For the love of all things sweet, make these as soon as possible!

These are so good; so very, very good.  If I follow the guidance of previous teachers, good is a bit of an understatement.  They're delectable.  They're scrumptious.  They are among my Pinterest Hall of Fame pins.  Gooey cookie, fluffly marshmallow, salty pretzel, peanut butter, and chocolate converge to form something that is so rich, and so much greater than the sum of its parts.

They're also easy.  The ingredient list is short, the prep is quick, and if you use pre-made cookie dough, it's all semi-homemade.  I'm that obnoxious person who made the dough from scratch, so I can give some pointers there.



This wonderful creation comes from the kitchen of the author of the food blog, Cookies and Cups, which I would never have found without Pinterest.  See the original blog post by clicking the recipe title.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookie Bars
from Cookies and Cups

1-16.5 oz roll of cookie dough, or same amt. homemade dough
3 cups miniature marshmallows
2 cups peanut butter filled pretzels
1/2 cup chocolate or peanut butter chips
1 tsp shortening

Preheat your oven to 350.  Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil or parchment and spray or butter the foil.  Press the cookie dough into the pan to form an even layer.  Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the dough is lightly golden at edges.

Remove from oven, sprinkle marshmallows over the top, and return to the oven an additional 1-2 minutes, or until the marshmallows are puffy but not done.  Remove from heat and sprinkle pretzel. Uh gets over the top.  Press the pretzels into the marshmallows and cookie dough.

Melt chocolate or peanut butter chips and the shortening in microwave in 30 second intervals until melted.  Drizzle over the bars with a spoon and allow the bars to cool before cutting.

Notes

• I used the original Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough recipe.  I already had all the ingredients for cookie dough on hand but would have had to go to the store to buy the pre-made dough.  If you go this route, make the dough ahead of time and chill in fridge, or more will end up on your hands than in the pan.  Also, weigh the dough or don't use the whole recipe.  It took my dough a lot longer to bake.  It ended up working out ok, but I was concerned about them being underdone.
• The original recipe called for peanut butter chips, but I already had chocolate chips on hand, and it turned out great.  I wonder if mixing chocolate chips and peanut butter instead of shortening would yield similar texture and more flavor?
• Do not skip the step of lining the pan.  It makes removal so easy, and I think that otherwise a lot more cookie bar would have been stuck to the pan.
• These are, like so many baked goods, best the day they're made.  They're pretty good the next day, too, but after that the pretzels start to get a little stale.  
• Because there's so much going on, they can be cut small and you can get quite a few servings out of them- 20+.  They're great for a crowd!