Chocolate Pretzel Cookies

I ventured out to the 'burbs last weekend and found myself at Sobey's in search of a deal. While I was there I picked up their in store magazine, Inspired, and found this recipe. I'm always looking for cookie recipes with a twist and these seemed to fit the bill - chocolate pretzel cookies. A pretty classic cookie dough full of coconut, oats, chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.

Chocolate Pretzel Cookies
Sobey's Inspired Magazine, Fall 2011
Makes 30 (using a tablespoon sized scoop, I got over 50)

1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar

1egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup large flake oats (not instant or quick oats)

1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup pretzels, broken into pieces
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup puffed rice cereal

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, then add the egg and vanilla.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, coconut, oats, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix until combined. Blend in pretzels, chocolate and cereal until just combined.
• Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake in centre of oven, 8 min. for chewy cookies, 10 min. for crisp ones. Cool on wire racks.

  
These were really easy to pull together. Really no more difficult than a regular chocolate chip cookie, but a little more interesting. I did alter the recipe slightly. I didn't have any puffed rice cereal so I added an extra half cup of oats. I also added an extra 1/4 cup or so of chocolate chips. Once I put in the half cup it didn't seem like nearly enough for the amount of dough in the bowl so I threw in another handful. Sometimes baking isn't all about following the directions.

I would certainly make these again. The one issue I had was that they were really inconsistent. Some spread out flat and some didn't seem to spread out too much at all. My best guess is that, because of all the stuff in the dough, some didn't have enough dough to keep them together so they spread. Not really sure. They all tasted the same but some just looked ugly. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. 

Do you have any tricks to make a basic cookie stand out?