These are a few of my favorite things…
Really. How can one possibly go wrong with chocolate, peanut butter, and salt?
Side note: the best thing about vegan cookies is the fearless eating of batter… not that egg in batter ever stopped me before.
The site of the flaky fleur de sel and crunchy pretzel bits poking out of fudgy dough may tempt you to eat an entire scoop raw. *Please tell me I’m not the only one that does that*
February is the month of foil-wrapped chocolates, Hallmark cards, and over-priced flowers. I beg you, this Valentine’s Day skip the artificial red colored stuff and go straight for the dark chocolate treats.
No one will miss the boxes of processed chocolates and Forrest Gump metaphors for life.. I promise.
At the very least they won’t be able to protest with their mouths full. 😉
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
- 2 T softened butter (or Earth Balance)
- 2 T unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 C light brown sugar
- 1/4 C xylitol
- 1/4 C peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg (or flax egg)
- 1 T unsweetened almond milk (or other liquid)
- 4 T cocoa
- 1/2 C all-purpose flour
- 1/4 C whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 C crushed pretzels
- Fleur de sel (or other high-quality flaky salt)
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
With a hand mixer, cream together butter, applesauce, sugars, and peanut butter. Add in milk, vanilla, and egg.
Sift together remaining ingredients (except pretzels) and incorporate into butter mixture. Fold in pretzels.
Scoop dough in ~2T balls onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Lightly flatten with palm and sprinkle with fleur de sel.
Bake for 8-10 mins.
Makes 15 cookies.
Note: My peanut butter was really thick, so I needed that 1 T of milk. Depending on what you use, you may not – use your judgment here.
***
I’ll be lucky if I even get cole in my stocking. Wait. Wrong holiday.
Would you rather have chocolate or cookies? Something else?
***
February is #chocolatelove month! I am excited to be co-hosting this month’s lovebloghop for the first time. Please check out my co-hosts’ posts too:
A Little Bit of Everything ~ Roxana ~ @RoxanaGreenGirl
ASTIG Vegan ~ Richgail ~ @astigvegan
Badger Girl Learns to Cook ~ Kimberly ~ @BdgrGrl
Baker Street ~ Anuradha ~ @bakerstreet29
Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves ~ Becky Higgins
Baking Extravaganza ~ Samantha
BigFatBaker ~ Erin ~ @BigFatBaker
Bon a croquer ~ Valerie ~ @Valouth
CafeTerraBlog ~ Terra ~ @CafeTerraBlog
Cake Duchess ~ Lora ~ @cakeduchess
Cakeballs, Cookies and More ~ Sue
Cooking with Books ~ Marnely ~ @nella22
Creative Cooking Corner ~ Karriann ~ @KarriannGraf
Easily Good Eats ~ Three Cookies
Elephant Eats ~ Amy
Georgiecakes ~ Georgie ~ @georgiecakes
Hobby And More ~ Richa ~ @betit19
Java Cupcake ~ Betsy ~ @JavaCupcake
Kitchen Belleicious ~ Jessica ~ @kbelleicious
Mike’s Baking ~ Mike ~ @mikesbaking
Mis Pensamientos ~ Junia ~ @juniakk
No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ TR ~ @TRCrumbley
Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose
Rico sin Azucar ~ Helena ~ @ricosinazucar
Savoring Every Bite ~ Linda ~ @Spicegirlfla
Simply Reem ~ Reem ~ @simplyreem
Smart Food and Fit ~ Lisa ~ @LisaNutrition
Soni’s Food for Thought ~ Soni ~ @sonisfood
Sprint 2 the Table ~ Laura ~ @Sprint2theTable
Teaspoon of Spice ~ Deanna ~ @tspbasil
That Skinny Chick Can Bake ~ Liz ~ @Thatskinnychick
The Dusty Baker ~ Jacqueline ~ @dustybakergal
The More Than Occasional Baker ~ Ros ~ @bakingaddict
The Spicy RD ~ EA ~ @thespicyrd
The Wimpy Vegetarian ~ Susan ~ @wimpyvegetarian
Vegan Yack Attack! ~ Jackie ~ @veganyackattack
Vegetarian Mamma ~ Cindy ~ @VegetarianMamma
You Made That? ~ Suzanne ~ @YouMadeThatblog
Join us in the #chocolatelove fun by linking up any chocolate recipe from the month of February 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #chocolatelove event! The Twitter hashtag is #chocolatelove.
You are actually making me fall in love this valentines day – pretzels, chocolate, peanut butter and cookies? Why must I fall so hard 😀
Wonderful recipe!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Wait, you want me to pick if I prefer chocolate or cookies? Two of my favorite things. I pick both! 🙂 Now, these cookies combine both, so these are my favorite, and then adding the pretzels and fleur de sel? Be still my heart! These look unbelievably delicious!
Oh heavens no! I meant like chocolates vs. cookie/cake desserts. 🙂
Do the pretzels get soggy inside the cookies? I love the sweet and salty but my pretzels always seem to get soggy inside.
They held up surprisingly well – I used Newman’s Own Spelt pretzels. Not sure if that made a difference.
chocolate or cookies? By all means cookies with chocolate! LOL! Seriously, couldn’t pick if i had too! These look amazing! Great recipe for the bloghop
OK – you really hit my dessert trifecta – chocolate, peanut butter & salt! I always order pretzel cones with my peanut butter ice cream b/c of that crunch/salt factor. These sound divine!
