Sea Salt Toffee, Chocolate & Pretzel Cookies

My search for this recipe began when I had a cookie from Panera. Not just any cookie--but a buttery, chocolatey, crunchy, salty, caramely cookie from heaven. I found out later that the Panera version is called the Kitchen Sink cookie. And for good reason--those babies have literally every delicious ingredient you could ever want.

The Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie

In my efforts to find an acceptable substitute to make at home, I stumbled upon this recipe from Cookies & Cups that was just similar enough to the Panera version. The original used butterscotch chips (which I love), but I wanted more of a caramel flavor, so I substituted Heath bits. YUM.

The 2 sticks of butter (yeah, baby!) are browned before adding the rest of the ingredients. I had actually never browned butter before, but wow. The process is similar to candy-making (you just don't add the sugar while heating the butter) and it lends an amazing caramel flavor to the entire cookie. If you are even a little bit excited about salted caramel, try this recipe ASAP. They are even better the next day!

I have big plans for variations with this browned-butter dough. This is definitely ready for some experimentation. White chocolate chips and craisins? Butterscotch chips and coconut? The sky's the limit!

Sea Salt Toffee, Chocolate & Pretzel Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon course sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup toffee bits
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup coarsely chopped or crushed pretzels

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and then bring to a boil. Once the butter starts boiling, swirl the pan constantly until the butter passes the foamy phase and becomes a deep amber color, like a brown paper bag. Removing the pan from the heat, pour butter into the mixer bowl and let the butter sit and cool for 15-20 minutes.

2. While butter is cooling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two cooking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Add the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla to the butter in the mixer. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture--soda, salt and then flour. Finally, add the toffee, chocolate chips and crushed pretzels.

4. Using a medium cookie scoop, place balls of dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. If desired, press extra chocolate chips or pretzel pieces into the tops of the balls to make them extra pretty. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden brown. 

5. Allow cookies to cool for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of sea salt while cooling. Enjoy!