These indulgent Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are chewy, soft, melt in your mouth and the perfect cross between a dessert bar and a classic cookie.
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I recently started eating mostly paleo, and these chocolate chip cookie bars were the first indulgent treat I had this year. Let’s just say it was totally worth the cheat.
The chocolate chip cookie bars recipe comes straight from a new cookbook that I recently added to my collection, The 8×8 Cookbook by my friend Kathy Strahs. Kathy is a fantastic veteran blogger and cookbook author and was such an inspiration to me when I started my blog.
Perks and Highlights of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Cuisine Inspiration: American Classic
Primary Cooking Method: Baking
Dietary Info: Vegetarian Indulgence
Key Flavor: Rich Chocolate meets Caramelized Sugar
Skill Level: Beginner Friendly
Key Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: This brings all the rich, creamy goodness to the mix
- Dark Brown Sugar: It’s the molasses that brings that deep, caramel-like sweetness.
- Large Egg: Gives your bars the perfect chew and structure.
- Baking Soda: This little leavener’s gonna make sure your bars rise to the occasion.
- Salt: Just a pinch to make all those sweet flavors pop and lock.
- Semisweet Chocolate Chips: These morsels bring the boom boom pow – half melting into the mix, half staying chunky for that double texture hit.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Heat the oven to 350° F.
- Line an 8×8-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- Beat the butter and both sugars together for several minutes until they’re light and fluffy, either with an electric mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla until they’re well combined. Separately, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until they’re well combined. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Pour the dough into the prepared pan, spreading it to the edges and corners (it doesn’t have to be perfect—the dough will further spread in the oven). Bake until the bars are fully set and lightly browned on top, about 25 minutes. Allow them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, heat the remaining chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring after each heating, until they’re fully melted (alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in a double-boiler on the stove). Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cooled cookie bars before cutting and serving.
- BETTER YET: Cutting a pan of chocolate chip cookies into bars takes a whole lot less effort than scooping individual drop cookies!
How to Store
Let them cool completely before adding them into an airtight container. Keep on your counter for up to a week, or chill them in the fridge if you like your treats cool. For a longer stash, wrap ’em up and let them hibernate in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Favorite Chocolate Chip Recipes to Try
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- Sweet and Salty Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 stick
- 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350° F.
- Line an 8×8-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- Beat the butter and both sugars together for several minutes until they’re light and fluffy, either with an electric mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla until they’re well combined. Separately, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until they’re well combined. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Pour the dough into the prepared pan, spreading it to the edges and corners (it doesn’t have to be perfect—the dough will further spread in the oven). Bake until the bars are fully set and lightly browned on top, about 25 minutes. Allow them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, heat the remaining chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring after each heating, until they’re fully melted (alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in a double-boiler on the stove). Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cooled cookie bars before cutting and serving.
- BETTER YET: Cutting a pan of chocolate chip cookies into bars takes a whole lot less effort than scooping individual drop cookies!
Notes
Nutrition
Excerpted from The 8×8 Cookbook: Square Meals for Weeknight Family Dinners, Desserts and More—In One Perfect 8×8-Inch Dish, by Kathy Strahs (Burnt Cheese Press, 2015). Reprinted with permission.
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These are amazingly delicious but I don’t get the directions in where it says, pour the batter into the pan..They can’t be poured as they always have a pie crust consistency. At first I thought I did something because I have to press them into the pan every-time. My husband can’t wait for them to cool off as he has to eat them as soon as they come out of the oven.
These got rave reviews from my teenage crowd. Can’t wait to explore your other recipes!
I made your chocolate chip bars for Christmas and they were amazing. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I have made several of your pound cakes in the past year and each one has been perfect! As a Southerner, I think that baking pound cakes must be embedded in my DNA. Today was the end of the school year for my young grandchildren so I made these cookie bars for them. I was informed that this was the very best of any chocolate chip bars I’ve made for them. High praise indeed for your recipe. Thanks for posting this and also for highlighting that cookbook. (I’m ordering it.)
Can self rising flour be used in place of the flour,soda and salt?
No I wouldn’t do any substitutions for this.
What are the calories/ nutrient facts on these bars?
Hi Pat, the information may not have been provided in the cookbook. I actually use MyFitnessPal to come up with calories and nutritional facts for my recipes. It does it automatically once you plug in the link to the website.
this recipe is better than any chocolate chip cookie i’ve ever had or made — thank you so much to you and kathy for sharing this recipe!! i’m excited to pick up the 8×8 cookbook!!
Fantastic! So glad you enjoyed it!
Just made these and they are bomb! Thanks for sharing!
This look amazing! My boys would love these. I also now need to add this cookbook to my never-ending cookbook wishlist. LOL
Yes indeed!
Great recipe! Just ordered Kathy’s book! Thanks for the suggestion!!
Indeed! I hope you enjoy.