Next Post
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
Welcoming in February with the best warm Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed Soft Pretzels. Homemade soft pretzel dough, stuffed with homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, shaped into pretzels, and baked until golden on the outside, and soft and gooey inside. These pretzels are every bit as delicious as you’re imagining, and make for the perfect indulgent dessert any day of the week. Meaning…when you’re in need of a really good chocolate fix!
Word on the street is that many of you are experiencing temperatures of -20 degrees. At least that’s what I’m seeing come through my DM’s on Instagram. Honestly, even though I live in the cold and snowy mountains of Colorado, I still think that’s wayyyy too cold. We are not experiencing these -20 degree temperatures, but I’m feeling sympathy for all of you out there who are.
And to show my support, I baked us up the very best weekend treat I could possibly imagine. Because when it’s too cold to leave your house, there’s no better use of your time than to bake. Especially when it’s literally freezing outside, and especially after a long week. Anyone else so happy it’s finally Friday?
I know I am. I’m also excited to share these pretzels with you all, and to welcome in the month of February. I actually loved January, but with February comes the excitement of longer days, fresh-cut flowers, and chocolates for Valentine’s Day. In general, just a fun month ahead.
OH! And today is my brother Brendan’s birthday! See, it’s such a good day. Hmm, let’s see, he’s 29 today! Wishing I could share these pretzels with him, but I’m sure he’s eating well and enjoying the Cali sunshine.
OK, moving along, let’s talk details.
If any of you have been reading for a good number of years, this is what I am calling a “retro” recipe. It’s an older HBH recipe that I’ve recreated to make easier and better. And honestly, to resurrect it from the HBH graveyard that’s 2,000+ recipes deep…
Not even kidding.
So I made these cookie stuffed pretzels years and years ago, but I think I love them more this year. I mean, my gosh, these are quite possibly one of the best desserts I’ve ever come up with. They’re warm, chocolatey, doughy, a little salty, and all kinds of delicious.
Start with the pretzel dough. Don’t fear it, it’s so easy. You just need a handful of ingredients, mostly water, flour, and a little bit of time. While the dough is rising, make the cookie dough.
Now, I just used my favorite homemade cookie dough. Since these pretzels are a little over the top as is, I didn’t want to overwhelm things with a fancy cookie dough. Sometimes simple is best. That said, I did switch it up slightly by using semi-sweet chocolate chunks, but you can use chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, either is great.
To assemble, simply roll the pretzel dough out into ropes, flatten, add a little cookie dough to the center, seal, and form the dough into pretzels (see photos for references). I will say that your first pretzel is most likely going to look the worst. There will probably be a few holes throughout the dough.
DO NOT let this scare you off. Having a few holes in the dough is totally fine and just leaves room for the cookies to ooze out a little while baking, which is delicious for the end results. So don’t stress.
As you continue to make and shape the pretzel, each will get a little easier and you’ll get the hang of things. The bottom line, no matter what your pretzels end up looking like, they will, without a doubt, taste DELICIOUS! And that’s all that matters.
I made these with the Super Bowl in mind, as they’re the perfect game day dessert. But let’s be honest, you should probably make these today, since it’s Friday, you know just for a little practice. And then again on Sunday for the Super Bowl. Oh, and then maybe even again for Valentine’s Day later this month…
Basically every other week is ideal. Because salty soft pretzels + chocolate chip cookie dough is truly what you lay awake at night dreaming about.
Dramatic? Yes.
True? YES.
Happy Friday guys! Stay warm and enjoy some seriously good cookies this weekend!
If you make the cookie stuffed soft pretzels, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed Soft Pretzels
Servings: 8
Calories Per Serving: 1296 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Pretzel Dough
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (1 packet)
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter melted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 1/2 cups to 5 all-purpose flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- 1. Combine the water, honey, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.2. Add the melted butter, salt, and flour to the mixture and mix on low-speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands. Coat a large bowl with oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size. This will take about 1 hour.3. Meanwhile, make the cookie dough. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until combined and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour, and baking soda, beat until combined. Stir in the the chocolate chips.4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Fill a large bowl with warm water. 5. Divide the pretzel dough into 8 equal balls and roll each out into a rectangle (about 11x3 inches). Spread about 1 1/2-2 tablespoons cookie dough along the length of each piece. Starting with the opposite side, roll the dough up into a log, enclosing the toppings inside. Pinch the seams together. Very gently roll the dough with your hands to form an even cylinder and fully enclose the filling (see above photos).6. To shape into pretzels, take the right side and cross over to the left. Cross right to left again and flip up. Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the bowl of warm water. Submerge the pretzels in the water, 2 at a time for 30 seconds. Remove and transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet, placing 4 pretzels on each baking sheet. Brush the tops with the beaten egg wash and season liberally with salt. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.7. Remove pretzels from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy! If needed, the pretzels can be reheated in a 350 degrees F. for 5 minutes.
