added crunchy peanut butter (my new fave), half a cup of 53% cacao chocolate chips, and a stupid amount of pretzels. I went a little pretzel crazy… I just kept adding them to the mixer. I think I ended up putting two and a half cups in. Maybe three. And then, I put it in the fridge for 24 hours.
I topped it with a little salt before baking and when I tried it… boom. Yes. This.
The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Taste Test
At this point, I had eaten too many peanut butter pretzel cookies to have an unbiased opinion. So when I met up with a friend to watch the sequel to Trainspotting, I brought three freshly-baked cookies, one from each batch. In my bag. To the theatre. I’m that person.
During the film, I snuck him one at a time, not telling him which was which. After he had tried all three, I leaned over and whispered, “So?” He held up what was left of the Jacques Torres peanut butter cookie. Huzzah.
The next morning, I baked what remained of batch #2 and the Jacques Torres-inspired Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies and brought them to my coworkers. By early afternoon, no Jacques Torres cookies were left.
Give them a go and let me know what you think! Just be very very mindful not to overbake them. Overbake them and you’ve got gummy pretzels. And no one wants that.
5 Quick Tips for Baking Better Cookies:
* Use cool butter. Using soft butter can cause cookies to spread.
* Cream the butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes.
* Use more baking powder for chewier cookies. For crispier cookies, use less.
* Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour, preferably 24.
* Don’t overbake. Cookies will continue to bake on the baking sheet after you remove them from the oven.
What are your tips for the baking best cookies? Tell me in the comments!
Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (plus 2 Tbsp.) cake flour
- 1½ cups (plus 1 Tbsp.) bread flour
- 1¼ tsp. baking soda
- 1½ tsp. baking powder
- 1½ tsp. coarse kosher salt
- 1¼ cups salted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ cup crunchy peanut butter
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- 2 cups pretzels twists (roughly chopped)
- 1 tsp. flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Whisk flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in large bowl until combined.
- Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar in stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium-high speed.
- Turn speed to medium. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds before adding the second.
- Add vanilla and peanut butter.
- Turn speed to low. Slowly add flour mixture.
- Add chocolate chips.
- Turn off mixer. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and remove cookies from fridge.
- Use #16 ice cream scoop to portion out cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Top each with a small pinch of flaky sea salt.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are just golden. Add a few pretzels on top just before the end of the baking process. Be careful to not overbake.
- Let cool for 3 minutes on baking sheet then move to cooling rack.
Notes
My background is in publishing (I've worked at Parade, Men's Journal, Us Weekly, Stuff, Blender, Beachbody, and more), mostly with a focus in health, fitness, and entertainment. I've also run my own baking company and competed on Cupcake Wars, so hit me up with your baking questions!
For more details, check out my full bio or follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
- Is Starbucks Open On Thanksgiving? Here Are Their Hours for Turkey Day 2023 - November 9, 2023
- Dunkin’s Holiday Menu for 2023 Is Here and Includes Loaded Hash Browns and Cookie Butter Cold Brew - October 6, 2023
- If You Can’t Find the Starbucks Green Slime Tumbler, These Etsy Ones Are the Next Best Thing - September 12, 2023
I love how fun these cookies are! Pretzels inside peanut butter cookies!!! OMG!
Thank you!
The week before Easter is not a good time to be on a no carb diet. These look amazing, but you are absolutely killing me!
😉 I know how it goes! Maybe these could be good for Easter brunch?
I’ve never had pretzels in a cookie before. But I’m all about the sweet and salty flavour combo, so I bet I’d love these! I can’t believe you went to so much effort to find the perfect cookie. I totally admire you and wish I had your dedication! These definitely do look like the best cookies ever ever ever, so congrats to you!
Thank you! I’m a bit of a tinkerer when it comes to recipes. Let me know what you think if you make them!
What a BRILLIANT idea to add in the pretzels to that JT chocolate chip recipe! I simply love the sweet and salty combo of the two – and these cookies sure look and sound swoonworthy! Wow!
Thank you! The pretzel-chocolate-peanut butter combo had been out there, but I wanted to see if the Jacques Torres recipe could handle the addition! 🙂
Pretzel in a cookie-genius. These cookies look amazing, totally worth all your hard work. Thanks for the tips, I wish I was one of your co-workers.
Thank you! They were really fun to make. It’s a good and bad spot to be in. They get to eat most of the treats I make, but I bring in treats pretty often!
How many eggs?
Oh! Thank you – I’ve updated the recipe. 2 eggs.
MMM sounds Delicious. Love the salty combo. Can’t wait to taste !
Thank you! We’ll have to make them at Christmas 🙂
They are the best I’ve eaten.
Thank you!!!!
These look great and I’ll try them tonight… but I have to say I’d surely love it if the flour and sugar (but especially the flour) amounts were also given by weight…
Thank you! I’ll try to include them in future recipes. Just need to get the scale working again 😉
Mouth watering!! Wish I could be your tester since I can’t make them at home. My daughter is allergic to peanuts 🙁 But your other recipes and pictures to go with them are amazing!! I’ll have to try one of them and get back to you 🙂
Thank you! I appreciate your kind words. I bet these would be equally yummy with almond butter or cashew butter, though I haven’t tested those versions.
I just mixed these up and I’m baking them off tomorrow. I totally went with AP flour because I rarely use cake flour and I couldn’t see buying it just for this. If they come out tough, I will only blame myself. I also used natural chunky peanut butter because it was what I have.
I’m super excited to try these. They look deliciously dangerous. I’m planning on bringing them to work because I suspect I will be tempted to eat all of them.
Also, as an aside, I have a bag of mini peanut butter cups and don’t think I wasn’t tempted to substitute them for the peanut butter and chips.
I do actually have more butter and eggs….. hmmmm..
Awesome! Make sure not to overbake them. They get weird if you do. The texture totally changes. But that might be with the mix of AP flour and cake flour. 🙂
Oh, and if you can, tag me at #letseatcake and @letseatcakeblog on Instagram. I’d love to see them 🙂
I’m actually on a social media break right now but I totally just posted pictures on insta anyway. These are delicious! Thank you again for the recipe!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share. I really appreciate it! I’m so glad you liked the recipe 🙂
My baking powder, 2months past expiration date; didn’t notice that until later. Three it and baking soda out (just in case), another batch in the oven. Making for a fundraiser, so far, I’m not doing so good. I’vedone everything as the recipe says.
Oh, btw, adding the pretzel to the dough was left out of recipe directions. So, yah, didn’t add them to half of 1st batch. Silly me. ????