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Chewy Christmas Snickerdoodles with pockets of melted chocolate – these cookies are so yummmmy! Made with browned butter, holiday M&Ms, pretzels, chocolate chips, and chunks of dark chocolate. Each cookie dough ball is rolled with cinnamon sugar for that classic Snickerdoodle finish before baking to perfection. There’s nothing not to love about these sweet chocolate Christmas cookies. Each bite is slightly crisp on the edges but soft and gooey in the center, with just a little salty pretzel crunch throughout.
Let the countdown begin! Twenty-five days until Christmas – Happy December everyone! I know I’ve been saying this all week, but I’m so excited for the holiday season, I just know it will be magical!
I have so many fun new recipes to share with you all, and on a personal note, I can’t wait to enjoy the season! Watch all the holiday movies, find the perfect gifts, and bake all the cookies!!
As I prepare to share my 2023 cookie box, I’m sharing a few new recipes in advance! My Hot Chocolate Cookies went live on Tuesday, and today, we’ve got Snickerdoodles!
These are special snickerdoodles. They’re chewy like a Snickerdoodle with that classic cinnamon sugar coating. But they have similar mix-ins to my Christmas Monster Cookies – holiday M&M’s, pretzels, and both chocolate chips and chunks.
They’re Christmas time in a nice big, chewy, snickerdoodle cookie. And they just might become a new holiday favorite. I love how easy they are, with no chilling required!
Here are the details
Step 1: brown the butter
Start by browning half of your butter, it really does add so much flavor that it’s worth the extra step.
Add one stick of butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes, but no longer.
Using one stick of browned butter and one stick of soft butter gives you the flavor of browned butter but leaves you with cookies that have great texture too.
Step 2: mix the dough
Grab the brown butter from the freezer and the stick of softened butter. Beat the two together with the brown sugar. I use dark brown sugar, but you can use whatever you have in the pantry.
Once the sugar is creamed into the butter, add the eggs. This dough requires 2 large eggs and 1 egg yolk.
Mix in the vanilla and then add all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt.
Step 3: the stir-ins,
These are the most important part. You’ll need salted pretzel twists, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and chunks of dark chocolate. And then, plenty of red and green holiday M&M’s, which really make these cookies!
Mix the stir-ins into your dough, then scoop the dough into scant 1/4 cup dough balls. A decent size but not too big.
Step 4: the cinnamon sugar
In classic Snickerdoodle form, roll each dough ball with cinnamon sugar.
I like to do a light roll, as I don’t like my cookies to be overly sweet.
Step 5: bake
Bake the cookies up until they are barely set on the edges.
To get the M&M’s to really pop, I like to add in a few just before the cookies finish baking completely. This way each cookie has a bit of the festive M&M’s right on top.
Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. The cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet.
These cookies have chewy edges with soft and gooey centers. They’ve got a nice crunch plus a little saltiness from the pretzels – the best kind of cookies.
I’m excited to include these in the year’s Christmas cookie box. They’re perfect for packing up and gifting to friends for the holidays!
Looking for other Christmas cookies? Here are my favorites:
Easy Vanilla Bean Christmas Lights Cookies
Easy Hot Chocolate Lace Cookies
Lastly, if you make these Chewy Christmas Snickerdoodles, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chewy Christmas Snickerdoodles
Servings: 20 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 250 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups holiday M&M’s
- 1 cup mini pretzel sticks crushed
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chunks
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- 1. Add 1 stick of butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Freeze for 10-15 minutes, but no longer.2. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.3. In a bowl, beat together the remaining stick of butter, the cooled browned butter, and the brown sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs and 1 egg yolk, one at a time, until combined. Add the vanilla, beating until creamy. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. 4. Fold in 3/4 cup of the M&M's, pretzels, chocolate chips, and chocolate chunks.5. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Roll the dough into rounded 2-3 tablespoon-size balls and then roll through the cinnamon sugar. Place 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.6. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pan and push the remaining M&M's into the cookies. Bake for 2-3 minutes more. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet.7. Eat warm or let cool and store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
I’m obsessed with these cookies. I have made them 4 times now for various events and they have been a hit. I’m not ever super confident in cooking for others and am usually a swing by and grab something at the bakery kind of person, so I have really appreciated this recipe. Thanks!