Made these last night and they are delicious! Have you ever frozen them before baking and then pulled them out later? What temperature and baking time would you recommend for this?
Hey Alaina,
I am thrilled this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for giving it a try! I would freeze the dough and let it thaw, and follow the directions as is:) xTieghan
Could you use regular salt instead of kosher? Maybe less of it then?
So looking forward to making these!
Oh and ps – love it when you have ingredients in metric units as well?
Hey Christina,
Yes, that will work just fine! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
So you don’t boil the pretzels first? I’m so used to boiling soft pretzels first, then baking. Just sitting them in warm water will suffice? They look delicious!
Hey Carly,
Yes, that is correct for this recipe! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I got the itch to bake “not chocolate chip cookies” last night at about 10 PM, and google brought me here…what a FUN recipe! Albeit took me much longer than an hour…oops! And I somehow ended up with half the cookie dough left. But they taste so good! I know you said your pictures aren’t pretty, but they look much more like pretzels than mine! My pretzel dough was so fluffy I couldn’t fit much cookie dough inside or stretch out the log after it was filled. However, I like the more savory pretzels with less cookie (if you can even call them savory!) Love this recipe…thank you for posting. I bet it would be fun to try different cookie doughs!
Hi Isabelle! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you! Thank you so much for trying this one! xTieghan
Can just the pretzel portion of this recipe be used alone? I’d like to do half with cookie and half plain.
Hey Krissy,
Yes that is totally fine! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Making these for the second time for camping this weekend. The only reason this is only the second time making them is they are AMAZING. I am weak and they are delicious. As in a double batch is happening!!!!
Thank you Becky! xTieghan
What is the best way to store these so they stay fresh, flakey, but also soft???
Hi Michelle,
I would store in an airtight container on the counter. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Im not sure if this has to do with being in a higher/lower altitude, but i had to lower my oven temperature or else my pretzels came out burnt. Other than that, good recipe!
Hmm. I am sorry to hear that! Is there anything I can help with? I am glad they still tasted well! xTieghan
Excited to make these! I see it serves 8–does that mean it makes 8 pretzels, or does it make 4ish for sharing? I ask for recipe halving purposes 🙂
Hi! That just means it makes 8 large pretzels. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
Greetings!
I decided to endeavor upon making a batch of these inspired by this recipe, but using my own recipes for pretzels and cookie dough. I made a half batch of my usual cookie dough batter, which is pretty similar to the one you’ve posted. Instead of making pretzel shapes, I went with 4-5 inch pretzel rods, which worked really well as a shape. However, I also experienced issues with the dough exploding out the sides. To mitigate this effect I cut slits into the remaining pans of pretzels and saw some success with that. They are still totally edible, and some cookie filling still remains inside the pretzels.
That said, as soon as I had pulled the first pan out, I realized the problem – by making a full dough recipe with eggs, baking soda/powder, you’re creating something that is going to expand and putting it into something that gives it little to no room to do so. Instead, these should be filled with an edible cookie dough/cookie dough flavored filling. I plan to try these again soon with the same rod shape, but with a cookie dough that contains no leavening agents. If you want to make it safe for eating raw (in the case that you have leftover dough) you can just bake the flour for a period of time before adding it to the filling (there are rules for how to do this online).
Thank you so much Kacie! I hope these turn out better for you the next time! xTieghan
These are so delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
Thank you Courtney! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Would it work to make these into more of bite sized pretzels?
Hi Carlyn, I would not recommend making bite size as I think there would be too much pretzel and not enough cookie on the inside. Sorry I couldn’t help more! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
I’m so excited to try this! I am very new to baking so a lot of this feels intimidating. Do you have any old videos of you making pretzels that might help? I’m going to give it a shot either way!
Hey Colleen! Linking to 2 vides below!! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/pumpkin-beer-pretzels-with-chipotle-queso/
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/warm-chocolate-chip-cookie-stuffed-soft-pretzels/
Let me just say first how much I love this cookie recipe. I could’ve eaten all of the cookie dough, but it says to put 1 1/2-2 tablespoons of cookie dough in each pretzel. In the picture posted with the cookie dough layed out on the pretzel, it seems to be way more than that. I ended up with LOTS of leftover cookie dough bc I only used 2T of cookie dough per pretzel, and the recipe made way more than 16T. Am i missing something???
HI! You care not missing anything. This recipe will leave you with leftover cookie dough. If you over stuff the pretzel, the cookies will just ooze out everywhere and burn while baking. You can just bake off the remaining cookie dough or make additional pretzels with the dough. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I so glad you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
Would it be okay to store in the fridge before baking in the oven? And if so, how would that affect the baking time? Can’t wait to try this recipe!!!!!!!
HI there! I am sure that would work well. Just bring them to room temp before you bake, then bake as directed. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan