Chocolate Chip Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust – from Simply Scratch
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Chocolate Chip Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust – from Simply Scratch
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 15 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
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
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
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13x2 baking pan with parchment paper {for easy removal}.
- Beat butter and sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and the vanilla, beating until just blended.
- 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.
- Scrape down the sides and add in the chocolate chips, Mix one last time for a second then set aside.
- Place pretzels in a large baggie or food-processor. Once the pretzels are crushed, combine them with the melted butter and stir.
- Spread pretzel mixture over the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for 8 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
This is crazy but my post tomorrow is salty ‘ n sweet pretzel bars and boy, love the combo and can’t get enough of the salty ‘n sweet lately and these look awesome!
Heck YES. I love the salty ‘n’ sweet combo, especially when it involves chocolate chip cookies!
Yum! I love pretzels with chocolate, these sound so amazingly good!
Why do pretzel crusts make everything better?
Thank goodness I still have some pretzels left from another pretzel and chocolate chip recipe I made…can not get enough of the sweet & salty.
i love love love salty and sweet! leave it to you Laurie to post something that is probably one of my most favorite combos – choc chip cookies and PRETZELS!
Hope you are enjoying your HM Megan! 🙂
THANK YOU Megan for letting me share one of my MOST FAVORITE dessert recipes while you’re away on your honeymoon!! Xo
Kryptonite, indeed! These look AH-mazing!! I love that salty-sweet combination.
How freakin delicious! Great recipe, too. I have most all of it on hand, just missing those chocolate chips — darn!
Sweet and Salty combo is my husbands favorite, this is one dessert he would eat the whole pan of!
Another tasty looking treat from Laurie – gotta love her! I’m wondering if the pretzels stay crunchy? I’d bake and love these bad boys either way and love the idea of a nice salty crunch on the bottom. 😉 Great guest post!
Oh.
Hell.
Yeah.
Can I say that again?!
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