Sweet & Salty White Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Cookies
These white chocolate peppermint pretzel cookies are the ultimate sweet and salty yet holiday cookie. A light brown sugar cookie packed with white chocolate chips, peppermint bits, and crushed pretzel creates the ultimate flavor combination that feels perfectly festive as well.
I love chocolate covered pretzels. I love mint chocolate. If you’ve ever had them, I love these white chocolate peppermint pretzels. While I was speeding through Costco (where I found them last year), I thought to myself I wonder if I could make them when I didn’t see any. Then I thought about my Double Chocolate PB Pretzel Cookies and thought, I bet I could make a REALLY good cookie with those flavors!
I know white chocolate peppermint pretzel cookies, as a name, is a mouthful. But minty sweet and salty cookies didn’t convey how good these would be.
Baking Tips & Notes
These cookies are pretty easy to make. If you have made a chocolate chip cookie, you can make these no problem. The base is a brown sugar cookie, I adapted from my brown sugar cookie recipe. I decided to use light brown sugar instead of dark because I didn’t want too strong of a caramel/molasses flavor competing with the white chocolate and peppermint. I also skipped browning the butter for the same reason.
These cookies do require a chilling time. This will help keep the cookies from spreading too much, and also help rehydrate the dough leading to perfectly chewy cookies. Also, waiting a few hours just gives you better flavor. I would recommend chilling them somewhere between 8 and 24 hours. I tested cooking these directly after making the dough, and baking after chilling for 30-45 minutes and both times the dough spread unevenly and overly baked on the edges.
I find it easiest to scoop the dough before chilling, and then chill the cookie dough balls on a covered baking sheet like this one. Properly covering them is important, otherwise your dough CAN and will dry out which leads to the cookies developing almost a crust and preventing spread and overbrowning. Additionally, the bake times on this are based on a roughly 2 tablespoon cookie scoop – I use this #30 scoop.
Can I halve or double this recipe? Yes. If you plan on more the doubling it, I would do it in separate batches because ingredients can start to get a little bit wonky at that point.
Can I freeze these cookies? Yes! If you want to freeze the dough, make sure to chill the dough for about 8 hours and then freeze the scooped cookie dough on a baking sheet before moving to a silicone or ziplock freezer bag. The dough should be fine for at least 6 months stored properly. To freeze cookies, cool them completely after baking and then stack them in a silicone or freezer bag and remove as much air as possible. When ready to eat them, place them in the refrigerator overnight to let them defrost and then on the counter to come to room temperature.
White Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Cookies Key Ingredients
- White Chocolate Chips – White chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate bar are both going to work well. Chocolate bar will give you a little bit more melty consistency when baked but you can’t go wrong with either.
- Mini Pretzels – I used standard mini pretzels, but whatever size you have will work fine because you’re crushing them up. Make sure they are salted, and preferably not a sourdough or flavored variety.
- Peppermint bits – You have choices when it comes to this, but personally my favorite peppermint candy to use in peppermint recipes is Andes Peppermint Crunch. These are perfect for these cookies because it’s like a white chocolate with candy cane center. If you can’t find them or it’s not the right season, I might suggest just crushed candy canes.
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Ingredients
- 141 g Unsalted butter 10 tbsp, room temperature
- 125 g Light brown sugar ½ cup + 2 tbsp
- 100 g Granulated sugar ½ cup
- 1 large Egg + 1 yolk room temperature
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 180 g AP flour 1½ cup
- ¾ tsp Sea salt
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 40 g Salted pretzels 1â…“ cup, crushed
- 75 g White chocolate ~½ cup
- 85 g Peppermint bits ½ cup
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat and set aside.
- In a small bowl, add your flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and whisk together. Set aside.
- Chop your pretzels into small bits (or place them in a bag and pound them with a spoon or rolling pin), and if you are using chocolate bar, chop that into small bits as well.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl with a hand mixer, add your butter and sugar and cream them together (about 3 minutes).
- Add in your vanilla, egg, and egg yolk and mix well until the egg is incorporated into the dough. If you are using a stand mixer, make sure to scrape the bottom so all dough is beaten into the egg.
- Add your dry ingredients to the wet, and mix on low until the dough just comes together.
- Add in your pretzels, peppermint bits, and white chocolate and use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stir them into the cookie dough, making sure they are all dispersed evenly.
- Scoop your dough into cookie portions onto your prepared cookie sheet. They can be close together as the dough needs to be chilled first and you will move them before baking. Cover your pan well (I don't recommend foil, but plastic wrap or foil over plastic wrap if you don't have a cookie sheet cover) and chill in the fridge for about 8 hours – overnight is easiest.
- After your dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F. Leave your cookie dough in the fridge while the oven preheats.
- Line another cookie sheet with parchment and remove some of your cookie portions to the new sheet. Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 13-16 minutes. The cookies will be done but softer and a little doughier at 12-13 minutes with lightly golden edges. At 16 minutes the cookie will be golden all over and crispy exterior with chewy inside. Either is fine, just personal preference.
- Remove your cookies from the baking sheet to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. Enjoy!
