Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars

Confession: I am a hoarder.

Not in the traditional sense... I actually don't keep much of anything and LOVE throwing stuff out, but I hoard recipes. I have thousands of recipes stored away for rainy days. If I never starred another recipe I'd probably never get through all of them, but that won't stop me from adding to my addiction.

Every now and then a recipe will come around and I will bump it to the top of my "to make" list. This recipe is an example of that. When I saw these cookie bars I bought the ingredients that day and make them a couple days later for John to take to work. I was dying to try them so I figured make them, taste them, and send them off with John.

Consensus? AH-Maaaaazing! I loved these things. I thought the baked in pretzels lost a bit of their crispness, but other than that these are the perfect cookie bar. Salty, sweet, delicious. They are nice and soft on the inside, firm (but not hard) on the outer pieces. I really love this recipe and highly suggest it if you are looking for something new.

Source: Slightly adapted from Loves To Eat

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips
1½ cups mini pretzel twists, coarsely chopped
¼ cup chocolate chips, for drizzling
¼ cup peanut butter chips
¼ cup pretzels, crumbled, for topping

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and press it down evenly with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool completely.

In a sandwich size bag, melt the chocolate chips. Cut off a small corner on the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the top of the bars. Sprinkle the peanut butter chips and extra crushed pretzels on top. Let set and then cut into squares.