Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are an easy way to make soft,chewy cookies in bar form. Lots of the brown sugar and chocolate flavor in a moist cookie bar that stays delicious for over a week.
Why you'll love this recipe
These easy chocolate chip bars are a simple treat to throw together in one bowl, no electric mixer required. All of the flavor of your favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies with the convenience of bars.
Not only are these treats deliciously chewy when you bake them, but they stay that way for up to 10 days! The secret to their long lasting chewiness is the marshmallows which melt completely during baking leaving only chewy texture behind.
Chocolate chip cookie bars are the perfect treat for care packages or for a whole week of lunch box snacks. For mailing times more than 10 days, leaving the bars uncut will help them retain moisture and remain chewy even longer.
Ingredients
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- In a medium bowl, melt butter in the microwave.
- Stir together all of the ingredients.
- Spread the cookie dough batter evenly with a rubber spatula into a lightly greased 8" x 8" square pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F until golden brown.
Storage
Store bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days.
Mailing these bars uncut in a disposable pan will keep them moist and chewy longer and make them sturdier for shipping.
Tips and variations
- This recipe can be made in a square 8 inch or 9 inch pan. Using the smaller pan will make a slightly thicker bar and may take a few minutes longer to bake.
- Dark brown sugar provides more flavor than light brown sugar, but either one can be used in this recipe.
- Vary the kind of chocolate chips in the classic recipe using dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips.
- Make m&m cookie bars by substituting m&m's for the toffee bits.
- Substitute your favorite nuts instead of the toffee bits.
- For best results, use regular marshmallows. Vegan marshmallows melt differently, puffing while baking which leaves air pockets in the finished bars.
More chocolate chip treats
Chocolate Chip Biscotti are light, crisp cookies perfect for dunking in coffee,tea, or a cold glass of milk. This will be your go-to recipe for filling the cookie jar.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars are soft, chewy cookie bars that taste like a peanut butter cup! This delicious recipe is so much easier than making individual cookies.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft, pillowy pumpkin cookies with the added deliciousness of chocolate chips. The easy recipe includes a gluten free version too.
Chocolate Coconut Cookies are soft and chewy treats that will remind you of a Mounds candy bar.
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup toffee bits
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup mini-marshmallows
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 8” x 8” or 9”x 9” baking pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium size mixing bowl, melt butter in the microwave.
- Mix the sugar, salt, and vanilla into the melted butter.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time.
- Add flour and baking powder and stir until combined.
- Fold in toffee, semi-sweet chips, and mini marshmallows.
- Spread batter evenly into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Cool completely before cutting.
- Store bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days.
Notes
Nutrition
First Published: January 12, 2014. Last Updated: March 4, 2023. Updated for improved photos, additional information and better reader experience.
Reeni
What an adventure that was Wendy! Or rather, a series of adventures. I'm glad you made it home safely! What a long drive. I love chocolate chip cookie bars - even better than cookies and chewy is my favorite. These look awesome.
themondaybox
Thanks! Reeni, if you like chewy chocolate chip you will truly will love these bars! More can be added for further flair but this basic recipe is wonderful!
Allie BakingAMoment
Oh my dear. Wow, that is some story. I'd say you are lucky to be back home safe and in one piece! Thank goodness you had something sweet and comforting to nibble on after that series of ordeals!
themondaybox
Thanks, Allie! I may be a bit of a drama queen, but it was a series of ridiculous events. 🙂 I am an expert at comfort nibbling and these bars were just the thing to come home to! 🙂
Anne@FromMySweetHeart
Holy cow, Wendy! I think you must have an angel on your shoulder....for as quickly as you were in one predicament....you were out of it. (Ok...and then on the next one ...but still!) You deserve a vacation after that. If it happened to me....I'd be content with a batch of these beauties! What a great idea...that melted marshmallow to add to the chewy texture! : )
themondaybox
Thanks, Anne! I was very happy to realize there were a few of these bars left at home when I returned. After my 8 1/2 hour drive home, it turns out that these are also quite good with a glass of wine. 😉
Monica
Holy cow - what a whole lot of "adventures" you had, Wendy! We stayed at a hotel in Boston once where the same thing happened to us. False alarm so can't complain but all I wanted to do was go home! I'm glad you're home safely back now and hopefully, your son is warm and settled into a routine at school. I started out being very curious about how these were so incredibly chewy and then I forgot...but I'm glad to learn about the marshmallows! What a neat trick. Thanks for sharing!
themondaybox
Every time I would close a hotel door and see the posted emergency map I always wondered what would happen if the fire alarms really did go off. Hmmm. Now I know. Even false alarms that we can be thankful for, are no fun.
