These Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Cookies with Pretzels are the ultimate sweet treat for dark chocolate lovers! The crunchy pretzel pieces make the perfect sweet and salty combination with the rich dark chocolate! This will be your new favorite recipe for indulging in cookie heaven!
Why You’ll Love…
While I love a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, my heart loves the flavor combination of sweet and salty! Don’t believe me? Then you should definitely check out these Potato Chip Cookies! I love an unexpected salty crunch in a cookie especially paired with melty chocolate! Fresh from the oven, these cookies are unstoppable!
But truly the best part of these baked cookies is the rich nutty flavor from the browned butter. If you’ve never tried any brown butter cookies, you’ll definitely have to check out this recipe!
How to Brown Butter
Browned Butter is the process of caramelizing the milk solids in the butter. It sounds complicated and fancy, but I promise it’s really easy once you get the hang of it.
Start off by adding your butter to a medium saucepan. You can use unsalted or salted butter, however, I always prefer salted! Then let the butter melt over medium-low heat. The butter will begin to boil and bubble. The milk solids will drop down the bottom of the pan and begin to caramelize. I like to give it a stir every few seconds, so I can make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. Once the mixture has gone silent and the butter has turned a rich golden brown amber color, you’ll know it’s done!
Then pour the melted butter into a glass heatproof bowl. I like to let the butter cool to room temperature before making my cookies!
All-in-all the entire process takes about 7-8 minutes, but adds depth of flavor you won’t find anywhere else! Not to mention the nutty aroma flowing through your kitchen will get those tastebuds fired up and ready for a bite of this chewy cookie!
Types of Chocolate
I really wanted these dark chocolate pretzel cookies to be a spin on my favorite snack of chocolate covered pretzels! Because of that, I went with dark chocolate chunks in my recipe! However, one of my favorite things about these cookies is that you can use whatever chocolate you’d like!
That can be semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, or dark chocolate chips like me! It’s really up to the sweetness that you would like with this cookie! I think a semi-sweet chocolate or white chocolate would pair perfectly with the salty pretzels!
Equipment Needed:
One of the best parts of using cooled brown butter is that you don’t need to use a stand mixer! The butter will be soft enough to mix by hand using a wooden spoon or spatula! Here are a few of my baking essentials of these cookies!
- Large Bowl – I love to use a large glass bowl for mixing my cookie dough! It makes it easier to scoop the bottom to make sure you got everything fully mixed!
- 2 ounce Cookie Scoop – You can use whatever size cookie scoop you prefer, but keep in mind, if you use a smaller or large cookie scoop, you might have to adjust the baking time! For example, using a smaller cookie scoop, you might want to reduce the baking time to 10-11 minutes!
- Parchment Paper – I use this with every cookie recipe! Makes clean up so much easier and quicker!
- Baking Sheet – I prefer to use a large baking sheet to give my cookies plenty of room to spread and bake in the oven!
- Large Circular Cookie Cutter – One of my all-time favorite baking tricks is to use a large cookie cutter to swirl around each cookie as soon as they come out of the oven, to help push them into a more perfect circle shape! All cookies spread in the oven, this helps get them into shape!
You can shop all of my links and tools here! This website uses affiliate links which may earn commission at no extra cost to you. Each item is one I use or a similar item.
Ingredient List:
*Optional: I always love a sprinkle of flaky sea salt to the top of these cookies, but that’s up to you!
See Recipe Card for Full Details
Step by Step Instructions:
Step 1.Add cooled brown butter to a bowl, then add in sugar and brown sugar. Mix together before adding egg and vanilla.
Step 2. Add in dry ingredients and stir together.
Step 3: Then add in dark chocolate and the pretzels.
Step 4. Scoop cookie dough onto parchment paper, then bake.
Helpful Tips and Tricks
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for about 5-6 days! If you want to freeze them, place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and freeze. When they’re fully frozen, place in a freezer bag and squeeze out all the air. Store for about 3-4 months!
Now that we’re at the of this post, I hope you feel confident in your browned butter skills and are on your way to enjoying these delicious Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Cookies with Pretzels! Truly the best part of my adult life has been figuring out how delicious browned butter can make your desserts!
Cheers!
-Holly Michelle
Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Cookies with Pretzels
Equipment
- Medium Saucepan
- Cookie Scoop
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons Butter
- ½ cup Sugar
- ½ cup Brown Sugar packed
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 cup Chocolate Chunks
- 1/2 cup Pretzels crushed
Instructions
- Add butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter melt stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.10 tablespoons Butter
- Then the butter will begin to foam, stir every 30 seconds. Make sure to break up the foam so you can see the butter changing colors. When the butter is a deep rich amber color, remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Let cool for about 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until everything is smooth and creamy.½ cup Sugar, ½ cup Brown Sugar packed
- Add in one egg and vanilla extract. Mix together.1 Egg, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Then, add in flour and baking powder. On a low speed, mix all the dry ingredients to the dough.1 1/2 cups Flour, ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- Add pretzels to a plastic bag and use a rolling pin or other heavy object to crush the pretzels into smaller pieces!1/2 cup Pretzels
- Once the dry ingredients are almost mixed in, add in chocolate and crushed pretzels. Mix together.1/2 cup Chocolate Chunks
- Let dough chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop out the cookie dough and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for about 12-14 minutes, the centers will still be slightly gooey.
- Let cool slightly, and enjoy!
