Potato Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars
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Sweet and salty, chewy and crunchy – these potato chip pretzel cookie bars are the perfect one bowl, whisk by hand, crowd-pleasing party dessert.
I mentioned on Tuesday that I was going to share some of my favorite football party-appropriate foods. Don’t worry – there are more dips and appetizers coming – but I thought we’d take a little time out today to talk about dessert.
We love getting together friends and neighbors to watch football, and especially to make all the delicious football food! (I mean, really, a gathering of friends where the real focus is eating? Food blogger paradise!)
I’ve learned quite a few things over the years of hosting football parties, but the most important of all: make sure you have sweet treats to end the night! Pizza, wings, hoagies, dips – those are all great and should be part of your football spread. But dessert? There’s never a crumb left over.
Since your football food already includes all sorts of salty snack food, why not tie that right into your dessert with some Potato Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars?
Easy homemade chocolate chip cookie bars (one bowl! no mixer!) with pretzels and potato chips mixed into the batter and sprinkled on top, topped with chocolate drizzle. They’re sweet, they’re salty, they’re crunchy, and they’re easy to eat with one hand – it’s the perfect game day dessert.
My husband picked up a bag of Snyder’s of Hanover® Pretzels and Cape Cod® Potato Chips in anticipation of a little football playoff gathering we had last weekend. Of course, I couldn’t just serve them as is (I mean, I could, but what’s the fun in that?) – so I turned them into potato chip pretzel cookie bars!
The “thins” pretzel variety and kettle cooked chips are perfect for this – both are extra crunchy! (And it’s so convenient that they are located right next to each other in the snack aisle.)
Let’s talk about the crunchy part of these potato chip pretzel cookie bars for a second. Or, more specifically, the lack of crunch in most pretzel-based desserts. There are lots of cookie, brownie, and cake recipes out there with pretzels baked right in. They’re often called “pretzel crunch bars” or something similar.
Except… if you bake a pretzel in something… it’s no longer crunchy.
I know this, because I’ve tried. Over and over. And over again, with these – when I baked the layer of potato chips and pretzels on top. I can’t figure out why these baked pretzel cookies are so popular – the pretzels are soggy! They don’t look or taste like a pretzel anymore!
So repeat after me: I will not bake the pretzels on top of the cookie bar.
Instead, gently push the pretzels and potato chips onto the still-soft surface of the cookie bars when they come out of the oven. And then, because I really like crunch – we’ll put some more on top of the drizzled chocolate. A double layer of crunch, if you will. It’s so much better than baking the pretzels on top of the dough.
Trust me. This is why I’m here – to save you from the mistakes I’ve made.
Potato chips and pretzels are the perfect snack for the game – and for dessert, too. Everyone loves the salty/sweet combination, and the soft cookie bar with the crunchy topping is even more irresistible. Even if you’re not ready for some football, you’re ready to wow your guests at your football playoff party! And if you need any more ideas, be sure to check out these great recipes, using the rest of your bag of pretzels and potato chips!
Potato Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars
Sweet and salty, chewy and crunchy – these potato chip pretzel cookie bars are the perfect one bowl, whisk by hand, crowd-pleasing party dessert.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups broken Snyder’s of Hanover® Pretzels, divided
- 1 cup crushed Cape Cod® Potato Chips, divided
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line a 9×9-inch baking dish with aluminum foil, extending the foil over the sides to form a handle, or along the bottom of a square springform pan. Lightly grease the foil.
- In a large, microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. Add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and whisk until well combined and no lumps of sugar remain. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix in 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Gently fold 1/2 cup of the broken pretzels and 1/2 cup of the crushed potato chips. Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish, smoothing the top with a spatula.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Immediately after removing the cookie bars from the oven, press 1/2 cup of the pretzels and 1/4 cup of the potato chips along the surface. Cool completely in the pan.
- Melt the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and the vegetable oil in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 second increments, stirring well after heating, until smooth. Drizzle the chocolate back and forth along the cookie bars. Press the remaining pretzels and potato chips into the melted chocolate.
Bake 350/35 mins, cool in pan, drizzle with melted chocolate
I am SO making these this weekend! They look incredible! Thank you!! (client)
Oh my Gosh … these pretzel cookies look just delish. Would love to be invited to your party Julie 😉 Sharing and pinning!
Ok…these sound totally addictive. Chocolate alone…but add the salty from the chips and pretzels. You can never go wrong with that winning combination. I know these would not last long in our house.
First of all, these look amazingly delicious! I’ve never heard of combining chips and pretzels into a cookie before; such a decadent treat! Secondly, I have experimented with baking pretzels into cookies and they have always, always, remained crunchy and crispy. Maybe it was the brand of pretzel that I use? Who knows! I’ll certainly keep your advice close by when I make these bars. Yum. Can’t wait!
I’m so fascinated that your pretzels stay crunchy when baked — from the other comments, it sounds like most of us wind up with not so crispy pretzels. Do you use the thin ones like I did, or are you using fatter shapes? Maybe I’m just using ones that are too thin so moisture is absorbed the whole way through? I always want to take a bite and get that satisfying CRUNCH of a pretzel, and yet pretzel baked goods never seem to yield that.
I’m a big fan of salty and sweet combined. I guess really I’m more of a salty person than sweet… if I had to choose. But seriously I think this would be an awesome snack to serve up at a Football party or anytime.
I’m also more of a salty person than sweet – so I love when I can combine them into one dessert!
I can’t wait to make this recipe. My boys would absolutely go nuts over this — and so would the girls. I’ve always like the salty and sweet combination and now I can get my salty/sweet craving satisfied with one cookie. That is so great. I can’t wait to make the cookies.