Thank you so so much for giving this recipe a try! Hope you have an awesome New Year! xT
With l-o-v-e, this recipe, for me, was a swing and a surprising miss. I’m not a frequent baker and understand that baking is chemistry, so when I saw the appetizing video on IG I thought this would be a sure thing. As a nonreligious person I can honestly say I experienced faith. I experienced _faith_.
The end result looked more like chunky loaves with dried-out edges that crumbled under any duress like a middle-of-the-road veggie burger. The edge was solidly more biscuit than cookie, you know?
Consistency was bizarre, taste was pretty bland, and once cooked, really mealy or something. Not a pleasant or a “cookie” texture even for a “monster cookie.”
Video content on IG is wonderful BTW and this article had excellent photography, but I think the recipe needs to revisited. I was sober as a judge when I made these and have since developed a drinking problem contemplating “What went wrong?” Many other comments (which I wish I had read before committing to this) would suggest the same.
Well, not the drinking problem.
Anyway, I made one batch and through the rest out. Between _this_ and experiencing faith, it was definitely a day of firsts for me.
INFREQUENT BAKER PRO-TIP: Since I hadn’t used an entire bag of chocolate chips or bar of dark chocolate I just made the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips and browned one of the two sticks of butter. Shit turned out.
Thank you so so much for trying out the recipe! I really appreciate all of this feedback! xT
Turned out perfect. Great twist on holiday cookies. Delicious, everyone loved them.
Hi Trish! Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Hope you have an amazing Christmas! xT
I love your recipes but this one didn’t turn out. My cookies didn’t spread at all. The taste is okay but not amazing.
Very much like your monster cookies!
Thanks Diana! xT
good flavors but for some reason mine didn’t flatten down.. they look like muffins, followed the recipe but I guess it was too much flour? wish it worked out better!
Hmm yes I would maybe add a little less flour! So sorry these didn’t turn out as well as you hoped! xT
Not at all trying to be negative because I usually love every single recipe half baked harvest puts out but this was not a win for me. Followed the recipe to a T and it was just so off putting I didn’t even bother to bake the rest of the dough I made. The pretzel aspect has such a weird texture and the middle of the cookie had such a weird paste texture.
Hey there! I am so sorry this recipe didn’t turn out for you! Thank you for letting me know! xT
Just made these, this is Xmas candy & cookie in one. My 1st bake time was 10 minutes plus 4 minutes after poking the MnM’s into cookie. Time varied depending on if I used old darkened cookie sheet or new shiny air cookie sheet. These are very filling! Ilike the salty sweet. It made 40 cookies for me. I like it!
Hey Linda! Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! Hope you enjoyed this recipe! xT
Can you please give details on making these in bar form. Pan size, temp, time, etc. Did you sprinkle top before baking?
Very good cookies. I enjoyed them and was glad to try something fun like this for Christmas. I however was confused as well with the additions. The recipe says to have almost 3.5 cups of add ins, but the step by step says to only add 3/4 cup…clearly not correct, so if it’s supposed to read 3/4 of the add ins pour in, that needs to be edited. I will say that I did about 2/3 of the add ins in and it was a lot. I didn’t even add them on top after 8 minutes in the oven, just left it as is and it was more than enough.
Thanks for letting me know Laura! xT
Tastes good but I’ve had the same issues as the other comments where my cookies stay in a ball and don’t spread out. I think might be a change in altitude effecting the bake? Tieghan- any recs with changing flour? I’ve had the same issue with other cookie recipes from the website
Hi Laura! Hmm I would maybe add a little less flour to the dough if you feel like they’re not spreading! xT
Made these tonight and I am very confused. The recipe says 1 cup of pretzels, 1cup of semi chocolate , 1/3 cup of dark chunks and 1 1/4 cup of holiday m&m’s…which equals 3 3/4 cups of add in goodies….but the instructions say to add 3/4 cup of the add -ins into the dough? How does that compute? 3 3/4 cups of add ins but only 3/4 cup in the recipe? Then add just holiday m&m’s on the top??? You just said in the instructions to mix all the add in together,.,, so where are these extra red and green m&m’s ? It’s not written well and hard to follow…. Texture is not good….only 1 star
Pretty yummy! I think I like the monster cookies slightly better if I had to compare. Also, I couldn’t get them to be as flat as you show in the picture. They remained closer to the ball form. Any insights to get them to spread out more?
I had the same problem! They super did not look like the photo, but tasted pretty good/chewy as promised