Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Chocolate chip cookie bars are the perfect easy treat when you’re craving your favorite chocolate chip cookies but don’t want to wait for dough to chill or to scoop out cookies!
I’ve been craving my favorite chocolate chip cookies for at least a month now. The fact that I haven’t made them yet is a tragedy. I have such a soft spot for those cookies – I made a huge batch for the freezer a few weeks before Joseph was born last year. I packed a handful in my hospital bag and boy were those a welcome treat during all those days in the hospital. After he was born, the evening routine in our house consisted of me nursing Joseph, him falling asleep on the boppy pillow in my lap, and my husband and I binge watching 24… and I always ate a cookie from the freezer while we watched :)
So, I’ve wanted those cookies badly but I didn’t really want to wait for the dough chill or go through scooping and shaping cookies (pregnancy laziness?), so I did the next best thing – I made chocolate chip cookie bars!
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While I’ve found that this cookie recipe definitely benefits from chilling in the refrigerator prior to baking, these chocolate chip cookie bars were just fine without chilling the dough. Wonderfully soft, chewy and sturdy enough to grab and eat standing up.
Hello, summer camping and picnic food!
It was the perfect recipe to whip up quickly on a Friday night after Joseph went to bed and before I hit the couch for the continuation of our 24 marathon (we took quite a few months off, but we’re now on season six!).
If you need an easy sweet snack for your favorite TV watching, these chocolate chip cookie bars are IT.
Three years ago: Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Four years ago: Homemade Rum Cake
Five years ago: Best Ever Potato Salad
Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 8½ ounces (240.97 g) cake flour, (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons )
- 8½ ounces (240.97 g) bread flour, (1⅔ cups)
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) baking powder
- 1¼ teaspoons (1.25 teaspoons) baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) kosher salt
- 10 ounces (283.5 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, (1¼ cups )
- 10 ounces (283.5 g) light brown sugar, (1¼ cups )
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) granulated sugar, (1 cup + 2 tablespoons )
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2½ cups (450 g) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Sift together the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed until very light, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low, gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Turn the dough out into the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer. Bake until the edges cookies are light brown and set, but the center still look pale, about 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then cut into squares and serve. Leftover cookie bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, or wrapped in plastic wrap, placed in a freezer bag and frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Taste is wonderful, but the baking time is not nearly long enough. They are definitely raw and runny in the center at 20 minutes. Leave them in for 35-40 and check with a wooden toothpick. If the batter is clinging to the stick like stew, leave it for longer.
Now I know why I usually stick to America’s Test Kitchen recipes. They are dependable and always turn out. I am an experienced baker, and followed this recipe with precision. I have never had a recipe fail so dramatically, nor have I seen a cookie bar recipe turn out quite like this. It looked like a nice cookie dough when it went into my Williams and Sonoma gold baking pan. After twenty minutes I had a gooey bubbly batter oozing up from underneath a thin, crispy layer on top. There is no salvaging these cookie bars, I’m afraid. It’s so frustrating when you use good ingredients and end up with a pan full of buttery goo. Save yourself the hassle and find another recipe!
These are great! Whenever I take them to a gathering, I never have leftovers.
I’m changing my review to 5 stars because, after baking them quite a bit longer, they are delicious! I refrigerated the dough beforehand and used a thick glass 9 x 13 casserole dish. Maybe this is the reason they were completely raw within an inch of the edges after 20 minutes. I put them back in the oven at 325 and let them bake for an extra 15 minutes or so, until there was a nice brittle light brown crust all over. Now they are wonderfully gooey, but not at all raw. They are also about 1/4 inch thicker than the bars pictured in the recipe, which makes me think that my glass casserole dish somehow is the wrong size. Next time, I will buy a metal 9 x 13 cake pan and use that without refrigerating the dough beforehand.
Thank you for the delicious recipe!
Mine were raw in the middle too! I’m using a glass pan. Could that be the difference? Would a metal pan bake them faster?
I just made these. At 20 minutes, they were not set around the edges. I let them continue to cook, checking every 2 minutes, until the edges were just beginning to set, at around 25 minutes. The entire bar was starting to look light brown, so I was afraid I had over cooked them, but they were perfect! Chewy and soft, but not raw. My tip would be to focus on allowing them to start to set up around the edges before taking them out. Definitely worth the wait!
I’m a very good baker but something is off in this recipe as the bars were more than underdone. I think there may be too much butter and chocolate chips……..maybe there is a typo in the recipe?? Final product very soggy and I have a very hot oven – I don’t think they would have cooked by adding any more bake time.