brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are a breeze to whip up, and taste like a million bucks! These chewy cookie bars with pantry staple ingredients, brown butter for a huge boost flavor with minimal effort, and plenty of chocolate chips. Bake to gooey perfection and watch these bars absolutely fly off the plate!

this recipe

I’ve been sitting on this recipe for a while, but today we can rejoice for I’m finally sharing it! That may sound dramatic, but trust me – it’ll be love at first bite once you make these bars. Especially if you dive in while they’re warm & gooey, fresh from the oven, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top. SWOON!

Why you’ll love my Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars:

• Easy Dessert Recipe – Any skill level from beginner to expert can easily master these bars on the first try! These are also perfect for when you’re feeling lazy – no need to portion out individual cookies!
• Gooey Cookie Bars – These bars bake to gooey perfection. They’re chewy with a bit of crispness around the edges.
• Brown Butter – Brown butter adds an INCREDIBLE boost of flavor to these cookie bars, and only adds about 5 minutes of prep work.

Ingredient Overview:

As always, the full recipe with measurements & directions can be found at the bottom of this post, in the recipe card.

• Butter – I always use salted buter for the best flavor, but feel free to use unsalted butter if you prefer.
• All-purpose flour – Spoon your flour into the measuring cup, then level it with a flat utensil for best results, or use a scale. Scooping the measuring cup directly into your flour will lead to too much flour, and a potentially dry bake.
• Vanilla extract – Use real vanilla extract for the best flavor!
• Brown & Granulated Sugars – Using a mix of brown and white sugar keeps these cookies super soft and flavorful.
• Eggs – Use large eggs.
• Chocolate chips – Use semi-sweet chocolate chips, or a mix of semi-sweet and milk or semi-sweet and dark, depending on your taste preferences. Chocolate chunks work great too! I also love adding 1 cup of m&ms (like in my Fireworks M&M Cookie Bars!)

Recipe Variations:

• Dairy-free – Use your favorite dairy-free butter and dairy-free chocolate chips.
• Vegan Cookie Bars – Use 2 tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water as an egg substitute to make this cookie bar recipe vegan. If you’re vegan, you’ll also love my Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies.
• Quicker Bars – You can make these bars with the melted butter if you don’t want to wait for it to come back to room temp to beat with the sugars. Follow the recipe the same as written.
• M&ms – Add 1 cup of m&ms to the recipe if you want m&m cookie bars!
• Other Mix-Ins – Add 1 cup of chopped pecans, walnuts, pretzels, or potato chips to change up the flavors!
• Individual Cookies – Try my one-bowl chocolate chip cookies if you want to make regular cookies! The base recipe is virtually the same.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars:

Step 1: Brown the Butter. This is a simple process that just adds a few extra minutes of work, and tons of extra flavor. Melt butter in a saucepan. Once melted, cook over medium low heat, stirring, until it turns golden brown and develops a nutty aroma.

Transfer this to your mixing bowl (or other medium bowl) to cool in the fridge, scraping the pan really well to get all those nice brown bits out.

Step 2: Make the Cookie Dough. Whisk the sugars into the cooled brown butter, in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.

Step 3: Finish the Cookie Dough. Fold in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips last, making sure to mix well by hand (or with a mixer) so that all the dry bits are incorporated.

Your dough may look softer or wetter than this depending on how long you let your butter cool. Don’t fret – it will be fine!

Step 4: Add dough to Pan. Press the dough into a parchment paper-lined pan, and add a handful or two of extra chocolate chips on top. This helps fill in any bare spots where the chocolate chips didn’t distribute super evenly. 

Step 5: Bake the Bars. Bake the bars for 16 to 20 minutes – they’ll look a tad underdone, but this is the perfect bake time. They’ll set up as they cool, and if you over bake them, they’ll be dry the next day and we don’t want that.

This is the secret to most cookie recipes – they’re done when they look like they might need a minute or two more. 

Serving + Storing:

Let the chocolate chip bars cool at least 30 minutes before digging in. I know, I know – it’s so hard to do that! If you want nice neat squares, let cool completely before slicing and serving.

These are absolutely incredible with a little bit of flaky sea salt sprinkled on top! And if you love these bars, make my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies next!

Expert Success Tips:

• Oven Thermometer – An oven thermometer will tell you if your oven is actually running at the temperature you set it to. Your oven may not be accurate. Accurate oven temperature is crucial for most bakes, so I leave an oven thermometer in at all times to keep an eye on my oven’s calibration.
• Kitchen Scale – A food scale is the best way to make sure your flour is at the proper weight, since amounts will vary SO widely based on how you measure it, as well as the measuring cup you use, as they are not standardized.
• Bakery-Worthy Bar Cookies – Be sure to add those extra chocolate chips on top before baking. It not only adds extra chocolate, but also makes the bars look super professional!

FAQs:

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:

• No-Bake Cookie Dough Bites
• Chocolate Cookie Dough Cups
• Ultimate Cookie Dough Cake
• Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Jumbo Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups (Nutella filled!)
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

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