Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

The secret to these chocolate chip cookie bars is their brown butter base! Studded with chocolate chunks, the cookie bars bake up soft and chewy inside with deliciously crispy edges. This easy dessert bar recipe is quick to make too - there's no need to chill the cookie dough. Simply press the cookie dough into an even layer in a prepared 8" non-stick baking pan, and into the oven they go!

Hi hi! Popping in to share the recipe for these chocolate chip cookie bars with you! I have a bunch of bar recipes and chocolate chip cookie recipes on the site already, but bar cookie recipes so far, so it was about time that I fixed that! I make my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe the most often, but these bars are the perfect quick recipe, especially if you're after a baked dessert bar recipe!

These chocolate chip cookie bars are super easy to make - they are a bar cookie version of my brown butter chocolate chip cookies. You make a super simple cookie dough, then press it into a baking dish and bake until perfectly golden. The result is these perfect chocolate chip bars - they are soft and chewy, and you still get chocolate chip cookie vibes with a wee bit less effort. These cookie bars make a super easy dessert that is great to make ahead. I'm obsessed. They are the perfect thing to add to your chocolate chip cookie recipe collection.

Cookie bar ingredients

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are super simple, and can be made with things most bakers already have in their kitchen.

• Brown Butter. The base of the cookie and where that delicious toasty flavour comes from. I have a bunch of brown butter recipes on my site - it is one of my favourite ingredients!
• Two types of sugar. Both brown and white sugar are in play here - the ratio of them determines spread and texture. Either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar works, or you can use muscovado sugar if you're feeling fancy.
• Dry ingredients. The usual suspects here - flour, baking powder, and salt. My original chocolate chip cookie recipe has both baking powder and baking soda, but I left the baking soda out to help reduce the rise just a tiny bit.
• Egg. I just use one in this cookie to hold everything together.
• Chocolate. You can use whatever you like here, either all dark chocolate or a mix of dark, semi-sweet or milk chocolate. I usually do at least half chopped dark chocolate then make up the rest with what I have on hand.
• Flaky Sea Salt. Not compulsory, but a little sprinkle gives the most delicious crunchy finish to chocolate chip cookie bars!

How to make chocolate chip cookie bars

These cookie bars are super simple to make - the process is basically the same as making a regular homemade chocolate chip cookie, except instead of scooping it into balls and baking them individually on a pan, you pop the entire thing into a pan and bake into bars. Easy easy.

• Brown the butter. Set aside to cool slightly, just so that you don't scramble the egg in the recipe.
• Mix wet ingredients. Add the sugars and the egg to the brown butter, and whisk until thickened slightly and slightly lighter in colour. This also helps to give you a nice shiny top to your cookie bars.
• Add flour mixture. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just combined. I often stop while there are still a lot of flour streaks, and finish off mixing when the chocolate is added.
• Add chocolate. I use chopped chocolate - add it in and stir to combine.
• Press into pan. Press the cookie dough into your prepared pan. I use an 8" pan for slightly thicker, chewy chocolate chip cookie bars, but if you want something thinner, you can use a 9" pan here too.
• Bake the cookie bars. Bake until golden and set, then leave to cool for as long as you can stand, and serve. These are great at room temperature but also amazing warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
  

Why are there two measures of butter in the recipe?

You will notice that there are two different quantities of butter in the recipe - the initial quantity in the ingredients list, then a 110g measure of brown butter within the body of the recipe.

Different butters will have different moisture levels, which affects the yield of brown butter. American style butter have a higher water content, so will produce less brown butter when the water is cooked off. European or New Zealand style butter, which is higher in fat than American butter, will have less water that needs cooking off, so you will end up with a higher yield of brown butter.

The quantity of the butter in these browned butter cookies is important here, so the best way to measure it is by using a scale. You start with an initial quantity of butter - in this case 150g, and then cook it down. You then re-measure the weight of the brown butter, and use 110g of that in your cookie dough. I have accounted for the moisture loss from the initial quantity of brown butter in the recipe.

How do you know when bar cookies are done?

When the chocolate chip bar is baked, the surface will be set and lightly golden brown, and the edges of the cookie bar will be set and slightly firm. I prefer to underbake my cookie bar rather than over bake it, but if you like super crunchy edges you can bake it for a little longer.

How to line a square pan with parchment paper

When you are making a bar cookie recipe or something similar that you want to be easily removed from the pan, it helps to use a parchment paper 'sling' to line the pan. To do this I use two pieces of paper, cut to the size of the pan, then clip the extra paper to the sides of the pan to stop flapping.

If you like you can also lightly butter or grease the pan to help the parchment paper stick.

The best chocolate to use for cookies

I love to use chopped chocolate over chocolate chips in my cookie bars. There are a few reasons for this:

• Sizing - Cutting up chocolate into chunks gives you a great range of size in your chocolate. This means you get a good distribution throughout
• Melty Pockets of chocolate - Chocolate chips often have a stabiliser in them which means they don't melt. This makes them great for things like muffins, but I much prefer using chopped chocolate for cookies because the chocolate melts, and you get pockets of chocolate throughout.Quality - if you use chopped chocolate, you can use whatever quality you like. It's also a great way to mix up the types of chocolate you use too - I like doing a mix of dark and then sometimes a fun flavour
• Chocolate Dust - This is a name I made up, but the dust is what's left from chopping chocolate. It all goes into the bowl and you get tiny chocolate specks all throughout the cookies.

If you did want to make these chocolate chip cookie bars with chocolate chips, either semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips would work great. I often use cookie recipes as a way to use up lots of odds and ends of chocolate - another benefit of using a scale is that you can just dump it into a bowl until you have the right amount!

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools and equipment do you use?
You can see a full list of all the tools I use here

What pan did you use to bake cookie bars?
I used an 8" (20cm) non stick baking pan. If you want to make your cookie bars a little thinner, you can use a 9" (23cm) square baking pan.

How do you store cookie bars?
Store your chocolate chip cookie bars in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep for up to three days.

Can Cookie bars be frozen?
Yes, this recipe freezes well. Once the chocolate chip bar is baked, cut it and place into an airtight container, then place into the freezer. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature before eating.

Can I add nuts to this recipe?
I haven't but it should work fine - you can replace some of the chocolate with chopped toasted pecans or walnuts.

Do I have to brown the butter?
No, if you want to just use regular melted butter, you can sub the brown butter in the recipe for 110g melted butter.

Can this recipe be made ahead of time?
Yes, you can make these cookie bars up to a day ahead of time and store them wrapped or in an airtight container. I want to try testing if you can press the dough into the pan and then chill until you are ready to bake - watch this space!

Is it ok if I only have salted butter?
Yes - you can sub salted and unsalted butter easily in a recipe, just make sure to dial back the added salt in the recipe so they do not taste too salty.

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