Stuffed with gooey caramel bits, crunch pretzel pieces, and melty chocolate, these caramel pretzel chocolate chunk cookies are full of texture. They are the perfect blend of salty and sweet! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Tons of texture from our many add-ins: we’ve got chewy caramel, crunchy pretzels, melty chocolate, and a sprinkling of sea salt.
- No chilling required! The dough is nice and thick, so it can be scooped right away without ever seeing the fridge. If no-chill cookies are your thing, I have many! Try my peanut butter snickerdoodles or butter pecan cookies next.
- Not too sweet! The sea salt and pretzels really balance things out and create the perfect snacky, salty-sweet combo. These cookies would make a great movie night treat alongside some kettle corn!
Oh boy, do I have a fun cookie recipe for you today! These are pretzel caramel chocolate chunk cookies: a mouthful to say, but an absolutely delicious one at that. They are nice and thick with a deluxe, bakery-style size and lots of tasty add-ins. So easy to make too!
We’re using caramel bits today for that ultimate gooey caramel experience. I also opt for a chopped chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips, because I just love those little flecks in the dough and melty pockets of chocolate. The end result is so indulgent and absolutely irresistible!
Ingredients
For the BEST caramel pretzel cookies, pay close attention to the following ingredients.
- Cake flour. Cake flour gives these cookies a more tender texture, which I love. If you don’t have any on hand, all-purpose flour will still work (the cookies just won’t be quite as melt-in-your-mouth). I talk about how to substitute this in the recipe notes below.
- Pretzels. Make sure to break your pretzel pieces into a manageable size. I don’t make them quite as fine as I do for my pretzel crusted chicken, but I do try to keep them around the size of a chocolate chip.
- Caramel bits. Not to be confused with caramel chips, caramel bits are small caramel balls. They will melt and create pockets of gooey caramel in the cookies (yum). You can purchase them in the baking aisle of your grocery store. If you can’t find them locally, Amazon sells them too.
- Chocolate. Chopping up a semisweet chocolate bar (as opposed to using chocolate chips) creates the ultimate gourmet, melty chocolate experience. When you do this, you create flecks of chocolate that incorporate throughout the dough, as well as larger pieces that melt nicely. Chocolate chips could be used instead, but the experience won’t be quite the same.
- Sea salt. To further enhance the salty-sweet theme, we’ll sprinkle some sea salt on top of our cookies just after removing them from the oven.
SAM’S TIP: Swap some of the chocolate for peanut butter chips, and you’ll have something reminiscent of a Take 5 candy bar in cookie form! Yum!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Them
- Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until combined, then set the wet ingredients aside while you prepare your dry ingredients.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually add them into the wet ingredients. It takes time for the wet ingredients to absorb the flour mixture, so combining them gradually is key to making this process as easy and effective as possible. If you add the flour mixture all at once, it may not fully absorb.
- Fold in the mix-ins until evenly distributed.
- Scoop and roll the dough between your palms before placing on a baking sheet. While you don’t have to roll your cookie dough balls, they are much more uniform, smooth, and professional looking when rolled vs. unrolled.
- Bake until the edges begin to turn light golden brown, then remove and sprinkle with sea salt.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t wait too long to add the sea salt, or it won’t stick to the cookies. I like to add it within a minute of removing the cookies from the oven.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! If you’d like to make the dough in advance, cover it tightly and place in the fridge for up to 5 days. Note that the dough can be tough to scoop after chilling for so long, you’ll likely need to let it sit at room temperature for a bit to be scoop-able.
You can also scoop and freeze the dough by following the instructions in my post on how to freeze cookie dough.
Yes! In fact most of my cookie recipes freeze well. Wrap them tightly in plastic and store in an airtight, freezer-safe container for the freshest taste. We usually let ours thaw at room temperature, but you can always microwave them if you don’t have the patience (or want gooey results!).
The most likely culprits are over-measuring your flour (always measure flour the right way!), adding the dry ingredients all at once (gradually is key), or over-baking (let them finish baking outside the oven on the hot pan instead of in the oven).
And remember, if you substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour, it’s not always an even substitution (I talk more about this in the recipe card).
I have a few more salty-sweet cookie recipes you might like below the recipe card.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups (450 g) cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- 6 oz (170 g) semi-sweet chocolate bar chopped
- 1 (65 g) heaping cup broken pretzel pieces
- 1 ½ cups (312 g) caramel bits 11 oz bag
- Sea salt for topping
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), use an electric mixer to beat together butter and sugars until light, fluffy and well-creamed.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir together until thoroughly combined. Set aside.2 large eggs, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.4 cups (450 g) cake flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring well until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Add chopped chocolate, pretzel pieces, and caramel bits and fold into the dough with a spatula until evenly distributed.6 oz (170 g) semi-sweet chocolate bar, 1 (65 g) heaping cup broken pretzel pieces, 1 ½ cups (312 g) caramel bits
- Drop dough by 3 Tablespoon-sized scoops (66g) onto prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart (for more uniform-looking cookies, roll the dough balls between your palms until smooth before baking).
- Transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) oven and bake for 12 minutes, until edges of cookies are just beginning to turn a light golden brown.
- Sprinkle with sea salt within a minute or two of removing from oven.Sea salt for topping
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet before enjoying.
Notes
Cake flour
I like the finer, melt-in-your-mouth texture the cake flour lends to the cookie. If you want to use all-purpose flour instead, you’ll need 3 ⅔ cups (450g) all-purpose flour.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Jody
just took out of the oven. I used chopped caramels from the square pieces (Kraft). The caramel pieces leaked out of the cookies. Wont know the taste till they cool. We don’t have caramel bits here in Canada.
Sunnite
Hi I’m planning on making these tomorrow but I live in ireland. Is cake flour the same as plain flour and if not whats a good substitute?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sunnite! They aren’t the same thing, but that’s okay! We have instructions on how to substitute all-purpose (or plain) flour in the recipe notes. Hope that helps 😊
Christy
Hi Sam! I’d love to make these for a work Friendsgiving celebration. I prefer to make them ahead of time to save on time. Can the cookies be frozen once baked as long as they’re sealed and in an airtight container then thawed the day before or so?
Sam
Hi Christy! They do freeze well. Enjoy! 🙂
Lorie
I made these last week for a family reunion, and what a hit they were! They turned out absolutely perfect (I did use my scale and weighed everything.) I ended up having to pass your recipe off to three other family members, that just had to make them for themselves!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Lorie! 🙂
Denise
These cookies are amazing!!! Followed the recipe to a “T” and they are now my favorite cookie too!!!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Denise! 🙂
Christy
Hi, I love your recipes but I’m from Australia and we don’t have caramel bits here what can I use as an alternative?
Sam
Hi Christy! If you have access to caramel squares you can buy those and cut those up. 🙂
Patricia Baranek-Weber
I prefer the melted butter, 1 while egg, one egg yolk recipe for a superior cookie crumb and crispy outer edge!
Sam
Oh I do love that for many recipes (as you can probably tell 😂), this is a different, thicker style that I felt worked better with all the add-ins but I do love that version, too!
Jody
All these ingredients are my favorites! Can’t wait to bake these cookies and then I’ll try making the next, the Kitchen Sink Cookies! I can already taste both of them in my mind! I’ll let you know! Thank you!
Sam
I hope you love them, Jody! 🙂