Um, holy yum. My three favorite foods in one!
Shitchyeah! I’ve been loving the pretzel bits in my cookies lately. Salty and sweet foreva! 😉
Shitchyeah is one of my favorite phrases ever. 😉
This sounds super interesting! I mean chocolate, peanut butter , and pretzels… YUMMY!
I am loving the salty and sweet combo in these cookies! Pretzels and chocolate are just perfection together!
Wow, I love all of those flavors. To combine them is pure genius 😀
One most definitely cannot go wrong!
I’ve got Thailand holiday weight to combat and now you throw this at me!? Must. Make. Delicious. Pretzel!
BUZZED
I refuse to feel bad for you when you just got back from Thailand. 😉
I may definitely need to buy a bag of gluten-free pretzels and whip up a batch of these with gluten-free flour. The combo sounds absolutely amazing! So happy to celebrate #chocolatelove with you 🙂
Same to you! I actually like the taste of gluten-free pretzels better for some reason. They are really crisp, so I’m sure they would work well in these!
Of course both chocolate and cookies together!!These cookies looks amazing and I’m sure they are super delicious!
The hardest part about baking cookies is always keeping your hands out of the dough! These look soooo good, almost like a take 5 candy bar, minus the caramel 🙂 And I’m so sorry, I tried to link up one of my chocolate recipes and I accidentally loaded it twice! (I’m the cream pie….sorry….) And I couldn’t figure out how to delete, I apologize for the duplicate!
I totally agree – and I think next time a drizzle of caramel over the top is in order.
No worries on the recipe – thanks for joining in!
What a great idea for Feb! I think chocolate is my all-time favorite food. These cookies look awesome, I love anything that combines pb and chocolate, and I absolutely eat way too much dough in the process. 🙂
So I’ve never once stressed about eating cake batter with raw egg. This fear seems to be quite an American thing! But that aside, I’d definitely be nibbling this batter and leaving lots in the mixing bowl after scooping for the cook’s treat. NOM NOM NOM!
Can I have both! I love chocolate, I love peanut butter, I love pretzels and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna Los these cookies.
I’m a big fan of having your cake and eating it too. Or cookie, as the case may be. 😉
PB, pretzel AND chocolate! I want it all. Heh.
Great job on the #chocolatelove! The salty/sweet combo is an amazing one…as is the choco/pb combo. These look amazing 🙂
Thank you so much! So many recipes are born out of my sweet/salty cravings. 😉
whoohoo for vegan chocolate pb cookies. hehehe u and me think alike. i’m so bookmarking this! so glad you are a part of the lovebloghop! sending some #chocolatelove to u!
I’ve got yours marked too! Thank you for all your hard work. 🙂
These sound so amazingly delish! I’m bookmarking this recipe, and congrats on the foodbuzz! Visiting and sending you some #chocolatelove! 🙂
Thank you so much! Your cookie bars look wonderful too. 🙂
Hehe, I love your “XO”. That is too cute. These look really amazing. I am with you though, egg or not…eating cookie dough is just a plain hobby for me haha
Noooo! Why pretzels?! I lvoe peanut butter, I love chocolate, I love salted chocolate, but pretzels! Yikes! Haha, sorry, I’m just weird about the chocolate-pretzel combo.
Though if I had to choose, then chocolate.
You can leave them out! Or use potato chips. 🙂
I’ll admit that I ate some eggy cookie batter just yesterday, but I love that there are no worries with this one. These cookies look awesome!
Hmm, if they’re chocolate-covered caramels, then I’ll choose chocolate… everything else, I’ll take a cookie! … i think… Tough question! 😉 These cookies ~ can’t wait to try ’em out.
What if they’re chocolate covered caramels, all warm and melty hidden in a freshly baked cookie? 😉
*runs off to kitchen*
this is my idea of perfection. quick: stranded on dessert island, only get one food for eternity: i’ll take those cookies, thank-you.
Chocolate-covered caramels in a cookie = yessss!
I love cookies, especially with chocolate. I have to try these with the chocolate, PB, and pretzels, pure heaven:)
Sending #chocolatelove your way!
Oh, these look killer!
Looove the salty and sweet combination!
Love the sweet and salt combo and peanut butter, can’t go wrong with this cookie. Sending you #chocolatelove 🙂
These look so yummy! Love the addition of pretzels!
Mmm… dark chocolate… with salty pretzels… yummmm!!!
I confess, I am an equal opportunity dessert eater so whether its chocolates, cookies, cake, pie, ice cream or cheese & fruit… yes, please!
Here’s to being equal opportunity dessert eaters!
P.S. Can I have one of your truffles to cheer with? 😉
i love this! can i have some over please?
sending you more #chocolatelove
Please do! The only problem with baking is that you have to eat it all. 🙂
Those are some great cookies. Chocolate and pretzels are a perfect marriage.
A side note: Until I started making vegan desserts I would NEVER eat raw batter. Now I let the kids have it because I know it won’t hurt them.
These look so good!! I’m so glad that you decided to make these for the bloghop, I think I might make this recipe for some of my girlfriends that I’m meeting up with this weekend. And, the best part is that I don’t have to veganize it! <3 Great job on the post, I'm sending #chocolatelove your way! 🙂
Thank you! Please let me know how you like them if you do make the cookies. I am really loving vegan baking – everything tastes so clean and it’s not hard to do!