These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are meant to be shared! Why spend all that time scooping chocolate chip cookie dough when you can make chocolate chip cookie bars?
My first experience with brown butter was when I made a brown butter sage sauce for three cheese tortellini. I was surprised at how easy it was to make and at the great flavor of the sauce. You just brown the butter in a pan, add sage and then add the cooked tortellini. That meal is Zack’s number one request, but not only does he like to have the brown butter sage sauce on his tortellini, he also likes to add alfredo sauce! Totally healthy, right? Healthy or not, the browned butter smells amazing. Ever since I started making that sauce, I’ve wanted to try baking with brown butter. I’ve heard that it gives baked goods a great flavor. I’ve seen brown butter frosting, brown butter cookies and brown butter brownies. I need to make 6 dozen goodies for this weekend so I thought this would be the perfect time to make a pan of cookie bars.
These cookie bars fill a jelly roll pan so I can get a lot of bars in one fell swoop. I don’t remember the last time I made chocolate chip cookies! If we are craving them, I make chocolate chip cookie bars instead.
This recipe starts with brown butter. Brown butter is made by melting butter in a pan over heat until the milk solids are browned. If you want more instructions for exactly how, check out this video: How To Brown Butter
These chocolate chip cookie bars are a bit more cake like than gooey. I added 1/2 cup of flour since I am going to be transporting them and they will be served on a tray. If you like the more fudgey type bars, try making these with only 4 1/2 cups of flour.
- 1 cup butter
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 cups flour
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Brown the butter in a saucepan, pour into a large bowl and allow it to cool to room temp.
- Mix baking soda and water together and set aside.
- Cream together butter, shortening and sugars.
- Add eggs and vanilla, mix well.
- Add the baking soda and water mixture.
- Mix in salt and add flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Spread batter in a greased jelly roll pan.
- Bake at 350° F for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake.
Here’s a little blast from the past…these two recipes are from 2011!
Daniela says
July 11, 2015 at 2:07 pmWhat can I use in repleacement for the shortening? maybe all butter would work?
Diane Crammer says
February 10, 2014 at 3:32 pmOf course I cannot find that size.
Diane Crammer says
February 8, 2014 at 3:46 pmWhat size is a jelly roll pan???
Thanks
Diane
Tonia says
February 8, 2014 at 3:51 pmMy pan is a Wilton 16x12x1.
Diane Crammer says
February 8, 2014 at 4:37 pmThanks much!!!!!!
Diane
Cathy@LemonTreeDwelling says
February 4, 2014 at 10:00 amI love brown butter, Tonia! What a great idea to use it in cookie bars!!
Julie @ Julie's Eats & Treats says
February 2, 2014 at 8:34 pmAhhhh I adore brown butter! This takes easy chocolate chip cookie bars to a whole new level!
Tonia says
February 2, 2014 at 10:03 pmOh, me too! In fact, I adore regular butter too! 🙂 Thanks, Julie!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
February 2, 2014 at 7:58 pmThose are perfection! In love!
Tonia says
February 2, 2014 at 10:03 pmThanks Jocelyn!
dina says
February 1, 2014 at 9:00 amlove chocolate chip bars. they look great!
Tonia says
February 2, 2014 at 10:02 pmThanks Dina! So do I!
Sofia L. :) says
January 31, 2014 at 6:01 pmThank you, thank you, thank you! Was just wondering what to bake for church on Sunday. My sweet tooth wanted something with chocolate. These must be perfect. I love bars, because they are time savers! No individual cookies to scoop or roll. 🙂
If you ever bake your own bread; try my Scoop Bread – no kneading, just scoop the dough into loaf pans!
http://sofs-corner.blogspot.com
Tonia says
February 2, 2014 at 9:54 pmThanks Sofia! I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did. I’ve never made my own bread! Can you believe it? I’ve made breadsticks, pizza dough, banana bread, pumpkin bread but never regular, homemade bread. I will have to give your recipe a try…if I can figure out the conversions! I’ve never measured flour by weight. 🙂
Sofia L. :-) says
February 3, 2014 at 2:49 pmPizza dough, pretzels, bread sticks – that counts as bread. 😉
Yeah, lots of bakers I’ve talked with always weigh their ingredients. It’s got something to do with the gluten in the flour. Gluten is “natural yeast” in the flour, and the older the flour is , the less gluten – i.e. the bread won’t rise. Old flour weighs less, since it’s more dry. The drier it is – the more liquid is needed to make a nice dough.
So, 1 cup of flour this month, might give another result next month, if you know what I mean. That’s why you weigh it, to make sure the amount gets right. Also, that means you might need more or less flour depending on how old it is.
There’s probably an even longer explanation to this if you ask a scientist… 😉 About chemical reactions, and such. But this is what I read in some article about baking, that a baker wrote. Let’s just don’t care about it, and instead enjoy our baking! 😀
Linda says
January 31, 2014 at 1:27 pmYummy looking. Think this would be easy for my girls to make and take for snack at youth group!
Tonia says
January 31, 2014 at 1:29 pmThanks Linda! Yes, it is easy and it can feed a crowd!