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.
 
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
 
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Chocolate Chip Bars in a stack

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

  • Author: Country Cleaver
  • 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

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