Girl, you had me at pretzels and chocolate. My ultimate weakness is salty + sweet so these are right up my alley! Cannot wait to make them and eat the whole pan! ?
Same here! I always choose salty over sweet, so the best kind of sweet in my book has salty, too!
Those are the best pretzels and potato chips! You are so creative to combine them with chocolate into a cookie bar!
Aw man.. I’m not eating sweets for about a month still (*sobs*) but I’ll have to keep these in mind! I love sweet and salty, and it’s awesome that you’ve figured out how to keep the pretzels crunchy!
This is the perfect football food! But I’m over here laughing off my chair at your comment “of course I couldn’t serve them as is, where’s the fun in that?”
My husband asks me on a weekly basis: Why can’t we just eat this? Why do you make such weird things? I mean they taste good, but why not just the way they came?
I’ll be back to use this recipe the next time we’re going tailgating!
Haha! Food blogger problems, right? Sure, I could eat these cookies as is… OR I COULD TURN THEM INTO A CRUST FOR A PIE!
Love sweet and salty desserts! And these look like the perfect sweet/salty bites. Awesome tip about pretzels too! I wouldn’t have thought about them losing their crunch once baked.
You think since it’s baked, it will get extra crunchy, right? So disappointing! I’ve learned my lesson many a time!
What a brilliant idea and thanks for pointing us out to the mistake of baking with the pretzel. I have never baked with pretzel and I would have totally assumed that it would be extra crispy when baked. My husband loves anything sweet and salty and this will make my sad husband during super bowl happy (his favorite team is done for the season, so the sadness).
I’m seeiaouly drooling over here!! I love the combo of chips and pretzels with chocolate! I’m going to make this and drizzle caramel on top too! ps I love your whisk!
Isn’t the whisk the best? I’m a sucker for brightly colored things. I picked it up from the Our Best Bites online shop!
I saw recipe of pretzel tart earlier didn’t get courage to try it in sweet dish. But your cookie bars got me reconsider idea of using Pretzel in baking. Always salt and sweet goes when there is chocolate involved in it.
OMG, these sound Fantastic! I love pretzel+chocolate combination and the addition of potato chips would give this cookie bar such a distinctive taste. Pinning your recipe to try soon.
Pretzels and chocolate are SUCH a good combination!
These look awesome! I could eat the whole pan! I love the “double layer of crunch” that you’ve added. I know how the pretzels can get soggy like you say.
The combination of crunchy, sweet, salty, and gooey is the best! I make a brownie with pretzels in them and they are slightly soggy and not what I want so this is a great tip to push them in the top layer one they come out of the oven. Thanks for working that out and I am going to make this pronto!!
Right? The soggy pretzels are the worst. I want mine with lots of crunch!
Oh my… there are so many good things about this recipe. Easy one bowl usually is enough to win me over but then the chips (love Cape Cod chips!), pretzels and chocolate drizzled, now that’s wonderland ! Your football party sounds fun. Enjoy!!
Thanks, Silvia! You’re always welcome to come join our football parties. 😉
What fun! You are so right that you can’t bake pretzels and keep them crunchy. These bars look so good! I look forward to trying them.
Thanks, Elaine! The crunchy baked pretzels dilemma is so annoying, in terms of desserts causing irritation. 😉
I’m totally making these for our superbowl party. They look so tasty!
I am always envious of how americans have football parties and the main focus always seems to be food! lol it looks like na excuse to gather and eat. Maybe I should start that tradition here; Thanks for sharing the recipe looks foodcoma ish!
Can this be made without eggs? My hubby would probably like this but is severely allergic to eggs. I wonder if I could use flax seed?
Hi Shelley – I don’t have any experience replacing eggs with flax seeds, so I can’t guarantee that the results will work. I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but for brownies I often replace the egg with a mashed, ripe banana. It doesn’t really alter the taste much, but you still get that chewy texture from brownies. I can’t guarantee it will work, but you can definitely try substituting two mashed bananas for the eggs. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
This looks seriously delicious…maybe I will try one of these days! My boys would be over the moon if their health-nut, dietitian mom made this!
Um….genius!!! And if it makes you feel better, I can’t do anything the easy way either 😉
Oh yum! Sweet and salty combined in a bar! And they look so pretty too!
OMG… these look absolutely irresistible! I love the sweet and salty combo. It’s my favorite!!
This is a delicious idea, and I tried it, but I wonder if a larger pan would help. Mine rose & baked up very thick & cake-like. Because it was so thick, they were still not done in the center after 30-35 minutes. Since I had to keep baking them longer they were dry ?. I thought they would bake thinner like a “bar” rather than cake-like brownies. Between the thickness of the brownie & all of the toppings, I could barely get my mouth around it. Like I said, love the idea. The combination would be delicious but I followed the recipe….???? May try larger pan next time & spreading batter out thinner.
Hi Andrea – mine were also pretty thick (like a brownie), as you can see from the pictures. If you want thinner bars, absolutely try it in a larger pan, and scale down the cooking time accordingly! I also always recommend baking with an oven thermometer as well, since ovens tend to be off. To hit an accurate 350 degrees on my oven, I set the oven to 335, since mine runs hot. My cookie bars were done after 30 minutes at 350, but of course there is always variability. Switching to a larger pan will definitely cook them quicker!
Okay these look amazing! I’m trying to prep a lot of goodies in advance. Do you think the dough could be frozen? I’m assuming the cooked bars with the pretzel on top wouldn’t freeze (or come to room temperature) well? Thanks so much!!
I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say with 100% certainty, but I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t be able to make the dough ahead of time, freeze it, and then bake it. Let me know how it works out!!
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