First, an
apology for being so lax in my posting for the past few months. I gave birth to my daughter Madeline in
September so I’ve been a bit busy since then.
We had a lot of sleepless nights at the beginning so if I had any free
time it was spent napping, not baking!
But now that she’s 2 ½ months we’ve started establishing a bit of a
schedule. I’ve learned to take full
advantage of any time that she’s napping or when my husband is home to watch
her.
This past
weekend was Thanksgiving and I was all set to post a recipe that I made for
Thanksgiving dessert. Unfortunately it
turned into a bit of a disaster (I’ll blame it on being out of practice) and
most of the results went into the garbage.
I had the chance to redeem myself on Sunday when our friends stopped by
with their young daughter. I planned to
make these Salted
Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, only to realize I didn’t have caramels
that morning. Really, the baking gods
were working against me this weekend. I
decided to just leave the caramel layer out and add in a mix of dark and white
chocolate chips to jazz the bars up a bit.
I also added a sprinkling of salt on top to balance the sweetness. The bars ended up turning out great, and they
were done in under an hour. With a
newborn in the house, that’s essential!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)
2 1/8
cups all-purpose flour
½
teaspoon baking soda
½
teaspoon salt
12
tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup
light brown sugar
½ cup
granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg
yolk
2
teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups
chocolate chips (I used both white and semi-sweet)
Sea salt
for sprinkling over bars
Preheat
oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch square pan; set aside.
In a
medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Using an
electric mixer, mix together the melted butter and sugars on medium speed until
combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the
chocolate chips.
Press the
cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Sprinkle
the bars with sea salt.
Bake the
cookie bars for 30-32 minutes, or until the top of the bars are light golden
brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool the bars on a wire
rack to room temperature, then cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers in
an airtight container at room temperature.
