This recipe is an all-time camp favorite to summer campers and retreat guests alike. No one can pass up these warm, chocolaty cookie bars when served with a smile from the FC kitchen. These cookie bars can be a breeze to make when you follow the instructions and are great for letting kids help out!
Ingredients
1 cup of softened butter
¾ cup of brown sugar, ¾ cup of white sugar
1 Table spoon of vanilla
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups of flour
1 ½ teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of chocolate chips
First, cream two sticks of softened butter with the brown and white sugar. A stand mixer is great for this recipe, but the handheld or your own hands work just as well. When creaming the butter and sugars, you are looking for the mixture to fluff up. The fluffier it is, the lighter your cookie bars will be as compared to being harder to cut after baked.
Next add vanilla and mix until combined. Then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. At this point, (especially if you are using a stand mixer) you’ll want to stop and scrap down the sides of the bowl and then mix it all up again so that you are combining all the important ingredients.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Your cookie bars will be fluffier if you sift the ingredients. Mix these ingredients with a whisk to make sure they are well combined.
Finally, combine all dry ingredients into your bowl with the butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Stir until well combined and then fold in your chocolate chips. Often, it is best that you do this by hand so that the cookies are not over mixed and so the chocolate chips are not crumbled by the motion of a stand mixer.
Last but not least, spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with non-stick spray or butter the pan before spreading the cookie dough. When smoothing out the cookie dough, it can be helpful to spray your hands with non-stick spray so to avoid getting extra dough stuck on your hands. If your kids are around make sure to let them join in on the fun! I remember growing up and baking with my mom very fondly. Let this recipe be a chance to make lifelong memories with your little ones. Also keep in mind that perfection shouldn’t be your goal, especially if you are involving the kids, so who cares if they end up lopsided in the pan. As my mom said when I was a kid, “they will still taste just as great!”
Bake these delicious treats at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Look for a light brown color to tell that they are done. Because they are left in the pan for cooling and serving, you may want to take them out of the oven earlier. This will ensure that they will not become hockey puck material when they continue to cook in the pan. Enjoy!
Amanda Cook, Hospitality Specialist