Skip the scooping and make your chocolate chip cookies in a pan instead! These soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie bars are an easy-to-make treat loaded with melty semisweet chocolate chips inside a buttery soft cookie bar! No chilling or scooping required!
Recipe includes a brief instructional video on how to make chocolate chip cookie bars!
I should’ve named these chocolate chip cookie bars “Lazy Bars” because growing up, that’s exactly what they were to me.
I know I mentioned before that I grew up baking as much as I possibly could, but to be honest my love of baking didn’t start so much as a love of the actual process as it did as a love of stealing unsupervised spoonful after spoonful of raw cookie dough or frosting (or whatever was on my radar for that day).
Chocolate Chip Cookies were always my favorite, but when it came to actually baking the cookies I always either tried to bribe my sister into doing the work of scooping and baking them or I would just pour the batter into a pan and bake the cookies that way. Easy and done.
And while you can generally just take any chocolate chip cookie recipe and bake it into a pan and call it a day, I found that this technique usually yielded less than totally desirable results. The bars were usually too tough, too crumbly, too unsatisfying after being baked.
I wanted soft, chewy, and buttery chocolate chip cookie bars, and that method left a lot to be desired.
So, I went to work and started tweaking things:
- Melted butter (rather than softened) that coats every molecule of the cookie dough for the best, butteriest taste.
- More brown sugar than white for more moisture and better flavor.
- An added egg yolk for softer, chewier, more tender cookie bars
- A spoonful of cornstarch, which is basically my secret ingredient for soft baked goods
- A reduction of the leaveners (less baking powder and no baking soda) because the cookie bars are contained in a pan so there was no need to worry about containing any spreading
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
The result was the best chocolate chip cookie bars I’d ever made. Just as soft, chewy, buttery, and delicious as their cookie counterparts, but no scooping (and no chilling!) required.
Please note that because of the changes that were made, this cookie dough can’t be used to make actual cookies and only works when baked in a pan, trying to scoop and bake them would leave you with cookie pancakes that spread all over your cookie sheet!
Enjoy!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted and then cooled for at least 5 minutes (226g)
- 1 cup light brown sugar tightly packed (200g)
- 3/4 cup sugar (150g)
- 2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (285g)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (340g)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare a 9x13 pan by lining with parchment paper (or lightly grease and flour).
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Combine melted (cooled) butter and sugars in a large bowl, stir well.
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Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.
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In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.
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Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until completely combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
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Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake on 350F (175C) for 25-30 minutes or until edges just begin to turn golden brown.
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Allow to cool before cutting and serving (don't cool too long, though -- these are amazing when served still slightly warm!)
Recipe Notes
This recipe can also be baked in a 9x9 pan but will need to bake about 5-10 minutes longer.
Valerie L. says
Hi Sam, These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars look delicious, as well as a cinch to prepare since you don’t have to use any kind of a mixer to make them. However, we also like walnuts in our chocolate chip cookies in our house, so would it be okay to add about 1/2 cup of walnuts to the batter before baking them. Thanks!
Carrie says
I had the same question. I’m going to add them.
Also would love to know if we can halve this recipe and bake in 8×8 pan.
Sam says
Yup you can definitely add them 🙂 And you can halve and bake in an 8×8 but the bake time will likely vary
Sam says
Yes you could definitely add the walnuts to the batter, I’d just add them the same time you add the chocolate chips. Sounds delicious!
Mikaru86 says
The ” 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder” has as space after the 1 but not after the slash. This looks like it might have been a “1 1/2” at some point (or was intended to be) instead of “1/2”. Which is the correct measurement?
Sam says
Hey! It is actually just 1/2 but good catch and I fixed it so that it’s not confusing to anyone else either. Thank you!
Sharon says
Hi Sam, I am a huge fan!! . I have tried about a dozen of your recipes!!! favorites and go to’s are Mini choc chips. best ever brownies, and my ultimate fav Congo Squares!! So my question is how do these differ from them? I will be trying them of course, just curiousity😊.
Sam says
They actually don’t differ much at all! I had a lot of people e-mailing me and asking me for chocolate chip cookies in a pan and completely missing my Congo squares because they don’t come up when people search for chocolate chip cookie bars. So, I made this recipe which is essentially the same but in a larger pan, so if you’ve made my Congo squares you’ve basically already had these. I should probably put a disclaimer about that in here somewhere since someone else asked the same, I honestly didn’t think many people even knew about my Congo squares because they’re not one of my more popular recipes so I hoped to get that recipe out to more people this way.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipes, Sharon!
Sandra ltb says
I had the same question … as a young friend told my your Congo Squares are ‘over the moon’ … where do you rate this compared to the Congo Squares?
Sam says
They’re basically the same recipe except in a larger pan so you can’t go wrong either way! I like the thickness of the Congo squares but you get more when you make them this way because of the size of the pan 😉
Kelly says
Sam, made these last weekend. I love chocolate chip cookies and so I wanted to try these out. When I think about cookie bars I think crunchy and kind of hard. These were excellent and I love how “cakey” they are. You never disappoint, Thank you!
Sam says
Hi Kelly! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed these so much, they are my favorite too! I hope you have a wonderful day!
Katie-Scarlet says
Oh my goodness, that looks like just the right texture I’ve been looking for. I can’t wait to try it. I’ve tried at least a dozen of your recipes and every one of them came out just as promised.
Sam says
I love hearing that, I put so much time into the recipes I really appreciate hearing that they work well for people! thank you for commenting, and I really hope you love the cookie bars!! <3
Kelli says
Hi! I came across your website just today looking for a buttercream recipe and found these cookie bars. They look amazing….who are we kidding, all your stuff looks amazing. 🙂 I had one question about these, my daughter wants cat shaped cookies for her birthday, instead of cutting these into bars, would I be able to use a cookie cutter to cut out different shapes, in this case, cats? Thanks so much, I have printed probably two dozen of your recipes today, I can’t wait to start trying them! Have a great day!
Sam says
Hi Kelli! Sorry I’m just seeing your comment now, but yes you could absolutely cut these into shapes, just be sure to let them cool completely before cutting. I really hope that you love the recipes!!
Mallory says
I made these tonight and I’m currently deceased from their deliciousness. Seriously so good! I love how thick they are and when they’re warm, they are amazing. I’m sure they’re delicious after they cool down more, but I literally got mine out of the oven 30 mins ago and they’re so warm and soft in the middle. I’m LOVING your site and your consistency is amazing. Thanks so much for the delicious recipe!
Kim says
I made a pan of these and took them to a fundraiser for homeless pets recently. They were a huge hit. Thanks very much!
Sam says
I’m so glad they were a hit! Thank you for commenting, Kim!
CJ says
These look great and will certainly satisfy the Chocolate Chip Cookie cravings for the kiddos without Momma having to do much work😉.
Unfortunately, I came across this recipe after returning from the store and realized we are plum out of cornstarch 😥.
My daughter also loves to bake but sometimes forgets to put items she finishes off on the shopping list so I was unaware we were without cornstarch. We need these baked for this evening and returning to the store is not an option. Any suggestions on how to substitute or how will not having the cornstarch impact the recipe?
Thanks in advance.
Sam says
The cornstarch makes these cookie bars nice and soft and chewy. You can substitute flour but they won’t be as soft and chewy like intended. ☺️