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Ohhh, happy day! Today one of my very best and most cherished blogging buddies is taking the helm to give you every hormonal girls’ dream cookie bar – Chocolate Chip Bars with Salty Pretzel Crust. Like, woah people! I don’t know about you, but my kyptonite is chocolate covered pretzels. Sweet, salty, crunchy, chocolatey – hello fat pants!
 
Laurie’s blog was one of the very first I started reading when I got into blogging myself, devouring it with my eyes and licking my computer screen to somehow taste the things she made through osmosis. But really all I got was a streaked screen and a wicked case of the hungries. She’s been a wonderful resource, source of inspiration and friend to me from the beginning and I couldn’t have picked someone better to share with you today.
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Hey there! I’m Laurie from Simply Scratch. For those who I haven’t met yet I have this little ol’ blog where I take step-by-step pictures for yummy, tried and true “from scratch” recipes. Every once and again I throw in a little un-scratchyness but hey I’m human and I work full time and have two children. Feeling sorry for me yet?
 
I just adore Megan and while she’s off getting hitched,  I wanted to help my friend out and share with you one of my favorite recipes of all time. Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust!
 
 
It’s a recipe that you can curl up with and nibble on while reading a good book. It’s a recipe that you can bust out for your boyfriend {or girlfriend} and expect an engagement ring and or, err-um get lots of hugs and kisses from… or you could even bring to a family gathering and get high-fived all night long. See you really can’t go wrong here.
 
 
This recipe begins with pretzels and ends with cookie bars. Oh yeahhhh this is for real, it’s a delicious carb-ingesting-coma-inducing dessert! And after a long 17 year love affair with the whole salty-sweet-chocolate-pretzel thing, I decided to whip it up, throw it in a pan and see what happened. I think you can guess what happened… whole pan GONE.

Ingredients For Chocolate Chip Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust – from Simply Scratch

  • Unsalted Butter
  • Granulated Sugar
  • Dark Brown Sugar
  • Eggs
  • Real Vanilla Extract
  • All Purpose Flour
  • Baking Soda
  • Kosher Salt
  • Milk Chocolate Chips

FOR THE PRETZEL CRUST

  • Pretzel Sticks
  • Unsalted Butter
 
Now I think in honor of Megan and Ben tying the knot, I find it only necessary that everyone should whip up a batch of these babies and grab a couple forks and maybe some glasses of icy cold milk to celebrate!
 
Thanks Megan for letting me stop by your blog today! I hope you have a wonderful wedding and even MORE wonderful honeymoon!
 
XO
Laurie
 

Inspired Homemade Recipes To Try

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

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Chocolate Chip Bars in a stack

Chocolate Chip Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust – from Simply Scratch

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  • Author: Megan Keno
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 15 bars 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe

Description

These bars are a perfect mix of salty and sweet with chewy chocolate chip cookie bars atop a salty, crunchy pretzel crust.  They will disappear fast!

Ingredients

Units Scale

FOR THE COOKIE BAR DOUGH

  • 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
  • 2 large Eggs
  • 1–1/2 teaspoons Real Vanilla Extract
  • 2–1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • 1 bag Milk Chocolate Chips {like Ghirardelli}

FOR THE PRETZEL CRUST

  • 3–1/2 cups Pretzel Sticks
  • 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13x2 baking pan with parchment paper {for easy removal}.
  2. Beat butter and sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and the vanilla, beating until just blended.
  3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk until airy and gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar/egg mixture, mixing well after each addition.
  4. Scrape down the sides and add in the chocolate chips, Mix one last time for a second then set aside.
  5. Place pretzels in a large baggie or food-processor. Once the pretzels are crushed, combine them with the melted butter and stir.
  6. Spread pretzel mixture over the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for 8 minutes.
  7. Drop large spoonfuls of the cookie dough and scatter it over the pretzel crust, carefully and evenly spread the batter over the warm pretzels. With your {clean} fingers, press the dough into the pretzels.
  8. Place the pan in your preheated oven and bake for 20-24 minutes, rotating the pan half-way through the cookie time. Remove when the bars are golden and a tester comes out clean.
  9. When bars have cooled, remove {by using the parchment paper} and cut into 15 bars. Enjoy!

Notes

*NOTE:* Several people who’ve made this notice a lot of pretzel crumb leftover, I HIGHLY recommend using enough butter, {if it looks too dry, just add a little more! After all more butter never hurt any one or bar for that matter}. Also, pressing the cookie dough into the crust helps it to become a crust to the bottom of the bars. As you can see in my pictures above I have a few pretzel crumb stragglers, it’s just the way this cookie. bar. crumbles?!  🙂

By Laurie McNamara – Simply Scratch