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No-bake salted chocolate peanut butter pretzel cookies are ridiculously easy and only require 5 ingredients. These salty-sweet confections are kid-and-adult-approved, and ready to your round out your holiday dessert spread. 
Happy Thanksgiving week, friends!! Please tell me I’m not the only one who hasn’t prepared–let alone shopped for–a single thing? This is my first year hosting and I oddly don’t feel an ounce of stress over it (…yet). I’m fully anticipating complete chaos to ensue, but it’ll be so worth it to watch my family gleefully eat not one, but TWO, brussels sprouts dishes, sweet potato casserole WITHOUT marshmallows, and an actual dry-brined turkey. (I’m totally being sarcastic. They are super traditional when it comes to T-Day food, and will likely turn out many eye rolls in exchange for my veg-heavy spread.)
But what’s a family holiday without a little conflict, right?! 😉
I actually hadn’t given much thought to dessert before making (and devouring) these cookies over the weekend. I like to keep it pretty traditional with a pumpkin and apple pie, but always insist on having some kind of chocolate element (bonus points if it’s chocolate-peanut butter/AKA the boldest, best combination in dessert land), too.
These cookies are perfect for a hectic holiday for two reasons: first being that they don’t require any oven or stove usage, and second that they can be made DAYS ahead and kept refrigerated until the main event. So, I actually take back what I said about having nothing prepared. I have ONE batch of these cookies prepared that will hopefully (slim chance) last until T-Day.
These cookies are unapologetically simple and the ultimate sweet-salty mashup. The salty peanut butter is the perfect foil to bittersweet chocolate, keeping it from tasting too rich and rounding out the sweetness. And since salt is the yin to sugar’s yang, finishing the cookies with a flourish of flaky sea salt makes all of the flavors really pop.
Plus, a combination of peanut butter, chocolate, pretzels, and nuts should satisfy just about every craving in the book.
It’s really not a party until the pretzels show up!
No-Bake Salted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups mini pretzels plus 20 mini pretzels for topping
- 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
- 1 cup natural salted peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Flaky sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Place pretzels and pecans in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. Seal bag and use a rolling pin to finely crush pretzels and pecans into fine crumbs. Alternatively, place pretzels and pecans in a food processor and blend until ground. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.
- Add peanut butter and honey; stir until combined. Chill dough for 30 minutes.
- Roll dough into 20 balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place one mini pretzel in the center of each ball and gently press down to flatten cookie.
- Place chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring well after each time, until melted and smooth. Drizzle chocolate evenly over cookies and sprinkle with flaky salt. Chill for 2 hours (or freeze for 20 to 30 minutes). Store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
All of my favorite things combined into an easy recipe!! These cookies are beyond delicious.
Thank you for taking time to leave a review, Alli! I’m so glad the cookies were a hit.