Outrageous Pretzel Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies
These Outrageous Pretzel Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookies are soft, chewy, and irresistible! A decadent peanut butter cookie dough packed with chopped pretzels, Reese’s cups, Reese’s Pieces, peanut butter chips, dark chocolate chips, and optional peanuts makes these the peanut butter cookies of your dreams!
Servings: 40
Calories: 224kcal
Ingredients
For the peanut butter dough
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks, I used salted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup peanut butter I like Jif
- 2 large eggs
- 1 &1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Mix-ins
- 1 10-oz bag Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups quartered (about 2 cups chopped)
- 1 cup Reese's Pieces candy chop half of it
- 1 & 3/4 cup pretzels measure the pretzels, then coarsely chop
- 1 cup peanut butter chips I used the Reese's brand
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips chop half of it into smaller bits
- 1/2 cup roasted peanuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a few baking sheets with parchment paper, or line with a silicone mat.
- Add 3/4 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. Beat for another 2 minutes, taking the time to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl in between. Your butter and sugar should be light and fluffy with no chunks of butter.
- Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter and mix well.
- Add 2 eggs and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat well, scraping sides and bottom.
- Add 2 cups flour but don't mix it in yet (make sure you spoon and level your flour). Use a small spoon to stir in 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon baking soda into the flour, then beat in gently. There should still be flour streaks when you stop.
- Prepare the mix-ins. Quarter the mini Reese's cups with a knife. (I used the mini size Reese's that are about the size of a quarter, but you can use any kind. You need about 2 cups.)
- Measure out one cup of Reese's Pieces candy. I like to chop half of it into smaller pieces for the best texture, but that's optional.
- Measure out 1 and 3/4 cup pretzels, then chop coarsely.
- Measure out 1 cup of dark chocolate chips; if the chips are big I like to chop half of them into smaller pieces (again, optional.)
- Set aside a handful of any of the mix-ins that you want to press into the tops of the cookies.
- Add 1 cup peanut butter chips, the quartered Reese's cups, all the Reese's Pieces, the pretzels, the dark chocolate, and the peanuts to the dough. Peanuts are totally optional.
- Use a rubber spatula to mix all the ingredients into the dough. I like to do this part by hand so that the Reese's cups don't get smooshed.
- Use a quarter cup measuring cup, or a very large cookie scoop to shape the dough.* Place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet with about 2 inches in between them. I like to fit between 8-12 on a half baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies at 350 for about 9-11 minutes, until the edges are a very light golden and the edges have set. It's ok if the centers of the cookies (no more than the size of a quarter) are still shiny. The rest of the cookie should be matte.
- Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, use a spoon to push the edges of the cookies toward their centers. This makes the cookies round in shape and makes the center thicker and more chewy. You have to do this within 30-60 seconds of taking them out of the oven. See my Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe for more details about this technique!
- While the cookies are still warm, press any reserved mix-ins into the top of each cookie.
- Remove the cookies to a wire cooling rack and let cool. But you better eat at least one warm. With milk. Live your best life.
Notes
*You can make the cookies smaller than this! Just lower the baking time, start at like 7-8 mins and check from there.
Freezer instructions: You can freeze these cookies and bake them later! The pretzels will do just fine. I like to shape the dough into balls and store them in a ziplock bag. Make the dough balls a little flatter than the normal sphere shape to help them spread in the oven. They will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. I never thaw cookie dough before baking. Just bake straight from frozen and add a couple minutes to the bake time. Voila!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 224kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Potassium: 111mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 154IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 1mg