Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

I love peanut butter. I mean, I REALLY love peanut butter. It is without a doubt my favorite food. Any time I see something made with peanut butter, I have to try it. And even as a full grown adult, I still love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In order to be a true peanut butter connoisseur, you need to know your peanut butter. Without a doubt, my favorite peanut butter comes from Peanut Butter & Co. I found Peanut Butter & Co. years ago on a trip to NYC when I convinced my parents to have lunch there. It was amazing! A visit to this restaurant should be on the bucket list of all PB fans. Then, a couple of years later I walked into a Wegmans grocery store and saw their brand of PB on the shelves.

Now that I can get it in Pennsylvania, this is the only peanut butter I buy. And since it is recommended by the fine folks over at Eat This, Not That, I feel even better about enjoying it.

Now, the geniuses at Peanut Butter & Co. don't just make creamy and crunchy PB, they've extended their line to include such gems as White Chocolate Wonderful (PB mixed with white chocolate), Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, Mighty Maple, and more. But this particular recipe uses the awesome Dark Chocolate Dreams...yup, peanut butter and dark chocolate mixed together.

I came up with the idea for chocolate peanut butter pretzel cookies after trying a biscotti at a fair made with those ingredients. Technically, these cookies are double chocolate, double peanut butter pretzel cookies. The base is your basic peanut butter cookie, but I replaced the regular PB with Peanut Butter & Co.'s Dark Chocolate Dreams.

After creaming the butter, peanut butter, sugar and adding the eggs, flour, vanilla and baking soda, I added the chocolate and peanut butter chips, I used a full bag of each. When it came to the pretzels,I thought long and hard about what size and shape. I decided to use thin pretzel sticks and broke them into small pieces, I used a little more than a cup.

I took a generous tablespoon of dough, rolled it into a ball, and flattened them slightly on the cookie sheet.

I baked them for 12 minutes.

They came out a little crispy and full of amazing flavor! Sweet, salty, and peanut buttery.

Recipe: 

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag peanut butter chips
1 heaping cup thin pretzel sticks, broken into small pieces

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside

With stand mixer (or hand held mixer) cream butter, sugars, and peanut butter together.

 Add eggs and vanilla, mix.

 Add flour mixture and combine.

 Add chips and pretzels and mix until just combined.

 Take a generous tablespoon sized ball of dough, set on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and flatten slightly.

 Bake for 12 minutes or until bottom is slightly browned.

 Enjoy!