Brown Butter Chocolate-Stuffed Pretzel Cookies

Is there any cookie better than a true chocolate chip cookie? I don't mean some grocery store kind from a box, I mean a fresh, bakery style, chewy chocolate chunk cookie. My preference would be a cookie with tons or brown sugar, a mixture of chocolate chunks (milk, semisweet, dark) and preferably made with brown butter. That is pure cookie bliss.

This cookie recipe I have here is pretty much in that same "cookie bliss" category. Except we added pretzel sticks to the dough. So now you've also got that salty/sweet thing going on. I'm just going to let you sit there, think about that, and drool over how good these cookies look. If you're lucky, I'll share.

Brown Butter Chocolate-Stuffed Pretzel Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup pretzels

chocolate chunks as desired

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Heat a small saucepan over medium-low heat and add butter. Cook the butter over low heat until brown bits begin to appear. Remove from heat immediately as the butter can burn very quickly. Set aside and let cool for about 10-15 minutes, you can put this in the fridge shortly, until the butter comes to room temperature.

In a small food processor, chop the pretzels. You can then pour the pretzels into a mesh strainer to sift out any dust/powder. You only want pretzel pieces, not powder. 

Once butter has cooled, add to the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk in sugars until smooth and caramely in color, then add in the egg and egg yolk. Mix again until combined, then add in vanilla extract and mix. Add in flour, baking and soda and salt, and mix until a dough forms. Add the pretzels. 

Roll about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough into a ball, then press some chocolate chunks into the middle. Top with an additional 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough, and seal the sides, rolling the dough into a golfball-sized ball. Place on a baking sheet about 3 inches apart, they will spread slightly. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden. Enjoy them warm with milk. 

Recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is