Peanut Butter Cup Pretzel Cookie (small batch)

 

I was in the grocery store yesterday and I spied some eensie peensie peanut butter cups, not much larger in size than a Chocolate Chip! I thought to myself, aren't those cute!   I thought they would be perfect for baking with.

I couldn't resist. I bought them to use in baking. Yes I did sneak in a few tasty nibbles as well. How could I avoid that temptation! Zero willpower here people.  Zero willpower!

 

I decided to make a small batch of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, but with mini peanut butter cups as well as chocolate chips.  If you can't get the mini peanut butter cups, you can just use regular ones, chopped up.

The mini ones are about the size of a large chocolate chip, so judge the size you chop them into accordingly.

 

And then I remembered those Sweet and Salty Krispy Bars I made a few weeks back.  I still had half a bag of pretzels left from them. 

I decided to add a few of them to the cookies as well.  I love the sweet and salty combination, especially in a cookie.

 

I thought the pretzels would add a bit of crunch as well. You can't beat a bit of crunch in a cookie.

I used a mix of butter and peanut butter to inject a bit more peanut flavor into the cookie.  I love chocolate chip cookies. I love peanut butter cookies.

 

I love the combination of the two even more!  Add the flavor of chocolate of any kind, and you have a pretty tasty combination! 

I also added semi sweet chocolate chips to help cut the sweetness of the peanut butter cups a tiny bit.   I like cookies like this to have a balance of all things, and these do.

You have a crisp edged chewy middle-d brown sugar cookie.  Just like a chocolate chip cookie, but with the added touch of peanut butter flavor.

Filled with crisp and salty pretzel pieces.  Sweetened and studded with sweet peanut butter cups with a slight tang of the semi-sweet chocolate for balance.

Very yummilicious indeed.  Its a good thing that the recipe only makes 8 cookies.  They are a good sized cookie, but there is only 8.  Less temptation for less time is a good thing for me.

You can double it up and make 16 cookies if you wish.  Again, this would be 16 large cookies.

(1 1/4 cups flour/175g, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup (120g) butter softened, 2/3 cup (150g)  soft light brown sugar, 2 TBS granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 4 TBS peanut butter, 1/2 cup (90g) mini peanut butter cups, 4 TBS chocolate chips and about 20 pretzels, broken.

 

Those are the amounts to make 16.  Just mix and bake as per the recipe.  Easy peasy.

When my children were growing up, I think I baked a batch of cookies just about every second day or so.  Chocolate Chip were their favorites of course.  But they also liked oatmeal raisin and peanut butter.

 

I determined that they would always have fresh baked cookies and milk to come home from school to.  I never did when I was growing up. Mom worked and she was super worried about our weight.

She had been quite overweight as a child and determined her children were not going to be. Everything we ate was counted.  She was also very budget conscious  and only spent a certain amount of money on groceries. 

 

We were not allowed to help ourselves to anything at all. Our snacks were deeply regulated. I can remember telling myself that when I grew up I was going to eat whatever I wanted.

Well, you see where that got me.  I am fat.  I am making up for all of the deprivation of my childhood I guess!  I am not saying we were starving, we weren't in the least.

 

But when you have kids that spend all of their weekly allowance on buying themselves stuff to eat, there is something wrong.   At least that is my opinion.  

And that is what we would do. As soon as we got our allowance, we would high-tail it to the corner shops and get ourselves naughty treats like butter tarts and stuff. Potato chips.  Things we weren't allowed to eat at home.

I know my mom meant well and wanted only the best for us. My sister and brother are not overweight. Just me.  But they both work very hard at keeping in shape. Me . . .  I was so busy with children, etc. for so many years, and then three unhappy marriages did not help.

Neither did working with food, and lets face it . . .  I'm a bit of a card carrying glutton when it comes right down to it.  I just enjoy food and everything to do with food, and . . .  it shows! 

In any case if you are looking for a great cookie filled with lots of scrumptious bits . . .  a bit of rope but not enough to hang yourself, then this is the cookie for you!

Peanut Butter Cup Pretzel Cookie (small batch)

Yield: 8 cookies

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 12 Mininactive time: 15 MinTotal time: 37 Min

The beautiful combination of sweet and salty in a chewy cookie with crisp edges is a hit with all ages!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (105g) plain all purpose flour
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup (60g) butter, softened
• 2 TBS smooth peanut butter
• 1/3 cup (75g) soft light brown sugar packed
• 1 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 large free range egg yolk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (45g) mini peanut butter cups (really mini, can also use small peanut butter cups, quartered)
• 10 pretzel hoops, crumbled coarsely
• 2 TBS semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper or a silicone mat. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter, peanut butter and both sugars together until well combined and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in the salt.
3. Sift together the flour and baking soda. Stir into the creamed mixture until thoroughly mixed together. Stir in the mini peanut butter cups and chocolate chips to combine along with the broken pretzels.
4. Divide the mixture into 8 equal amounts and roll into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Pop the cookie filled tray into the freezer for 15 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. 
6. Bake the well chilled cookies in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown and crisp around the edges.  Leave to sit on the pan for about 10 minutes before scooping off onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Delicious warm from the oven.  You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container.

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