Yes, thanks, my son is busily ensconced in 2nd quarter. His courses are so condensed (9weeks) that he is practically ready for midterms!
The marshmallow theory for chewiness is just a guess at this point(though it makes the most sense as an explanation to me) but I have plans to test it out soon. 🙂
BruCrew Life
These look so moist and delish! I could go for one of these and a nice cold glass of milk! 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks, Jocelyn! I'd love to join you in a cookie bar and milk!
Joy @ Yesterfood
Wendy, you certainly had your share of adventures for a while- thank goodness you had these incredible bars to come home to! I am pinning these to bake- how can you NOT make a cookie bar with that kind of a name?? ♥
themondaybox
Thanks, Joy! I hope you enjoy yours with less drama than I had! 🙂 I pondered for a long time how to communicate in a name what these bars could do. I ended up going the direct, just-say-it route! 🙂
beyondfrosting
Did you say long lasting chewiness?! Yes!
themondaybox
I am all about chewy in cookies and bars, Julianne, and these bars just kept being delicious day after day!
Jess @ On Sugar Mountain
Incredible long lasting chewiness?! Well if that's not a reason to make these delecatable bars I don't know what is! They look ahmazing Wendy! 😀
themondaybox
Thanks, Jess! These are soooo easy to whip up (no electric mixer required) and taste just like a chewy chocolate chip cookie.:)
Tricia @ Saving room for dessert
I am soooo sorry Wendy. That sounds like an exhausting trip. I thought you were going to say you ate these in the car and that's what sustained you on the long trip home! These sound great and are absolutely beautiful. The marshmallow things is really, really cool!
themondaybox
Thanks, Tricia! I called the trip an adventure because, really, if all turns out fine in the end, its just a "character building" experience. 🙂 I left all of the baked goodies in Chicago with my son...so its a good thing I didn't get stranded in an I55 snowdrift with no sustenance! I hadn't expected that the bars at home would still be chewy when I returned! I am going to try adding marshmallow to some other bars and see what happens. I feel a bit like Willy Wonka with his Everlasting Gobstoppers. 🙂
noyomoco
That is some bone-chilling cold! Yikes!
Love the name of these delicious looking bars 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks, Jennifer! The name is wordy but accurately descriptive. 🙂
Ashley
Oh my gosh Wendy! Those are definitely quite a few adventures - to put it mildly! I would have totally panicked big time in the elevator ... I am slightly terrified (for whatever) reason of getting stuck in one! And these bars do sound delicious - I love baked goods that are chewy!
themondaybox
Luckily, Ashley, they were all adventures that turned out fine! Blog material. 🙂 You know the saying about bad luck coming in threes? I was actually relieved that three things happened before I started out on the snowy/icy highway!!
As for these bars, if you like chewy you will love these bars!
shannon
WENDY! Now obviously i knew some of this massive story, but not all the crazy, intense details! Totally something you can look back on as an adventure, but definitely not something which would be fun to go through again. i'm happy you and your son made it there in once piece and that you made it back safely. Good for you for keeping your head!
these bars look delicious. like, incredibly soft and perfect. I'm an emotional eater (aren't we all, really), and had I gone through all of those adventures up there? That pan - that whole pan - would be mine. 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Shannon, but I think there was more luck or automatic pilot than keeping my head! I will admit to some momentary tears on the corner of Wabash and Madison, but I was surprisingly not hysterical for the rest of the adventures....terrified of going off the road on the way home, gripping the wheel until my knuckles turned white, but not hysterical. 🙂 I was wishing I had a few of these bars on the way home, but by the time I made it home, all I wanted was a glass of wine and bed! I had no idea when I originally made these that they would stay chewy for so long, however, I have been enjoying that happy discovery ever since!