French Vanilla Ghiradelli Luxe Pretzel Cookies - Week Three

For week three, I was interested in baking a good chocolate chip cookie.  I've baked tons of variations of chocolate chip cookies before.  Nestle's go-to recipe, the famous NY Times recipe, Alton Brown's The Chewie, etc.  The list is endless.  Some are made with nuts.  Some are made with oats.  Some are made with cake flour.  But, one thing remains the same:  flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugars, butter, egg, and vanilla.

I was hoping to make more of a savory chocolate chip cookie this time, so when I saw a recipe that appealed to me, I decided to swap out regular vanilla extract with french vanilla extract.  It totally did the trick.  The addition of french vanilla made the house smell delicious and it made the cookies taste incredible.  They were very rich tasting, but the salt from the pretzels made them simply divine.  As always, I cut the recipe in half, but this is the first time that I kind of wish I hadn't.

French Vanilla Ghiradelli Luxe Pretzel Cookies
adapted from Korean American Mommy
Yield:  About 3-4 dozen cookies
Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 4 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp french vanilla extract (or regular vanilla extract)
• 2 x 3 oz. Ghiradelli LUXE bars, broken into little pieces
• 1 cup pretzels, broken into little pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.
3. Prepare add-ins:  break up chocolate bar and pretzels into tiny pieces.  Set aside.
4. Melt butter in microwave.
5. In large bowl, cream melted butter and sugars together until well blended.
6. Add egg and vanilla; beat for about 30 seconds.
7. Slowly add in the flour mixture until combined.
8. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate and pretzel pieces until well combined.
9. Drop teaspoonfuls (I used my small cookie scoop) of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
10. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-14 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned on the top and just set.  (Time will vary depending on how big your cookies are and how well your oven works.)