Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
on Dec 16, 2021, Updated Nov 20, 2023
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Finishing these 10-ingredient chocolate chip cookie bars with flaky sea salt dresses them up, not that they need anything extra with all those chips. There’s so much to love about the convenience and efficiency of an easy bar cookie recipe. That’s because you don’t have to portion out the dough. These cookies turns out thick and chewy with chocolate in every bite.
Brownies are another great bar cookie. Try these incredible salted fudge brownies.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This is a 10-ingredient recipe that has all the usual cookie ingredients. I have a feeling you might already have some of these in your pantry and fridge. It’s important to have a go-to simple cookie recipe, right?
You can control the serving size. If you want to stretch a batch to feed a bigger group, then just cut them into smaller squares. This is the beauty of bar cookies. A metal ruler is one of my favorite kitchen tools for even cutting.
This is a cherished family recipe. These cookies were a specialty of my Grandma Sylvia. Over the years I have done some experimenting and made updates including that final dusting of sea salt, but I’m pretty sure grandma would approve.
Why Bar Cookies Are The Best
Don’t get me wrong. I like baking individual cookies (hello, peanut butter m&m cookies!). However, making a single large cookie in a pan and then cutting it into squares is such a timesaver.
If you are making cookie dough that needs to be portioned out, it’s a good idea to chill the dough. No chilling is necessary when you spread all the dough in a pan with a cookie bar recipe. Also, bar cookies are a great opportunity to be spontaneous and add mix-ins like chocolate chips, nuts, candy or pretzels.
Ingredients & Substitutions
This is what you need for the recipe:
- Butter: Take the unsalted butter out of the fridge, so it has time to soften at room temperature. Then it will cream well with the sugars. You know your butter is soft enough when you press it and it makes a dent. But it should still feel somewhat chilled to the touch.
- Sugar: Half the sugar in the recipe is granulated sugar, which when creamed with the butter is there for sweetness and to help with rising. Or puffing up might be a better way to describe it for cookies baked in a pan.
- Brown sugar: The rest of the sugar is brown sugar. My preference is light brown sugar. You can substitute with dark brown sugar. Because of the higher molasses content, the cookies will turn out darker and have a deeper, more caramel-like flavor if you use dark brown sugar.
- Egg: You just need one large egg.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract is always better than any imitation version. You can really taste the buttery, vanilla flavors in these bars.
- Flour: The recipe calls for all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder helps the dough rise in the pan with the final result being chewy bar cookies.
- Salt: No matter savory or sweet, salt works its magic bringing out the overall flavors. The recipe has a half teaspoon of kosher salt.
- Chocolate chips: Semi-sweet chips are my go-to for most chocolate chip cookies. But if you have dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in your pantry, you can use them or even a mix of chip types.
- Flaky sea salt adds a touch of crunch. And more importantly it balances out the sweetness of the cookies.
Mix-In Variations
This recipe calls for semisweet chocolate chips, but that isn’t the only option. Just remember that you want to end up with a total of 1 cup with 3/4 cup stirred into the batter and the remaining amount pressed in on top.
- Bittersweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or a mix of chocolate types
- Chopped chocolate chunks
- Peanut butter chips
- Chopped nuts: walnuts, pecans or almonds (I recommend combining these with chocolate chips)
- m&ms: Any exposed m&ms will crack in the heat of the oven. This does not effect their taste.
How To Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter and line with parchment paper. This will make it easy to lift the whole cookie out of the pan to cut once it’s baked.
1. Cream the butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat them together until they are pale and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until the wet ingredients are all fully combined.
3. Stir the dry ingredients in a small bowl, including the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
5. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips into the dough. I don’t dump all of them in at once, so I can save some chips to press on top. Or you won’t be able to see them. That won’t change the taste, but I like the look of chocolate chip to finish the cookies.
6. Spread the dough into the prepared baking pan.Top with the remaining chocolate chips. Scatter the chips over the dough. Then use your hands to press them in slightly. Bake the bars. After 28-30 minutes, they should be deep golden brown. Sprinkle the hot cookies with flaky sea salt right after you remove the pan from the oven. Let the cookies cool before cutting them into squares.
How To Cut Bar Cookies
Greasing the pan with butter and lining it parchment paper is the first step to making cutting easy.
Give the cookies time to cool, or things will get gooey and messy when you cut them. Remember you can always rewarm the squares in the oven for a few minutes if you want the chocolate to be kind of melted and glossy.
This is when I pull out one of my favorite kitchen tools, a metal ruler. It is a washable straight edge to guide your knife. I like to make tiny hash marks with my knife as I am measuring. While I can’t guarantee perfectly uniform squares, this will go a long way to making the task more achievable.
Storing & Freezing
Store the bars in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days. You will find that they have tendency to dry out the less fresh they are. You can revive the bars in a 325-degree-F oven for 3-4 minutes. The warm chocolate helps.
To keep the bars up to a month, store them in the freezer. Thaw them on a plate at room temperature and warm in the oven as desired.
Serving the Cookies
There’s nothing wrong keeping things simple and devouring the bars on their own, maybe with a glass of milk. If you like your dessert a la mode, the chewy texture of the bars is great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or salted caramel.
Recipe Tips
When you grease the pan with butter, this is an additional amount to what is required for the cookie dough. You can use non-stick cooking spray on the pan if prefer doing it that way
Only cream the butter and sugars when the butter is soft. Otherwise it will be difficult to get that light and fluffy consistency you’re looking for. But don’t let the butter get so soft that it is sticky. If you want to to speed up softening the butter, cut it into smaller pieces by chopping it on the large holes of a box grater. Never microwave the butter.
Use a spatula to spread out the dough in the pan. If it is stiff, you can even press it out with your hands, and then take a spatula or butter knife to smooth it out.
Before you cut the cookies, allow them time to cool. That’s because they will be pretty gooey and messy if they are too warm. You can rewarm cut cookies in a 300-degree F oven for a few minutes.
Recipe FAQs
Baking the dough in a single pan gives you 1 big cookie that can be cut into bars. Bar cookies require less work than regular cookies because you don’t have to portion out the dough before it bakes. You cut them into bars when they have cooled after you have pulled them out of the oven.
They will puff up and turn golden brown. As they cool, they will harden and set more. If you like a really gooey, soft cookie, you can under bake them and reduce the bake time by a couple minutes.
Semi-sweet chocolate is the go-to in many cookie recipes, but you can also use dark chocolate, milk chocolate or a mix. This depends on your taste. Milk chocolate will have a sweeter flavor and dark chocolate will be more rich.
More Bar Cookie Recipes
Candy Bar Blondies
Milk Chocolate Almond Brownies
Cinnamon Squares
Cream Cheese Brownies
Ricotta Cheesecake Bars
Pretzel Shortbread Bars
No-Bake Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Bars
Zucchini Brownies
Did you bake these bar cookies? Please leave a rating and comment below. Thanks!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature plus more for greasing pan
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Flaky sea salt such as Maldon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter and line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and kosher salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir in about 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
- Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. Scatter the remaining chocolate chips on top and gently press them down slightly.
- Bake for 28-30 minutes until golden brown.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt immediately after removing the pan from the oven.
- Let the pan cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edge of the cookie. Use the parchment paper to lift it out of the pan onto a cutting board. Then cut it into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Bittersweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or a mix of chocolate types
- Chopped chocolate chunks
- Peanut butter chips
- Chopped nuts: walnuts, pecans or almonds (I recommend combining these with chocolate chips)
- m&ms: Any exposed m&ms will crack in the heat of the oven. This does not effect their taste.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
