Peanut Butter Cup & Pretzel Oatmeal Cookies

Confession; Many of my recipes are just spin-offs of staple recipe bases, because I often live my baking life by the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” philosophy…

If it’s a good recipe, it’s a good recipe. There are certain recipe bases that I just don’t mess with – and one of those is my moms recipe for Oatmeal Cookies. I have tried many other oatmeal cookie recipes, but my moms is always the one I come back to. It is just perfection for me.

So whenever I bake a batch of Oatmeal Cookies… her recipe is where I start.

Today I was feeling a sweet and salty vibe, so I loaded the dough up with dark chocolate, toffee, peanut butter cups and crunchy pretzels. Topped them with some flaky sea salt once they were out of the oven annnddd haiii new favourite cookies!

Seriously obsessed with these guys, and I just want you to be too. So here is the recipe and I hope you enjoy!

Happy Baking!

KP xoxo

Salted Toffee and Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Things you need…
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1 egg, room temp
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups large rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder (optional, but highly recommended)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup toffee pieces (**You can usually find these in the chocolate chip section of your grocery store)
3/4 cups dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks
3/4 cup mini peanut butter cups (or whole peanut butter cups roughly chopped)
1 heaping cup pretzels

1 tbsp flaked sea salt – This is my favourite 

How to make…
Preheat oven to 350F degrees or 325F degrees convection.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and dark brown sugar; beat on high until pale and fluffy – about 5-6 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla, espresso powder and coconut; beat until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, rolled oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add in two additions to the wet ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Add the dark chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups, pretzels and toffee pieces; beat until evenly distributed and the pretzels are crushed up a bit.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop your batter out into 1-2 tbsp portions onto your baking sheets leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. I usually put no more than 9 onto each tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden and set. Remove from the oven and generously sprinkle with flaked sea salt, and place on a cooling rack to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Make ahead tip: I usually bake off 1 tray of cookies and then place the rest of my cookie dough balls in a freezer bag, and they can be stored in the freezer for 2-3 months. When you are ready to bake them off, you can bake them from frozen, but you will need to add additional bake time – probably 4-5 extra minutes.