Perfectly Chewy Salted Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

Nothing beats a perfect homemade chewy chocolate chip cookie, except a chewy chocolate chip cookie with pretzels and sea salt. They have the perfect balance of sweet with a touch of salt to balance things out. Plus the combo of pretzel and chocolate is to die for. It gives the cookies a nice crunchy surprise when you bite them.

This recipe is super simple and no one will ever detect that they are completely vegan. Like baking anything there are a few rules and tips that will help make the recipe a success.

My top tips for making perfect cookies

1. Preheat your oven - Making sure your cookies go into a nice hot oven will ensure that the cook evenly and quickly

2. Don’t over cook them - The trick to getting the perfect chewy cookie is to slightly under bake them. You want to pull them out of the oven when they are still slightly pale and not full cooked. As the cool they will continue to cook a little. That’s what creates the chewy texture.

3. Use a cooling rack - A cooling rack is essential. Leaving cookies to cool on the pan creates super hard cookies. Removing them from the pan and placing them on the cooling rack allows them to cool with proper circulation, which also helps them become soft and chewy.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of oilI’ve used vegetable oil, olive oil and grapeseed oil and they all have worked out in this recipe.

• 3 tbs of softened vegan butter

• 1/2 cup of non-dairy milk

• 1 cup of raw cane sagar

• 3/4 cup of brown sugar

• 1-1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

• 1/4 Tsp of almond extract

• 1/2 cup of creamy almond butter

• 1-1/2 Cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips - Lots of semi-sweet chocolate chips are vegan, but be sure to read the labels. You will notice that many of them say “May contain milk’ on the packaging. That means that they were processed using equipmentthat is also used to process products that may contain milk. This is done as a precaution for people that have allergies.)

• 2-3/4 Cups of Self -Rising Flour sifted

• 1 cup of mini pretzels broken into pieces

• 1/8 Tsp of Salt

• flaked salt for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350*

2. In a large bowl combine the oil, vegan butter, brown sugar, white sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract and whisk until combined for at least 2 minutes. Next whisk in the almond butter and nondairy milk. Whisk until every thing is completely combined.

3. Next sift together the self-rising flour and salt and gradually add to the bowl and mix well. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Then stir in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces *You will notice that the chocolate chips will not stick to the batter and that’s ok. When you form your cookies just make sure to press them into the cookies.

5. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough and roll into a ball Making sure to press the chocolate chips and pretzels into the cookies. You want to make sure that the cookies are tightly formed and do not have cracks.

6. Place the cookies onto an u-greased cookie sheet at least 3 inches apart and slightly flatten them. Bake on the middle oven rack for about 10 minutes. *Do not over cook the cookies the color should still be slightly pale when you remove them from the oven and immediately sprinkle with just a touch of flaked sea salt.

7. Let the cookies rest for about 1-2 minutes then use a spatula to remove them from the cookie sheet and place onto a cooling rack

8. Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes before devouring.