Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Feeling excited about these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from The Cookie Book that need a spot on your table.

Picture the perfect chocolate chip cookie that’s morphed into a thick bar with the chewy, gooey-ness of a brownie, heaps of caramel notes from the brown butter and muscovado and crowned with a shiny, crisp lid over the top.

These bar cookies come together in a flash and are perfectly suitable to nosh while watching Sex Education (who has watched this on Netflix?!?!?) or jazzed up with some vanilla ice cream to end a beautiful meal. You know the kind of meal where you went to the store and bought special ingredients and thought it would be nice to treat yourself? Yep, that meal. End it with this.

It has been dark and gloomy and raining for days on end here which has been positively glorious but I’ve decided that southern Californians are addicted to sunshine and when it’s withheld it’s like everyone is suddenly on Xanax. Walking around like zombies.

And talking about how they don’t want to do anything and have no motivation and cancelling going anywhere ’cause the roads are slick. I’m not even exaggerating one word of any of this. It’s quite the spectacle but it can’t be helped. I’m shrugging as I roll over in bed.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Notes

• Sizes Matters. If you use a larger or smaller pan be sure to adjust your bake time accordingly. Additionally, this was tested in a ceramic pan (Staub). If you use a metal pan check earlier for doneness as it could affect the bake time.
• Muscovado. Is the most glorious of unprocessed sugars that is rich in molasses and caramel notes. It’s magical and makes everything it touches 1000 times better. BUT, it’s pricey. And sometimes hard to find. So, If you can, use muscovado. If you can’t find it or you can’t be bothered, sub in dark brown sugar.
• Egg Yolk. Extra egg yolks make things chewy and fabulous. Freeze your pristine, leftover egg whites and make meringues…all the kids are doing it.
• Oil. I highly recommend you get Sunflower Seed Oil. I often grab the one at Trader Joe’s. Other neutral oils (think veggie and canola) impart a strange flavor to baked goods that I’m just not into. Sunflower Seed is totally tasteless. In the best way possible.
• The Cut. Cutting into bar cookies is tricky. You want to dig in as soon as it’s out of the oven, right? But the longer you let it cool, the easier it will be to cut and you’ll get the cleanest cut possible. If you have no restraint which is how I’ve greeted 2019, just grab a spoon and have at it. I won’t judge.

Let’s make some badass brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars, shall we?

More Cookie Love

Grab My Favorite Cookie Tips for Perfect Cookies, make these Crinkly, Fudgy Brownie Cookies (they’re so good!) or try my favorite, S’more Cookie Bars! Don’t forget all of my other favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes (in addition to these!): Salted Olive Oil Chocolate Chip, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Small Batch Mega Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies (no rest!), DO NOT sleep on these Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies ☕️ and/or get all of the cookie recipes right here

Brown Butter Muscovado Chocolate Chunk Bar Cookies

The perfect chocolate chip cookie morphed into bar cookies with the gooey-ness of a brownie and crowned with a shiny, crisp lid over the top.

5 from 3 reviews

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cookies

Keyword: Brown Butter, Muscovado, Bar Cookies, Cookies

Servings: 15 Bar Cookies

Author: Rebecca Firth

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (115 g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (210 g) dark muscovado sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup (96 g) granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup (79 ml) sunflower seed oil (or other neutral oil)
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 egg yolk (room temperature)
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) milk (room temperature)
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) real vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (204 g) bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups (204 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups (180 g) dark chocolate, chopped ( )
• Sea salt flakes for dusting on top (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease an 8 x 11–inch (20 x 28–cm) casserole dish and line with parchment paper, letting the excess fall over the sides.
• Put the butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium heat. Once melted, crank up the heat to medium high. Continue stirring and look for small golden bits that will start to settle on the bottom of the pan. It will smell deliciously nutty and caramel-y. This should take around 3 to 5 minutes. Once this happens, take it off the heat and pour into a medium, heat-safe bowl to cool a bit.
• When cooled slightly, whisk in the muscovado, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, egg yolk, milk and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
• In another medium bowl, whisk together the bread flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt. Add this to the butter mixture and stir until barely blended. Add in the chocolate chunks and continue to blend until just combined and the chocolate is evenly distributed.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Dampen your hands and gently press down so that it covers the bottom of the dish. Bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. It will continue to cook and firm up as it cools. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes, if desired. Let cool completely before cutting. These are great the same day as they’re made and equally dazzling the next.

Video

Thanks for baking with me! Please rate + comment this recipe and tag me on social @displacedhousewife #displacedhousewife so I can see your beautiful treats! xo

Cookie Stuff: Was interviewed for this Food & Wine article: Six Genius Swaps for Your Best Cookie Ever. Totally biased but I think you should stop everything and read it.

Sharing + Caring: This is the last of three recipes that I’m sharing from The Cookie Book. The first was these Everything Chocolate Chip Cookies before the book came out (people have been omitting the puffed quinoa or getting frisky with puffed amaranth) and then over the holiday I shared the White Chocolate Fudge Brownies that you can easily de-holiday by omitting the cranberries + pistachios. I hope you’ve enjoyed your sampling of Cookie Book cookies. Thank you to everyone that has baked some cookies, shared them, bought The Cookie Book for themselves and/or gifted it to friends and loved ones — you truly made this past year the most amazing year ever. THANK YOU!