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.

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.

I know that making brown butter can be intimidating. Don't be scared, I will hold your hand the whole way through in my post and you'll be nailing it in no time: Brown Butter 101: The Ultimate Guide

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.

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